WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Ithaca College men's track & field sophomore sprinter
Jalen Leonard-Osbourne became the program's first-ever national champion as he won the 60-meter dash in a time of 6.76 seconds at the NCAA Division III Indoor Championships at the JDL Fast Track on Saturday, March 12.
Leonard-Osbourne becomes the 32nd student-athlete to claim a national title at Ithaca College and the 51st individual national championship. He is also just the second male student-athlete outside of the wrestling program to secure a national crown – Colin Herlihy won two swimming titles in 1996.
Leonard-Osbourne put together one of the most dominant seasons ever for an IC track & field student-athlete as he won every 60- dash race in which he competed, including preliminaries, for a total of 13 victories.
He entered Saturday's final with the fastest prelim time of 6.72 seconds from yesterday, which broke his own school record and is the sixth fastest time in Division III history. The race was delayed for a few minutes as the initial start was shot down for a false start.
After the regroup, Leonard-Osbourne got off the block clean in lane four and won the race by .05 seconds with his time of 6.76.
His 10 points moved Ithaca up the team leaderboard, and after an All-American performance by
Andy Frank in the 200 just an hour later, IC sat in a tie for second with 26 points with two events remaining in the championship.
