van Ingen places eighth in finals of 1,500 at NCAA Track & Field Championships

DES MOINES, Iowa—In the final race in his illustrious college career, Erik van Ingen placed eighth in the finals of the 1,500 at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Drake Stadium on Saturday. In the process, he earned All-America honors for the fourth time in his career, something no other Binghamton athlete has accomplished during the program’s 11-year NCAA Division I era.
Andrew Bayer of Indiana won the race in a time of 3:43.82, followed by Miles Batty of BYU (3:43.83) and N.C. State (3:44.24). van Ingen was eighth in a time of 3:45.00, defeating three former national champions in the process.

This marks the second consecutive year van Ingen has placed in the 1,500 at the NCAA Outdoor Track Championships. He was sixth last year. During the indoor season, van Ingen was a career-best fifth in the mile at the 2011 NCAA Championships and seventh this past season.
“I’m really proud of Erik’s consistency at the national level” assistant coach Annette Acuff said. “Every year it gets more challenging to keep it going. His Binghamton career has been an amazing story. Erik has grown so much as an athlete and has truly helped put our distance program on the map.”

Binghamton tied for 66th place in the final team standings. Florida won the men’s team title while LSU took home the women’s crown.

While van Ingen’s Binghamton career is over, he will compete in the U.S. Olympic Trials in the 1,500. The meet, which runs June 21-July 1, will be held in Eugene, Oregon.
Since elevating its athletic department to the NCAA Division I level in 2001, Binghamton has had nine student-athletes earn All-America honors. Rory Quiller was a three-time All-American in the pole vault and won the NCAA title at the 2008 Indoor Track Championships. Yun Qu (women’s swimming, 2002), Kevin McKeown (men’s lacrosse, 2004), Graham Munro (men’s soccer, 2005), Josh Patterson (wrestling, 2009), Justin Lister (wrestling, 2010), Donnie Vinson (wrestling, 2012) and Nick Gwiazdowski, 2012) are the other seven honorees.
In the 2011-12 academic year, Binghamton had a program-best four All-America selections. van Ingen earned his final two All-America accolades while Vinson and Gwiazdowski garnered their first selections.

NOTES: Prior to Binghamton’s Division I era, Monique Hacker (1995-99) earned All-America honors a program-record 14 times in track & field. In the process, she captured five NCAA Division III titles in the triple jump. Five other Binghamton athletes finished with five individual All-America honors during their career, including track athletes Art Gunther (1989-93), Chris Coleman (1985-89), Jewdyer Osborne (1994-98) and Alice Willis (1981-85). Adam Murcus (men’s tennis, 1994-98) and Matt Feinberg were the other two five-time All-Americans.

Press release & photo provided by BU Athletics