Henry Pick Finishes Fourth in 5000 Meters to Earn All-America Honors for Stags

GENEVA, Ohio - Henry Pick challenged for an individual championship in the 5000 meters at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships, but settled for his second top-five of the academic year, and his second All-America award, as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's track and field team concluded its 2021-22 campaign at the SPIRE Institute on Saturday.

Pick joined Truman Knowles, the sixth-place finisher in the javelin on Thursday with a program record throw of 211'5", as CMS All-Americans this weekend. The duo combined to score eight points, putting CMS in a tie for 28th in the team standings. 

Pick was the third-place finisher at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships in the fall to earn his first All-America honor. In that race, he was locked into third coming down the homestretch with a big gap between him and fourth place, and between him and second place. In the 5000 meters, though, the outcome was never certain as the pack never thinned out and runners were jostling for position right down to the final homestretch. 

At one point on the second-to-last lap, Pick took the lead, but ended up sliding back a few places as other runners made their moves. Just when it looked like he was maybe running out of gas, he found another gear and made a push for a comeback win down the final stretch, but Jamie Dailey of John Carroll had the fastest finishing kick. 

Pick's final time of 14:31.40 was just under three seconds behind Dailey (14:28.54) for the championship, but also just over three seconds ahead of ninth place (14:34.61), which would have meant missing out on All-America status, as the top nine all finished within 6.07 seconds of each other.

Stevie Steinberg, an All-American in cross country season (finishing 22nd) and the new CMS record holder in both the 5000 and the 10000 during track and field season, ran in his final race for the Stags in the 5000 and came in 18th place. Daniel Sealand ended 12th in the 1500 meters on Saturday after qualifying for the finals on Thursday. 

Other Stags who qualified for nationals included Jamie Cockburn, who was 15th in the 200 meters, Adam Wilkinson, who came in 16th in the steeplechase, Maxwell Knowles, who was 16th in the javelin and Kai Dettman, who was 19th in the 800 meters. The 4x400 relay team was fifth in its heat and would have been ninth (missing the finals), but suffered a disqualification.