NEW ORLEANS - On Tuesday, May 26, the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Association (USTFCCCA) announced All-Americans for the 2020 NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field season, with nine Tiffin men honored in 11 events.
Due to the cancellation of the championships from COVID-19, the USTFCCCA decided to award All-American honors to all student-athletes who qualified for the startlist prior to the event. A total of 716 honors were handed out to 117 different institutions.
Alphabetically, the Dragon honors went to Isaiah Allen (shot put), Jonte Baker (60m), Jabari Bennett (shot put), Cameron Burrows (heptathlon, high jump, long jump), Nikolas Curtiss (shot put), Eric Jackson (shot put), Collin Jasin (pole vault), Quincy Scott (long jump), and Errik Snell (60m Hurdles).
Jonte Baker was in a prime position to defend his 2019 crown, finishing the season as the top qualifier in the 60m with a mark of 6.64 seconds that he set on Feb. 14 at the USATF Indoor Championships. Only three others in Division II ran a sub-6.70 race this season, a feat that Baker has accomplished nine times in his career. The All-American honor is the ninth of Baker's career.
Cameron Burrows also qualified for the championships at the top of Division II in an event, tying for the No. 1 spot in the high jump at 2.19 meters. The senior also made the cut to compete in the long jump (No. 7, 7.51 meters) and heptathlon (Tied at No. 7, 5,381 points), so he earns three All-American honors from the USTFCCCA. The 2.19m high jump mark set by Burrows and Minnesota State's Deveyonn Brown was significantly ahead of the rest of the field in the event, as no one else had jumped higher than 2.16 meters. In his career, Burrows has now recorded 10 All-American honors, seven during indoor nationals, including his highest-ever finish last year at third in the high jump.
Joining Burrows in the long jump was sophomore Quincy Scott, who entered as the fifth-ranked athlete in the event with a mark of 7.62 meters. Scott was within a tenth of a meter of qualifiers 2-4, as Lincoln's Ryan Brown led the pack at 7.77 meters. This was Scott's third-straight qualification to nationals in the long jump, including an All-American seventh-place finish at the indoor championships a season ago. Scott is now a three-time All-American, adding in his 4x100m Relay National Title from the 2019 Outdoor Championships.
The Dragons had the best shot put crew in Division II during the 2019-20 season with four athletes in the top 12 of the event ranks, led by junior Nikolas Curtiss at No. 2 with a top mark of 19.40 meters. Sophomore Jabari Bennett was right behind in third at 19.21 meters, followed by senior Eric Jackson in eighth at 17.97 meters and freshman Isaiah Allen 12th at 17.49 meters.
Curtiss qualified for the third-straight indoor season and fifth time overall in his Tiffin career between the shot put and weight throw. All five of those qualifications have now resulted in shot put All-American honors, including a second-place finish at 2018 outdoors. At indoors, Curtiss finished 10th in 2018 and 4th in 2019. Bennett qualified for nationals in the shot put in both of his opportunities during his freshman campaign last year, earning a third-place finish and All-American honors at the 2019 indoor event, now bringing his All-American total to two.
Jackson was seeded eighth in the shot put at 17.97 meters, but his PR of 18.72 meters would've ranked fifth. The senior set that mark at the 2018 Indoor Championships to earn a second-place finish and All-American honors. He also has a pair of outdoor All-American honors in the shot put (2017) and discus (2019), and this marked his seventh NCAA Championships qualification. Allen burst onto the national scene in his first collegiate season, entering the championships as the only freshman qualifier in the shot put, and can now add an All-American honor to his resumé.
Errik Snell receives his first All-American honors in his third qualification, as the senior also qualified two times in 2019 in the indoor 60m hurdles and outdoor 110m hurdles. Snell was 14th in the 60m hurdles with a top time of 8.02 seconds, and was within .03 seconds of the top-10 and .09 seconds of the seventh-seeded athlete.
Collin Jasin qualified for a national meet for the first time in his career after the sophomore cleared an indoor PR of 5.00 meters to win the GMAC pole vault title at the conference championships on Feb. 29. The mark obliterated his previous season-best of 4.84 meters, and secured the 14th-best mark entering the Indoor Championships and now All-American honors.