ALBUQUERQUE – The Shippensburg men's indoor distance medley relay squad of sophomore Matt Gillette, junior Kyle Raguz, junior Pio Mandato and senior Bryan Beegle won the 2011 Division II National Championship on Friday night with a time of 9:57.25.

No men's relay had ever achieved All-American status in school history, either indoors or outdoors. The herculean effort of each runner helped Shippensburg close the night with DMR national championships on the women's and men's side.

“When we started qualifying back in January and hit our time that would get us to nationals, that allowed us to work the remainder of the season to be ready to run fast at this meet,” Beegle said.

Gillette closed his 1,200-meter leg in a similar fashion to how he fabulously closed his PSAC championship performance in the mile; posting a split of 3:02.29 that had Shippensburg in second place on the first exchange.

“Gillette's opening leg was phenomenal and that set the tone for the race,” Beegle said of his teammate.

Raguz posted a split of 50.28 seconds in the 400 and Mandato ran an 800-meter leg of 1:56.02 to set up one of the most exciting anchor legs in the history of the indoor national championships.

Beegle inherited the baton in fourth place but made his mark on the final lap. Colorado Mines senior Ben Zywicki led for the majority of the final lap before Beegle turned it on – making up multiple seconds to post the victory. Beegle's 1,600-meter split time was 4:08.58 – more than two seconds faster than any other anchor leg.

“When I went out to Colorado this summer to train (with SU All-Americans Mary Dell and Neely Spence), the experience of training at altitude really helped me to be ready for the national championships,” Beegle said. “I was confident that if I ran the paces I prepared for that I would be OK. I started my leg conservatively to make sure that we secured the All-America position, and with about 800 meters to go I realized that there weren't too many people to pass.”

All six SU athletes that competed in events on Friday earned All-America honors. In the field, freshman Herman Kirkland placed seventh in the long jump with a mark of 23 feet, 4 inches while sophomore Cody DeBoer finished eighth with a jump of 23 feet, 2 ½ inches.

“I told the jumpers that I wanted them to do everything they could to achieve an All-America honor,” head coach Dave Osanitsch said. “They got it done, and I am very proud of them.”