DELAWARE, OHIO -- Baldwin Wallace University senior distance running sensation Kim Chinn (Zanesville/ West Muskingum) ended an outstanding four-year career as she won the national title, set a BW school-record and a Selby Stadium record with a time of 10:24.22 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase today (Friday, May 27) at the 2011 NCAA Division III National Outdoor Track & Field Championship Meet at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. The finish earned her a fourth Division III All-America honor.
"Oh my God, this is awesome," said longtime Yellow Jacket Head Coach Bill Taraschke. "She is the greatest distance runner in school history and showed us why tonight."
"It came down to that last lap and she just wanted it more," continued Taraschke. "She put the race away. Kim deserves every award that she's received because she's earned them all."
Chinn and three other runners, including Kimber Mattox of Willamette (Ore.) University, began the last lap running neck-and-neck. Coming around the first curve and water barrier, Chinn moved out front of Mattox and the other two competitors. She kept increasing her lead as the lap continued and breezed across the finish line with 15-meter lead over Mattox. Her time also broke her own school-record of 10:30.53 that she set last year at the NCAA national meet at BW and broke her own Selby Stadium record that she set earlier this year at the annual Marv Frye Invitational.
"To be honest, I had no idea how much I was leading by until I crossed the finish line," said Chinn, who was the Division III runner-up a year ago in the steeple when the meet was held at BW. "I could hear everyone cheering but I just knew that I had to finish as hard as I can. It was the last race of my career and I wanted to run it all."
"If someone would have told me when I was a freshman that I would win a national title, I would have told them that they were dreaming," said Chinn. "Through hard work, the support of my teammates and the BW community, we were able to accomplish our goal. I couldn't have done it without my BW teammates and coaches. We did it as a team."
Chinn recently graduated Summa Cum Laude with a 3.8 grade point average in mass communication. During her outstanding four-year career, Chinn earned NCAA Division III All-American accolades four times: with a 13th place finish in cross country last fall, with a sixth place finish in the 1-mile run this winter at the indoor championship meet and the past two years outdoors in the steeplechase.
Chinn became BW's fourth individual national champion in women's outdoor track and field history and the first since Claire Dechant won the shot put in 2001.
In addition to Chinn for the Yellow Jackets, senior All-American pentathlete Emily Oliver (Waynesburg/ Sandy Valley) placed 12th in the heptathlon. Sophomore Cristina Perrine (Middleburg Heights/ Midpark) competes tomorrow in the women's discus.
FOR MORE BW Sports Information, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu. or Assistant SID Jeff Miller by phone at 440-826-2780 and email at jefmille@bw.edu Fans can access the latest BW athletics information at www.bw.edu/athletics and we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics
