GENEVA, OH – After missing out on All-America honors during the cross country and indoor track and field seasons, junior Scott Sikorski of the University of Rochester men's track and field team secured his first career All-America award after a third place finish in the 1500 meters on Saturday at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
 
The junior was seeded seventh after the preliminary heats on Thursday, but improved upon his time by over two seconds in the final, crossing the finish in third with a time of 3:48.11.
 

Sikorski just missed All-America honors in his last two NCAA meets in track and field, finishing tenth in the 800 meters indoors earlier this spring, and tenth last season outdoors in the 1500 meters.
 
In Saturday's final, the junior was out strong, with an opening 300 meters of 46.34 seconds. His next two 400-meter laps were just around 62 seconds, with his closing lap breaking the minute mark at 57.75 seconds.
 
Sikorski was running in the top-3 most of the first three laps and looked to be falling back a bit with about 150 meters to go, but the junior came on strong over the last stretch of the race, kicking back into high gear and sprinting to the line, passing multiple runners over the last 50 meters to earn the top-3 placement.
 
Wisconsin-Eau Claire's Sam Verkerke was the event champion in 3:45.96, while Jacob Ridderhoff of Washington-St. Louis took runner-up accolades in 3:47.76.
 
The All-America award is the 32nd overall for the men's outdoor track and field team at Rochester, and he joins Dick Keil (1983), Tom Tuori (1985, 1986, 1987) and Bryan Goettsch (1993) in placing in the top-8 at NCAA's in the 1500 meters.

Sikorski's third place finish scored six points for the Yellowjackets as a team, ranking Rochester tied for 38th of 80 teams that scored in the meet.