2 Good Crew: Moore, Kammler earn NAIA All-American honors on final day of NAIA Track and Field National Championships
There is no question in anybody's mind that Justin Moore and Aiden Kammler are two of the best to do it in their respective disciplines of throwing and distance running at Shawnee State.
Both talents, again, showed that in spades at the tail end of Friday afternoon's NAIA Track and Field National Championships.
However, when one sees them interact together, it is clear that both Kammler and Moore are all in for each other as well -- and are just as happy, if not moreso, when the other accomplishes a major feat.
That's why both individuals are not only NAIA All-Americans as athletes in 2024 -- but all-american people in addition to their athletic accomplishments.
With both Kammler and Moore essentially competing at nearly identical times as Moore threw in the shot put finals while Kammler rounded the track in the 5,000 meter run, magic happened in simultaneous fashion.
Holding a steady pace between the back half of the podium positions, Kammler ran a strong time of 14:38.56 to claim the eighth and final spot on the podium as well as his seventh and final NAIA All-American accolade, while Moore launched major throws of 54 feet and 54 feet, seven inches to advance to the shot put finals, then made his final throw of the 2023-24 season count in a big way, obliterating his previous personal best with a 57-foot, 10-inch shot put mark that put the freshman in third place at the finish.
It was simply a sign of the bow being put on top of the boxed, eventual Hall of Fame present to cap off one legendary career. For the other, it was a sign of a legendary career being introduced to the national scene in a big way, as Kammler and Moore scored all seven of Shawnee State's points in the three-day NAIA National Championships with their performances Friday afternoon and led Shawnee State to a 37th-place team finish with just four male qualifiers on the site of the Indiana Wesleyan University campus in Marion, Ind.
Star Kam:
Finishing off one of the most legendary careers in Shawnee State history in any sport, senior distance runner Aiden Kammler's eighth place finish in the 5,000 meter run came in a competitive race that saw first through eighth place finish within seven-and-a-half seconds apart from one another. Oklahoma City's Evert Silva was the eventual winner, running a time of 14:31.06.
Kammler's career, however, goes well beyond even the seven NAIA All-Americans that he ultimately earned.
Beginning his career at Shawnee State during the COVID-affected 2019-20 campaign, one in which he had shown great promise as a freshman with a sixth-place finish at the 2019 Mid-South Conference Cross Country Championships, a MSC Indoor Track and Field Runner-Up finish in the 3,000 meter run and a fourth-place finish in the 5,000 meter run in the same MSC Indoor meet prior to the pandemic cancelling the outdoor track and field season, Kammler perservered through a difficult 2020 and a hectic 2021 that saw Kammler have to participate in indoor track, cross country and outdoor track, in that order, in a four-month span, to ultimately earn five all-conference honors by the end of the 2020-2021 season.
Over the last three seasons, Kammler's relentlessness and perserverance resulted in some of the most iconic feats in the history of the cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track programs. In 2022, Kammler qualified for nationals in five different events between cross country, indoor track and outdoor track, and between team and individual accolades, won five conference championships in that same year and earned his first NAIA All-American honor in cross country with a 31st place finish.
The last two seasons have seen significant payoff due to the steely mindset that Kammler has and the immensely respected, lead-by-example leadership that the Portsmouth High School grad and Hall of Famer has shown, which has resulted in the six additional NAIA All-American honors, three in both the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons, that the senior achieved. Kammler ultimately earned three NAIA All-American honors, alone, between the indoor track and outdoor track 5,000 meter run offering, and was appropriately named as Shawnee State's Male Athlete of the Year for the 2023-24 season in addition to the River States Conference Indoor and Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year honors that he claimed.
His eighth place finish Friday caps an athletic career that is certainly stellar, but his academic work, which featured a GPA above 3.65 in plastics engineering technology that resulted in a bachelor's degree of the honors variety in the major, is just as strong -- and most importantly, puts Kammler in a position to enjoy the fruits of his tireless labor.
Moore knows throws .. and milkshakes:
Claiming that he was ready to hurry the proceedings up after craving a milkshake from a chain restaurant, Justin Moore doesn't lack for wit. He, like Kammler, also doesn't shy away from the big stage, but simply gets better the brighter the lights get.
Throwing an impressive 54 feet in the shot put on his very first throw, Moore stayed in the top 10 overall, and firmly placed himself in eighth place after increasing his first mark to a 54-foot, seven-inch mark to garner himself an additional three attempts as part of making the cutoff.
There, Moore really turned up the dial.
After throwing 54 feet, one-and-a-half inches on his fourth attempt, Moore pushed up to seventh after posting a 55-foot, seven-inch mark on his next-to-last attempt.
Those efforts, however, proved to be nothing compared to his final throw, as the Valley High School graduate went on to obliterate his previous best in the shot put by posting a massive 57-foot, 10-inch throw to fly all the way up to third on the leaderboard at the finish.
Finishing as the top freshman and the top underclassman in the country, Moore only finished behind seniors Jacob Netral of Marian (Ind.), who threw 59 feet, one-and-three-quarters inches on his first throw, and Columbia International (S.C.)'s Deandre Leith, who threw 59 feet, four-and-a-quarter inches to win the national title on what was ultimately his third throw.
The 2024 River States Conference Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year, Moore finished the season by setting a personal best in five out of his final eight meets of the year -- and will certainly be a national title favorite in not only the shot put, but a national title contender, along with fellow friend and teammate Alan Austin, in the discus.
Moore has set personal bests in the following:
Shot put: 57 feet, 10 inches
Discus: 162 feet, five inches
Hammer throw: 139 feet, four inches
Additional
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