MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – Senior Will Kelly of the St. Olaf College men's track and field team closed out his career with a fourth-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Friday evening at Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium.

Kelly earned First Team All-America honors and moved up six spots from his 10th-place finish a year ago by placing fourth (9:01.02) in the 12-runner event final. The senior's fourth-place finish made him the fourth different student-athlete in program history to pick up All-America honors and the sixth All-American in the event.

The fourth-place finish was also the fourth top-four performance in the 3,000-meter steeplechase by an Ole, joining runner-up finishes from David Peterson (1981) and Peter Morse (2000) and a third-finish by Jake Brown (2015). Kelly, Brown, Morse, and Peterson have combined for all six of St. Olaf's All-America accolades in the event.

Kelly, who entered the national meet as the No. 6 seed and finished second in the prelims the night before (8:58.71), was sixth at the 1,000-meter split before holding the lead at the conclusion of the next two laps. From there, UW-Whitewater's Christian Patzka took the lead and didn't relinquish it the rest of the way to defend his national title in the event, as Kelly was fourth at the end of each of the final three laps.

Kelly's finish gave St. Olaf five points in the team standings, which put the Oles in a tie for 23rd through two days of the three-day meet.