Junior Sarah Mitchell earned All-America honors by placing seventh in the javelin at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

Mitchell is the first All-American in Muhlenberg women’s track and field history. The Mule men have had two outdoor All-Americans.

Mitchell threw a school- and personal-record of 142 feet, 2 inches, in her second throw of the trials, and that stood up as her best distance of the meet.

“I knew it was a good throw, but I was surprised to see how far it went,” said Mitchell. “I’ve been working to break 140 feet, so I am happy I was able to do that.”

Seeded 14th out of the 18 throwers, Mitchell had the sixth best-mark in the preliminaries but was passed by one athlete in the final round.

“I wasn’t as intimidated as I thought I would be,” said Mitchell of her first NCAA experience. “I thought there were going to be these really big girls, but a lot of them looked just like me. Not everyone was perfect every single time, so I wasn’t nervous if I had a bad throw.”

Despite injuring her throwing arm early in the season, Mitchell improved her school record in the javelin by more than nine feet during the year – more than twice what she improved it last season.

Mitchell is the third Muhlenberg athlete in an individual sport to earn All-America honors in 2006.

Click here for complete women’s results.