In his final collegiate meet, Florence graduate Curtis Thompson placed second in the javelin at the NCAA Championships, finishing behind only teammate Anderson Peters, the Grenadan national champion.
It made him 4-for-4 in first-team All-America (top-8) finishes in his brilliant collegiate career.
Competing at the NCAA Division 1 championships at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas, Thompson threw 257-3, less than a foot off his season-best 258-2, which he threw at the National Relay Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., in April.
Peters won with a 284-2 throw, a personal-best and meet record, and freshman Tyriq Horsford threw 248-0 to give Mississippi State a 1-2-3 sweep.
It was the first javelin sweep in NCAA Division 1 in 55 years, since Oregon swept the 1964 meet at its home track at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., with Les Tipton (249-10), Gary Reddaway (246-1) and Ron Gomez (232-8) taking the top three spots in what was then called the NCAA university division.
Thompson opened with the 257-3 and threw 238-8, 235-7 and 236-6 on his three other legal throws.
Peters had the three-best throws of the competition, broke his own meet record set last year and improved his own No. 3 mark in college track history.
Thompson was third in NCAAs as a freshman in the spring of 2015. He won NCAAs and was second in the Olympic Trials with his PR 271-11 in 2016 and placed seventh at 2017 NCAAs.
Rutgers senior Chris Mirabelli, a Holy Cross graduate, earned second-team All-America status with a ninth-place finish. His best throw was a 228-8 on his second throw. He’s been a first- or second-team All-America four times.
Mirabelli, who also sat out the 2018 season, has a PR of 251-6 from the 2017 Penn Relays and a season best of 235-8 this year when he won his third Big Ten title. His best NCAA finish was an eighth place in 2017 at 235-2.
Holy Spirit graduate Cade Antonucci, a sophomore at Auburn, placed 21st with a throw of 209-7. He had a best throw of 237-5 this year.
Thompson, Antonucci (237-5), R.V. grad Chris Mirabelli (236-6) and Nick Mirabelli are ranked No. 2, 16, 17 and 18 among all U.S. men this spring.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 