GENEVA, OHIO — For the second time in 2022, Central College men's track and field junior Sam Beatty (Mount Pleasant) earned All-American honors at an NCAA Division III Championships meet, placing third at the outdoor meet Friday.

Beatty cleared 6 feet, 9.75 inches on his second attempt after making four heights on the first try. He missed all three attempts at 6-11, which would have been a new career-best effort. He was one of three jumpers to go out at 6-9.75. Kyle Rollins of St. John Fisher College (N.Y.) was the winner at 7-1.

"We couldn't be happier for Sam," coach Brandon Sturman said. "He's been jumping better every week and we've been preparing for him this meet. He was clean most of the way which was amazing, he really set the bar and everyone was chasing him."

Beatty improved his position from the indoor national meet, where he finished on the All-American podium in eighth place.

"It's building off of his indoor season," Sturman said. "We couldn't have asked for more from him."

Central finished with six team points, good for a nine-way tie for 38th place. A total of 80 programs scored points.

Lucas Heitz (junior, Adel, ADM HS) jumped up six spots Friday to take 12th place in the decathlon with 6,454 points. He moves up to No. 9 on Central's top-10 list in the decathlon.

"Lucas had a great day," Sturman said. "It started with running right at his PR in the hurdles. He built off of that into the discus but it was the pole vault that really set his day apart."

Also in the decathlon, Reid Pakkebier (freshman, Cedar Rapids, Kennedy HS) was 15th with 6,373 points, Brody Klein (junior, Rainier, Wash.) was 17th with 6,302 points and Jaxon Thompson (sophomore, Marion, Linn-Mar HS) was 19th with 5,859 points.

"Reid had a big day in the vault," Sturman said.  "Brody tweaked his back and was pushing through it on the last three events. Jaxon had a good meet overall despite battling through some lingering issues. All of our guys had PRs in the 1500. Overall, it was just a really good atmosphere for all of our decathletes."