Knight Runner-Up; Tooker Fourth at NCAA Championships

Friday, June 8

Eugene, OR

8:54 p.m.

Syracuse University

Men's 3000M Steeplechase Final

Knight Runner-Up; Tooker Fourth at NCAA Championships

6/9/2018 12:07:00 AM | Track and Field

5k Highlights Steeplechase Highlights Tooker and Affolder Interview Knight Interview

The most decorated athlete in Syracuse history, Justyn Knight took to the track one final time in a Syracuse uniform on Friday night, finishing as the runner-up in the 5000-meters of the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Teammate Philo Germano finished 14th to earn Second Team All-America honors in the event. 'Cuse also placed two in the top-10 of the 3000-meter steeplechase, with sophomore Aidan Tooker shattering the Syracuse record to take fourth and Noah Affolder finishing ninth in his first NCAA Championship event.

Knight closed from fourth to second over the final 200 meters, but was edged at the line by 0.22 seconds by Stanford senior Sean McGorty. His time of 13:55.03 earned him First Team All-America honors. Germano finished in 14:03.57 to finish 14th.

"Obviously the goal is to come to win, but anything can happen in Championship racing," Knight said. "I think I ran well, my only error is that when Sean [McGorty] made his move, I had the option to go, or to stay with a certain person and I chose to stay back. Sean's a great friend of mine and I'm happy for him that he was able to win."

Knight concludes his phenomenal Syracuse career as a three-time NCAA Champion (two individual; one team), 16-time ACC Champion (11 individual; five team), a 10-time All-American and has scored 48 points by himself at NCAA track and field championships in his four years.

"We accomplished everything that Coach Fox promised me when I came to Syracuse on my official visit," Knight said. "It stays in my heart and means so much to always have our faculty and staff and everyone in our program cheering me on the whole time. To have all those people behind me and to go represent Syracuse well at NCAA Championships is the least I could do for those guys."

Tooker closed from eighth to fourth over a wild final lap, while Affolder finished ninth after also moving up late. With Houston's Brian Barraza leading on the final lap, he hit the third-to-last hurdle with 300-meters to go sending him to the track. That allowed the field to come back to the front. Obasa Ali came away with the win in 8:32.23.

Tooker's time was 8:34.52, which broke Kyle Heath's Syracuse record from 2008 (8:38.03). The record was the lone distance event (1500-meters or longer) in either indoor or outdoor track that hadn't been bested in the last-three years, prior to Friday.

"It was hot from the gun," Tooker said. "That happens in the steeple and we were both prepared for it. We just went out there and gave out best effort."

Tooker is the highest-finishing underclassman in the event, while the race was the first NCAA Championship for Affolder as a true freshman. The finish bodes well for the 'Cuse future.

"Our program isn't going anywhere," Affolder said. "We have three great guys leaving in Justyn [Knight], Colin [Bennie] and Philo [Germano], and I think what we did this weekend was to keep it going in a forward direction and showed the guys back home that we're not going anywhere and we're going to keep ripping it."

Paige Stoner will look to duplicate the men's success in the steeplechase on Saturday. She'll race at 6:54 p.m. ET on ESPN to close the Orange's championship.