Katie French and Natalie Thomas both earned All-American honors Thursday for the William Woods Owls at the NAIA outdoor track and field national championships in Gulf Shores, Ala.
French finished in second place in the women’s shot put and Thomas came in sixth place in the women’s javelin. The top-eight finishers in each event are NAIA All-Americans.
French qualified for the final in the shot put on her very first throw, which traveled 45 feet, 1.5 inches. After three throws, she was in third place out of the nine finalists.
There were a total of 23 national qualifiers in the shot put.
On her second-to-last throw of the day, French posted her best distance at 46-6.75, moving her into first place with one throw to go. However, Arriana Benjamin of Marian (Ind.) moved past French with her sixth and final throw at 46-8 to win the national championship.
The throw broke French’s previous school record of 44-8.75, which she set earlier this month at the American Midwest Conference championships.
“It was a tough day with the rain and weather delays, but I was able to overcome and perform at my best,” French said Thursday in a press release.
This is French’s third career All-American honor. She is a two-time All-American in the shot put during the indoor season, placing third in 2021 and fifth earlier this season.
Thomas also used her first throw of the preliminaries to get into the finals of the javelin with a throw of 136-7, as she was the ninth and final qualifier for the final, making the cut by three inches.
There were 23 national qualifiers in the javelin.
On her second throw in the final, Thomas posted a personal-best distance of 140-7 to climb into the top eight. That distance is also a school record at William Woods, and her previous top throw was 132-6 earlier this month at the Missouri S&T Qualifier.
This is Thomas’ first career All-American honor.
Ellie Dimond and Harley Nale both competed in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase preliminaries Thursday. Dimond came in 19th place out of 26 qualifiers with a time of 11:20.89, while Nale finished in 22nd place with a time of 11:33.25.
The top-14 finishers advanced to the final, with a cut line time of 11:02.14.
Quentin Webert, the men’s only national qualifier for William Woods, began the national championships Wednesday for the Owls in the men’s hammer throw.
Webert took 14th place out of 21 national qualifiers with a throw of 181-4. The mark was less than three feet shy of his personal-best in the event.
The cut line for the final was 190-2 to make the top nine.
William Woods totaled 11 points in the women’s final team standings of the three-day event, which wrapped up Friday. The Owls were tied with Southeastern and Grace for 23rd place.
British Columbia won the women’s team national championship with 138 points.