ALLENDALE, MICHIGAN – A&M-Commerce track and field concluded what turned out to be a highly successful NCAA Championship meet today, as the Lions captured a grand total of 13 All-American honors en route to the men's squad finishing eighth overall with a team-score of 34.5 points.
 
By pulling off eighth overall, the Lions wound up higher than they've finished in 29 years, having achieved sixth overall back in 1986.
 
Hendrik Nungess followed up yesterday's All-American performance in the decathlon by doing it again, this time in the javelin. Nungess heaved the stick 69.80m, which surprisingly was only good enough for third overall. Nonetheless, the German took home All-American honors, his second of the meet, and second in the javelin in consecutive years to bring his All-American total to three.
 
The 4x400m relay squad of John David Rollins, Soren Gnoss, Eric Williams and Dexter Lee ensconced themselves among the All-American ranks with a historic performance. The quartette finished third overall, setting a new A&M-Commerce school-record with a time of 3:08.65, nearly seven tenths of a second faster than their previous mark of 3:09.37 set at last year's national meet. Both Rollins and Lee were members of last year's team, thus earning back-to-back All-American acclaim in the 4x400m.  The Lone Star Conference went 1-2-3 in the event, with Tarleton State and Angelo State finishing in the top two spots.
 Luis Romero continued with the trend of going back to back in the All-American running by defying the odds in the 800m run. Though the junior only entered nationals with the 11th fastest time in Division II, Romero vaulted up to a third place finish with a season-best time of 1:49.43. Romero got third last season as well with an A&M-Commerce school-record of 1:48.74.
 
Jamal Curtis managed to tie for seventh place in the high jump with a leap of 2.10m. In doing so, he became the third freshman of the meet to earn All-American honors, following DeVontae Steele and Rebecca Mueller.
 
DJ Richardson followed up a gutsy performance on Thursday in the 400m hurdles by finishing eighth in the finals with a time of 52.97, netting an unexpected point for the Lions. Richardson entered the meet ranked as the tenth-highest ranked, thus outperforming expectations by obtaining All-American veneration.
 
"We set out on this meet…on this season with a lot of goals," said head coach Tom Dibbern, "Even though we didn't hit all of them, we checked off so many…I can not begin to tell you how proud I am of this team."
 
With the season at last concluded, Dibbern and the rest of his coaching staff will shift their attention to the offseason, where they'll focus on keeping recruiting as well as preparing their returning student-athletes for the 2016 campaign.
 
FULL LIST OF LION ALL-AMERICANS
Gage Bowles (Ninth in Triple Jump; 15.07m; Second Team)
Jamal Curtis (T-Seventh in High Jump; 2.10m; First Team)
Soren Gnoss (Third in 4x400m; 3:08.65; First Team) *
Dexter Lee (Third in 4x400m; 3:08.65; First Team) *
Masoud Moghaddam (Second in Hammer; 66.32m; First Team) *
Rebecca Mueller (Tenth in Discus; 46.46m; Second Team)
Hendrik Nungess (Eighth in Decathlon; 6938 Pts; First Team)
Hendrik Nungess (Third in Javelin; 69.80m; First Team)
DJ Richardson (Eighth in 400m Hurdles; 52.97; First Team)
John David Rollins (Third in 4x400m; 3:08.65; First Team) *
Luis Romero (Third in 800m; 1:49.43; First Team)
DeVontae Steele (Fourth in Triple Jump; 15.53m; First Team)
Eric Williams (Third in 4x400m; 3:08.65; First Team) *

* - School Record