Compiling the second-best score in NCAA Division III history, Will Daniels won the decathlon title Friday with 7,427 points at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Through eight events, Daniels was in the lead with 6,201 points and sat 198 better than Dylan Cooper of Wis.-Eau Claire. He closed the day with a javelin throw (166 feet, 4 inches) and a new personal-best time of 4:48.62 in 1,500-meter run to seal the win. He started the day with a time of 110-meter hurdles of 15.24 seconds and also had a pole vault of 14-5.25. He also had a new personal-best mark in the discus throw (130-4). The only Division III decathlete with a better score (7,528) was Kip Janvrin at the 1987 national meet. Janvrin, a Panora, Iowa native and Simpson College graduate, represented the United States at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Daniels, a two-time national indoor champion in the heptathlon, joins an elite group of Central athletes with three national championship performances. Ethan Miller won the men’s decathlon in 2011 and 2012 and the indoor high jump in 2011. Chris McCullough won three-straight men’s 4×400-meter relay titles outdoors from 2000 to 2002. Marcie Thurn was a part of back-to-back women’s 4×100-meter relay titles in 1982 and 1983 and added a long jump crown in 1982. Daniels has graduated a year early from Central and will head to the University of Iowa to pursue medical school.

Drake Lewis also found his way onto an All-American podium, finishing eighth in the high jump (6-8). Lewis becomes the 70th Central male to earn All-American status in the outdoor season. He was one of three entrants in the field to finish at 6-8, but he did it on the second-fewest attempts to place eighth.

Emily Burt finished 21st in the women’s shot put recording a mark of 40-11.5.