ROCHESTER, NY – Calvin produced a pair of All-America races at the NCAA III Indoor Track and Field Championships on Friday at the  In the men's 5,000 meter run, senior Luke Witvliet took 10^th with a time of 14:23.30. In the women's 5000 meter run, junior Sophie Bull took 10^th with a time of 17:07.71.

Places 9-16 are now considered Division III Second Team All-America finishes.

In the men's 5,000 meter run, Witvliet earned All-America honors for the first time in his collegiate running career. Seeded 20^th in a field of 20 runners, Witvliet (Grandville, Mich./Calvin Christian HS) sat near the back of the pack during the early stages of Friday's race but continued to move up in the later stages of the race and finished with a burst. Witvliet had qualified for the national meet with a strong race at a last-chance meet six days ago at Wartburg College. His race on Friday concluded a stellar two week stretch of indoor distance racing that included an MIAA title in the 5,000 meters on March 1, a qualifying race in the 5K at Wartburg on March 8 and an All-America race on Friday afternoon.

In the women's 5,000 meters, Bull (Denver, Co./Denver Christian HS) ran a strong race in her first appearance at the NCAA III Indoor Track and Field Championships. With a lead pack of 4-5 runners moving out front, she chose to sit in a pack of 10-12 runners battling for the spots in front. With a thousand meters left, she sat on the fringes of the top eight but then fell back to 12^th. With roughly 600 meters left, she made a strong surge to move up to 10^th. The All-America finish is the third of her collegiate running career as she was a First Team All-American in the 3,000 meter steeplechase last May at the NCAA III Outdoor Championships, later earned cross country All-America honors this past November with a 28^th place finish at the NCAA III Championships and then powered her way to an indoor track and field berth this winter.

Also competing for the Calvin women on Friday was graduate student Sydney Radigan (Portland, Ore. St. Stephen's Academy) who placed 18^th in the 200 meter dash in a time of 25:32. The finished completed a stellar winter for Radigan as she broke school indoor records in the 60 meter dash and 200 meter dash, earned Second Team All-MIAA honors and then qualified for the NCAA III Indoor Track and Field Championships last Saturday with a school-record time of 25.06 at the Wartburg Last-Chance Qualifier.

COACH ADAM HALDORSON ON LUKE WITVLIET: "The biggest hurdle for Luke was getting to the meet. After the final qualifier meets last weekend it seemd very unlikely that Luke would make the cut to be in the top 20 and get invited to the meet. Fortunately for Luke and Calvin track and field he was the last qualifier to be accepted in and made good use of the opportunity. From start to finish, Luke ran a cerebral race with near perfectly event splits. Starting at the back of the field, he worked his way up steadily to finish as an All-American! IT was a gritty and patiet race strategy, that paid off in a big way."

COACH ADAM HALDORSON ON SOPHIE BULL: " Sophie ran a tactically masterful race; positioning herself perfectly and making all the right moves at exactly the right times. The indoor distance races are much more physical given that there are 20 racers on the 200 meter track. It is roughly the same amount of people that you would have for outdoors but on a track half the size. The women's 5,000 meter race had some chippy moments but Sophie made through unscathed and earned her first indoor All-American award! She has out-performed expectations at every national meet she has been a part of since her freshman cross country season. This race continued that streak. She finished higher than her seed placement and ran a fast time near her personal best in what was an extremely tactical race!"

COACH ADAM HALDOROSN ON SYDNEY RADIGAN: "Sydney has hard the best indoor season of her career. She has broken two school records a total of five times while earning two all conference awards. She was a big part of the Calvin women's team winning its first indoor conference championship since 2017 and she qualified for her first indoor national championship. Unfortunately an untimely illness kept her from competing at her best today, but she can look back with pride at a great season overall. She has positioned herself well for the outdoor season and is excited to get back in action a couple of weeks from now in Atlanta at the Emory Invitational."