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ALLENDALE, Mich. – On the final day of the track and field season, Tarleton State had six athletes earn All-American accolades at the NCAA National Championships, including Chase Rathke who returns home as the reigning National Champion in the 1500m.
 
"That sounds amazing," said Rathke following his National Championship run. "Words honestly can't desribe how this feels."
 
Rathke won the event with a personal best time of 3:45.60, which also broke his own school record in the event. His finish was 1.31 seconds better than the second-place time of 3:46.91 by Ashland's Brian Baum.
 
"Obviously, I'm very pleased with Chase's performance," said Tarleton head coach Pat Ponder. "He didn't do anything that wasn't expected because he has that capability. Anytime you can bring home a national champion, it was a good day.
 
"We knew going into the race that it was going to be a fast one," recalled Rathke. "Me and my teammate, Dylan Willett, sat in the middle of the pack and with about 400m, I saw a guy making a move and we knew going into it if we let him get too much of a lead we wouldn't be able to catch him. So when he made his move, I made mine and it ended up paying off.
 
"I took the lead with about 250m to go and, honestly, I just kept telling myself I needed to keep pushing," continue Rathke. "I didn't see anyone behind me, but I told myself to keep pushing and with about 50m to go, I looked over my shoulders and realized what was happening."
 
For Rathke, this wraps upa year in which he was already a medalist in the Indoor National Championship 800m in March. He is also the first National Champion under head coach Pat Ponder, who took over the program in 2007.
 
Meanwhile, Willett also made his mark at the meet by earning All-American status in his National Championship debut with an eighth-place finish in a personal-best time of 3:48.92.
 
"Dylan gutted it out and did very well today," said Ponder. "For his first time at the national championships, to come home an All-American tells you a lot about the talent this young man has."
 
The next Tarleton athlete to compete on the final day was Lindsey Hinton, who saw her TexAnn career come to a close with a 17^th place finish in the 5000m run in a time of 17:06.58.
 
"For the first four or five laps, she was right there in it," said Ponder. "At the end of the race, she came over and told me that she gave it everything she had and when they say that, there isn't very much more you can ask for.
 
"Lindsey is going to be dearly missed," he continued. "She's been the cornerstone of our women's program and she has set the bar for all of our women to follow."
 
Wrapping up the night for Tarleton was the men's mile relay team, who shaved over two full seconds off their preliminary time en route to a sixth-place finish with a time of 3:09.17 and All-American status for Cameron Krc, Gilson Umunnakwe, Michael Eschbach and Clarencio Guerrero.
 
"Last night, we kind of had a little discussion with our leadoff man and we talked about having to get out quick and Cam (Krc) got out and ran a 47.6 in the opening leg to start us off strong," said Ponder. "Gilson, Blake and Clarencio did a great job of keeping the pace and when you look at that team with two freshmen and two sophomores, I am super excited for the future. Coach (Justin) Hobbs did an outstanding job coaching those guys this season."
 
This is the most All-Americans Tarleton has had in the NCAA era, which dates back to the 1997 track and field season.