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Salisbury's Chelsea Tavik And Luke Campbell Win Gold Medals At NCAA Div. III Track & Field Championships

Salisbury's Chelsea Tavik And Luke Campbell Win Gold Medals At NCAA Div. III Track & Field Championships

Salisbury senior Chelsea Tavik won her second individual national championship and freshman Luke Campbell won his first on the final day of competition at the 2013 NCAA Division III Track & Field Championships at La Crosse, Wis.

Tavik crossed the 50-foot barrier to win her second career national individual title in the shot put.  Campbell was the first across the finish line in the 110 hurdles, winning the title by just :01.

Heading into the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field National Championships with a contingent of five student-athletes competing in eight events, the goal for Salisbury University was to compete hard, do their best and come home with as many All-American performances as possible.

Campbell entered the championship seeded 10th in the 110-meter hurdles and 12th in the 400-meter hurdles, but those seedings are generally separated by just fractions of seconds. The Brunswick, Md., native proved you just need to qualify, and one great performance can mean everything.

Campbell started his day Saturday with the 110 hurdles finals with a narrow finish, crossing the finish line in 14.43 seconds, leaning just past Marietta College's Ryan Lopez-Jordan by .01 of a second, for the national title.

Campbell was not done, coming back less than two hours later to run the 400-meter hurdles. Despite still being on the high of his first national championship, Campbell was able to focus, running a personal-record time of 51.82 seconds, to place third and garner his third career All-American award.

With Campbell's finishes, the Salisbury men finished the championship meet with 16 points, which earned the team a tie for 13th place in the overall standings.

While Campbell is finishing just his first collegiate season, Tavik was finishing out her career in grand fashion.

A previous national champion in the shot put at the 2012 indoor championships, Tavik was one of the favorites in the same event this weekend. The Glen Burnie, Md., native knew a big start would make a big impression on the rest of the competition.

Happy with the circle, which was slick and had lots of speed, that strong start is precisely what she was able to do, with a first heave of 48' 11", which would not be topped by another competitor the rest of the day.

But the first effort was just the third-best legal try by Tavik on the day, as she crossed the 50-foot threshold, which had eluded her for the first three years of her collegiate career, twice.

Her third throw of the day traveled 50' 2", becoming just the seventh Division III student-athlete to hit that milestone, but it was not as good as it would get. Tavik's final scoring throw of the day went 50' 3.25", the fifth-best throw in Division III history.

Tavik would come back later in the afternoon to compete in the javelin throw, with her best effort covering 126' 4", to place 15th.

By the end of the evening, the emotion of the end of her career had started to kick in.

Tavik graduates as the most decorated female student-athlete in program history, with five All-American awards, and currently holds six school records.

The Salisbury track & field programs have now accounted for eight individual national championships, and with Tavik's and Campbell's combined three All-American honors on Saturday, the programs has 39 total, 24 of which have been earned since 2005.

York junior distance ace Tim Hartung, who earned All-America honors earlier this week in the 10,000-meter run, crossed the finish line in 19th place Saturday in the 5K in 14:59.74.