KU Women Earn Record Fourteen Indoor All-America Honors
March 11, 2013
Indoor All-American List 
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NEW ORLEANS – Following their runner-up finish at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., last weekend, the Kansas women’s track and field team saw a program-best 11 athletes earn 14 First and Second Team All-America distinctions, it was announced Monday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
Senior Taylor Washington earned the First Team All-America distinction for the fourth-straight year while seniors Andrea Geubelle, Denesha Morris and junior Diamond Dixon earned first team honors for the third-consecutive season.
Geubelle claimed First Team All-America honors in two events for the second-straight season after winning national titles in both the long jump and triple jump. Her two championships made her the fourth woman in the 30-year history of the NCAA Indoor Championships to win both events. Her winning triple jump mark of 14.18 meters (46’6.25″) is the fourth-longest in NCAA history and was just two inches behind the indoor American record. Geubelle has now been named a First Team All-American on 10 occasions, five times indoors and five times outdoors.
Junior Natalia Bartnovskaya, who won her first NCAA pole vault championship, got a first team nod for the first time in her KU career. Bartnovskaya vaulted to the eighth-best mark in NCAA history, clearing 4.45 meters (14’7.75″) en route to earning KU’s second individual national title in the event. The honor marks the eighth time a Jayhawk has been named an All-American in the event and the first since 2008.
Dixon was named to the All-America first team after finishing sixth in the 400 meters last weekend. Her time of 52.33 was the second-fastest of her indoor career. The Houston native also anchored the 4×400-meter relay team to their third-straight first team performance, claiming eighth in Fayetteville last weekend. Dixon is now tied with Geubelle for the most first team All-America honors in school history with 10 after she was honored six times indoors and four times outdoors in her first two-and-a-half seasons in Lawrence.
Washington became the first Jayhawk in the women’s program’s history to be named an All-American all four seasons of her collegiate career. She was a member of the All-American distance medley relay squad in 2010 and then was honored three-straight seasons for her part on the 4×400-meter relay team, most recently the eighth-place finishers this past weekend. She was joined in Fayetteville by Morris, now a three-time indoor honoree, Paris Daniels, who has claimed two first team distinctions on the relay, and Dixon.
In addition to her 4×400-meter relay honor, Daniels earned her first first-team nod in the indoor 200 meters. The 2013 Big 12 200-meter champion finished eighth in the event over the weekend, clocking in at 23.27. The senior was also a second-team honoree after she finished 11th in the 60 meters. Daniels is the first KU female to earn three All-America distinctions at a single NCAA meet – indoors or outdoors.
Joining Geubelle on the long jump First Team All-America list was senior Francine Simpson, who received the distinction for the second-straight indoor campaign. Simpson finished third at the national meet with a mark of 6.41 meters (21’0.75″). Simpson’s and Geubelle’s career honors now account for four of the seven indoor long jump All-America distinctions in KU history.
Alena Krechyk made her way onto the indoor All-America list for the second time but the first time as a first team honoree. The senior placed sixth in the weight throw at the NCAA Championships and is the school record-holder in the event with a mark of 21.72 meters (71’4.5″).
KU saw three Jayhawk women listed on the second team lists. Sophomore Lindsay Vollmer finished ninth in the pentathlon at her first NCAA indoor meet with a score of 4,105 points. Freshman Anastasia Muchkayev claimed a 12th-place finish in the shot put to earn a spot on the second team in her first season at KU.
The Kansas men’s lone representative at the NCAA Indoor Championships, Kyle Clemons, claimed a spot on an indoor All-America list for the first time of his career. The senior out of Rowlett, Texas, ran to a 15th-place finish in the 400 meters, clocking in with a time of 46.91. The finish made him a second team honoree and the first KU male to earn the distinction in an indoor track event since 2007.
The KU women’s team has now placed an impressive 30 athletes on the indoor All-America first and second team lists over the past three seasons, marking the most of any three-year stretch in the program’s history.
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