All through this season, Emporia State track and field coach Dave Harris has called Jonel Rossbach the best women’s distance runner to ever come to ESU.
Now, Rossbach has a national championship to go with her legacy.
The distance runner capped her storied ESU career with her first national title on Saturday, winning the 5,000-meter run in a time of 16:52.28 at the Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Walnut, Calif.
The time broke Rossbach’s own school record in the 5,000-meter run.
“I finally got what I have been trying for all year — a national championship,” Rossbach said. “It feels really good in my last race for ESU.”
Rossbach ended up following the race plan perfectly.
ESU coach Dave Harris had told her to try to take the lead with about 200 meters left. Through most of the last five laps, Rossbach was in third place.
The senior made her move in the last 400 meters, running a 1:08.64 for her final lap.
Rossbach passed South Dakota’s Ramsey Kavan with just 50 meters to go and held onto the lead from there.
“She wanted this championship very badly,” Harris said. “The desire especially came out in the last 200 meters in the race when she had to unleash the speed she has as a distance runner to win.”
Rossbach didn’t seem to show any signs of fatigue despite ending a stretch of running 12 competitive miles in three days. The senior finished second in the 10,000-meter run on Thursday before finishing ninth in the preliminaries of the 5K on Friday.
She earned her seventh All-America honor and became the first ESU athlete to win a track national championship since Kadri Kelve won the steeplechase in 2003.
Rossbach’s 18 points helped the ESU women to a top-10 team finish at Nationals, as the Lady Hornets took 10th with 24 points.
All four ESU women that attended the national meet earned All-America status.
“This was one of the most exciting finishes for a team that I have been associated with at ESU,” Harris said.
Jennifer Robinson and Connie Philips both brought in All-America honors on Saturday.
Robinson placed seventh in the high jump, clearing 5 feet, 8 inches.
Philips, meanwhile, threw the javelin 138-2 to place eighth; the junior earned the second All-America honor of her career.
Brooke Kent took sixth in the long jump on Thursday.
On the men’s side, ESU freshman Kenton Lonberger took All-America status with a fourth-place finish in the 200-meter dash.
His time of 20.95 seconds is second all-time at ESU behind Rex Ressler’s mark of 20.92 seconds set way back in 1958.
“(Kenton) and I talked afterwards that neither one of us thought he would run 20.95 this year,” Harris said. “That is a great time, and his talent and hard work has paid off.”
Lonberger was one of just two freshmen running in the finals. He also took All-America honors during the indoor season, finishing fifth in the 200.
ESU’s final two competitors — Josh Honeycutt and Matt Koelling — placed 10th and 12th, respectively, in the triple jump.
The Hornet men finished in 18th place with 13 team points.
“As a men’s team, we came up short of what we wanted and really believed we could have been fighting for a top-10 place just like the women,” Harris said. “In a meet like this, there are going to be some ups and downs. With everyone returning from the six men we brought to California, we just need to set our goals higher as a team next year and go out and perform.”
It was the first time since 2001 that both ESU’s men and women finished in the top 20 at Outdoor Nationals.
In addition, the ESU women were the top-placing MIAA team in the national meet. Missouri Southern was the next-highest conference finisher, tying for 11th with 22 team points.
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