WALTHAM, Mass. – The United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association announced their Division III All-Americans this afternoon, and Brandeis senior Jack Allan of Wrentham, Massachusetts and junior Niamh Kenney of Hanover, Massachusetts, were among those honored.
Normally, top-eight scorers at the NCAA Championships earn Division III All-America status, but with those events canceled for the 2020 season because of the coronavirus, all those student-athletes who were accepted into the NCAA Indoor meet were honored.
Allan was set to become the first-ever male to compete at the NCAA Championships in the heptathlon. Allan's school record of 4782 was also contested at Tufts, back on January 31. Though that was his last meet contesting the heptathlon, he had exceeded his personal best marks in four of the seven events at subsequent meets. Allan was slated to enter the championship meet as the 16th seed. Allan has also set the school record in the 60-meter hurdles this season. Brandeis has produced All-Americans on the men's side in two of the past three years. Allan is the Judges' first All-American in a multi-event.
Kenney was honored for the women's team in the 3,000-meter run. She qualified at the very last opportunity before the championships at the Tufts University Last Chance meet with a time of 9:51.40, which was the fifth-fastest in Division III. She lowered her previous personal best by 10 seconds at the meet. It would have been Kenney's second appearance at the NCAA Championships, but first in indoor track. She was a member of last year's team that qualified for the cross country championships. Kenney give the Brandeis women's track and field team an All-American for the third year in a row.