ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T saw five members of its men's track & field and cross country program earn a place on the academic all-district squad for the 2022-23 season as it was released today by the College Sports Communicators. 

The five named included a pair of Great Lakes Valley Conference champions during the 2022-23 season and three others that were high finishers at the GLVC Outdoor Championships held earlier this month at Allgood-Bailey Stadium when S&T captured its third straight outdoor championship.

Nathan Swadley (Willard, MO/Willard), a mechanical engineering major who earned his fourth All-America award of his career last weekend in the shot put, won that event at the conference meet with a mark of 59-2¼.  He exceeded that mark on his final throw at the NCAA meet with a mark of 59-3 to end up fifth in the competition, his highest finish out of his four All-America performances.

Swadley closed his career at S&T as the holder of the indoor and outdoor shot put records as well as the top showing all-time in the discus throw.  He earned Academic All-America honors last season and was also the GLVC's Richard F. Scharf Paragon Award winner following the 2021-22 season.

The other conference champion to earn academic all-district honors was Otto Knittel (Spring Hill, KS/Spring Hill), who is also majoring in mechanical engineering and is coming off a win in the decathlon to sweep the multi-events at the conference level this season.  Knittel scored a season-high 6,515 points to win the decathlon after posting a total of 4,571 in the indoor heptathlon; he also scored a seventh place finish in the 400-meter hurdles during the outdoor championships.

Jake Anderson (O'Fallon, MO/Fort Zumwalt West), an aerospace engineering major at S&T, also earned all-conference honors by finishing second in the pole vault at both of the conference meets this season.  Anderson cleared 15-1 at the GLVC Outdoor Championships to take second, after finishing as the runner-up indoors with a clearance of 15-9¾.  He also competed at the 2022 NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships, where he finished in 14^th place.

Lucas Rackers (Florissant, MO/St. Louis University HS) recorded a trio of fourth place finishes in the middle distance events at the conference meets this season, doing so in the 1,500-meters in both the indoor and outdoor meets and in the 800-meters indoors.  This followed a cross country season where Rackers, a ceramic engineering major, earned All-GLVC honors by placing 10^th at the conference meet, one of three top-10 finishes he posted during the fall.

Another all-conference performer during the cross country season, Andrew Lofgren (Chesterfield, MO/Parkway West), was the fifth Miner to earn academic all-district laurels.  Lofgren finished seventh at the GLVC meet in November and followed it up with a fifth place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the GLVC Outdoor Championships to help the Miners earn their team championship.  Lofgren is majoring in geological engineering at Missouri S&T.