Kelly Copps, Kristal Grigsby get NCAA track honor

June 19, 2006
see honor team here

St. Thomas' Kelly Copps and Kristal Grigsby were named among the 18 outstanding individual national meet performers during the last 25 years in NCAA Division III women's outdoor track and field.

The Tommie graduates were named to the elite U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Division III Silver Anniversary Team announced last week.

Copps, a 1995 graduate, was honored in the 10,000 meters. Grigsby was honored in the long jump.

Two other MIAC athletes were honored -- Augsburg's Carolyn Ross in the 400 hurdles, and Concordia's Kris Kuehl in the discus.

Kelly Copps
Copps broke the St. Thomas record for individual NCAA individual championships by winning six (four outdoors). She won All-America honors 11 times, including nine in track and field. She won three outdoor 10,000-meter national titles (1993, 1994, 1995) and also won the 1994 outdoor 5,000 meters. She won the NCAA indoor 5,000 in both 1994 and 1995. In NCAA cross country, Copps took second out of 190 runners as a senior in 1994. In her four-year career she improved at cross country nationals from xx as a freshman to xx as a sophomore, to xx as a junior and xx as a senior. Copps also won 11 events and placed second five times on her MIAC track and cross country career, and won the conference cross country title as a senior. The Tommies won all eight conference team championships in track and field and captured two MIAC team crowns in cross country. In 1995 she won the 10,000 finals at NCAA outdoor track and field championships. She was a CoSIDA Academic All-American and the recipient of a NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.


Kristal Grigsby
Kristal was a three-time NCAA champ, a nine-time All-American, and 13-time conference champ. She scored 213 points in seven career conference indoor and outdoor track and field meets. She also contributed to another 40 relay points and helped the Tommies win seven of a possible eight MIAC team titles in her era.

Grigsby and her twin sister -- Carthage College's Shea'na
Grigsby -- combined to win 11 NCAA Division III track and field championships for two different institutions.

Shea'na was a bit more accomplished athlete at Breck High --at the 2002 state meet, Shea'na won the Class A 100 hurdles (she was third as a junior) and the sisters ran on a third-place 4x100 relay. Shea'na was recruited to Carthage. Kristal was a late bloomer who came to St. Thomas for academics and didn't even score a point as a freshman in the conference indoor meet.

Shea'na was an eight-time NCAA Division III champion for Carthage (Wis.). She capped her career as she won both the 100-meter and 400-meter hurdles May 27.

Kristal won her third career NCAA title May 25 in the long jump (2004, 2006 outdoor, 2005 indoor). Kristal also ran Saturday's 4x100 relay finals but her team placed ninth.

The two ran against each other on the 4x100 relay at the 2004 Division III national meet. In the prelims Carthage 48.14 (Shea'na leadoff leg) edged UST 48.16 (Kristal second leg) but both made finals. In the finals, both sisters
ran head-to-head on the second leg but UST was disqualified and Carthage placed seventh.

This marked the third year in a row at outdoor nationals that a St. Thomas athlete won the long jump. Grigsby won in 2004 (all-time conference best of 19-10 3-4) and was third in 2005 (18-11 3-4) behind teammate Andretta Colley (19-5 1-4).

On May 3, Kristal broke a 16-year-old O'Shaughnessy Stadium record in the long jump as she went 19-9 1-2. (The old record 19-7 by Jane Mattke, who held the Minnesota Gopher record of 20-2 until it was broken in early June). Kristal's career best -- also the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference all-time best -- is 19-10 3-4, reached on her final jump to give her the victory at 2004 nationals. (That would now rank fourth on the all-time list for the Minnesota Gophers' Division I program.)