EUGENE, Oregon – Franck DiSanza finished in sixth place earning first team All-American honors in the javelin for the Southeastern Louisiana Track and Field team Wednesday at the 2021 NCAA Outdoor National Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
DiSanza, a freshman, threw 74.71m (245 feet, 1 inch) on his third attempt to secure the sixth place finish. The Rolle, Switzerland Native adds to his Southland Conference Outdoor Championship in the javelin. DiSanza's top mark of the season (75.80m, 248-8) was the second best in the Southland since May 13, 2017 when SLU's Gennard Paul threw 77.82m (255-4) at the Southland Outdoor Championships.
"Wow, what a great showing by Franck tonight," said SLU head track and field coach
Corey Mistretta. "He really stepped up and found a way to get a big throw in some pretty nasty conditions. What a great way to end his first full season of competition. I am super proud of the way he has handled himself this year, the future is extremely bright for him"
The men's 4x400 team of
D.J. Ruffin,
Jonathon Sawyer,
James Benson II and
Donovan Storr finished fifth in the first heat of the semifinals to earn second team All-American recognition. While the group didn't advance, they hold the school record of 3:04.88 set at the NCAA East Regional Prelims May 28.
Sawyer, the Southland 400m Outdoor Champion, was unable to advance in the men's 400m semifinals. Despite the result, the Austin, Texas native is the school record holder in the event running a 45.18 at the East Prelims. With today's race, Sawyer was named honorable mention All-American in the 400m.
"Obviously, the 400m guys are disappointed about how things ended for them," said Mistretta. "They had some really big goals and unfortunately came up a little short. I have to do a much better job of preparing them for this stage. But this has been one of the most successful seasons in Southeastern track and field history, setting a bar that will be very hard to match."
PODIUM CLUB/S CLUB
Fans interested in becoming active supporters of the track and field program are encouraged to join the Podium Club. Lion alums are encouraged to join the exclusive S Club, which is restricted to Southeastern athletic letter winners. All membership fees and donations to Podium Club are available for the exclusive use of the Southeastern track and field program. Membership information is available by contacting the Lion Athletics Association at
laa@southeastern.edu or (985) 549-5091 or visiting
www.LionUp.com.
SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on Southeastern Track and Field, follow @LionUpTrack and @CoreyMistretta on Twitter, like /SLUathletics on Facebook and subscribe to the SLUathletics YouTube. channel.
TICKETS
For ticket information, please contact the Southeastern Athletics Ticket Office at (985) 549-5466 or visit
www.LionSports.net/tickets. Southeastern is implementing mobile ticketing as the primary source for securing tickets for the 2020-21 season. All tickets will be available via e-mail in a PDF format for fans to download on their phone or print at home. Tickets can also be downloaded to Apple Wallet.
