Houston's Ward Earns All-America Honor

Baton Rouge, La.- University of Houston freshman Krystal Ward earned All-American honors at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships with a sixth place finish in the women's heptathlon on Wednesday-Thursday.

Ward, who is competing in the heptathlon for the first time this year, scored a career-best 5,337 points to finish in sixth place. Earlier this season, she won the heptathlon at the Conference USA Championships with 5,193 points and had a second-place finish at the Texas Relays with 5,286 points and provisionally qualify for the NCAA Outdoor meet.

Kansas State's Austra Skujyte won the event with 6,061 points. Ellannee Richardson of Washington State finished in second place with 5,709 points and Tacita Bass of South Carolina finished in third place with 5,622 points. Iowa State's Barbara Szlendakova scored 5,616 points to finish in fourth place, while DeeDee Brown of Arkansas had 5,460 points to end the meet in fifth place.