COLUMBUS, Ohio – After piling up a myriad of accomplishments during his distance-running career at Gettysburg College, senior Clay Reynolds can add one more to his collection.

All-American.

For the second day in a row, Reynolds closed the race with a surge and finished sixth among 10 competitors in the final of the men's mile run at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships, hosted by Capital University.

“Before the race I was telling myself all day, 'Beat two people',” said Reynolds, referring to his goal of becoming an All-American. “I ran at the back the whole way, but going into the last lap I could feel the race coming back to me. I was able to beat at least two people so I got what I wanted.”

Reynolds ran negative splits for the second day in a row and finished in 4:17.81. Showing outstanding poise, he held back in ninth or last place for nearly the entire race despite a slow early pace. He went through the 800-meter mark with a 2:14.42 split.

With around 350 meters to go Reynolds went with the pack as the pace began to accelerate. Then in the final 150, he went to went to an all-out sprint, swung wide off the final turn, and passed three runners to pick up his first-ever All-America honor. His went through his final 800 in a sizzling 2:03.29 and closed the last 200 meters in 30.12 seconds.

Reynolds came into the meet seeded just 11th of 12 runners. But he took third in his heat with the third-overall fastest time (4:13.27) in the preliminaries and in the final finished in front of four runners ranked ahead of him heading into the meet.

“Once again, he ran extremely smart,” said Gettysburg interim head coach Aubrey Shenk. “He stayed out of trouble, stayed in contact, and set his race up nicely to achieve his goal, which was to be an All-American. He used his finishing speed well once again.”

Nick Guarino of SUNY Fredonia defended his mile title, winning in 4:14.23.

Gettysburg has now had an athlete claim All-American recognition all three times a male athlete has advanced to the national indoor meet. Arif Husain '93 was an All-American in the 55-meter dash in 1992 and 1993, as was Bill Gray '96 in the 1,500-meter run in 1996.

NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships – Men's Mile Final
1. Nick Guarino, SUNY Fredonia, 4:14.23
2. Greg Whittle, Calvin College, 4:15.06
3. Kirkwood Donavin, Cornell College, 4:15.43
4. Matt Turlip, New York University, 4:15.76
5. Dennie Waite, College of New Jersey, 4:16.68
6. Clay Reynolds, Gettysburg College, 4:17.81
7. Russell Speiden, Elizabethtown College, 4:17.94
8. Patrick Klein, Wisconsin Platteville, 4:18.06
9. Will Yochum, Amherst College, 4:19.02
10. Makorobondo Salukombo, Denison University, 4:22.29