Javelin Champion Finalist for Rutschman Award

An academic senior and athletic junior this year, he is from Salem, and is a graduate of Salem Academy.

Joel Krebs of George Fox University

NEWBERG, Ore. - NCAA Division III national javelin champion Joel Krebs of George Fox University has been named one of the finalists for the 2007 Ad Rutschman Small College Men’s Athlete of the Year Award which will be announced at the 2007 Oregon Sports Awards show on Sunday, January 27th.

Krebs became the second Bruin in the last four seasons to win the NCAA Division III national championship in the javelin when he captured the 2007 title on May 26th in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

His winning throw of 198-8 (60.57m), which broke the field record at Wisconsin-Oshkosh’s J.J. Keller Field, came on his first throw of the first round, and stood up because of increasing rain and 40-plus mph winds.

He earned NCAA Division III All-America status, and collected 10 points toward the Bruins’ total of 16 which tied George Fox for 18th in the national championship standings. He thus joined Matt Gassaway, who won the javelin in 2004, as Bruins who have won individual NCAA championships.

Krebs finished third in the 2006 NCAA javelin when he set a personal record throw of 207-6 (62.26m) in Lisle, Ill. He topped that in 2007 with a throw of 210-0 (64.02m) in the Northwest Conference Championships on April 21 at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash. That mark was the best in the nation at the time and was No. 2 nationally when the NCAA Championships began.

During the 2007 season, Krebs competed in six meets and won four of them: the NWC South meet on March 10th, the Point Loma Nazarene Spring Break meet on March 31th, the NWC Championship on Apr. 21st, and the NCAA D-III meet. The only two he did not win were at the University of Oregon Preview the Oregon Twilight meets, when he competed against Division I athletes as well.

Krebs did not compete in track and field in high school. He was spotted by George Fox coach John Smith as a freshman playing quarterback for an intramural football game and was encouraged to try out for the varsity track team because of his strong arm. An academic senior and athletic junior this year, he is from Salem, and is a graduate of Salem Academy.

The Oregon Sports Awards, which are voted on by a state-wide media panel, honor the state’s top athletes, coaches, and teams of the past year. Emmy Award-winning sportscaster Ahmad Rashad will be the master of ceremonies for this year’s show, which will air from the Tiger Woods Center on the Nike World Campus in Beaverton. The show will be televised live by Comcast SportsNet. Sponsors for the awards are Nike, the Portland Tribune, Comcast SportsNet, Les Schwab Tire Centers, Jeld-Wen, and the Portland Trail Blazers.

The Ad Rutschman Award is named in honor of long-time Linfield coach and athletic director Ad Rutschman, who served the school from 1967-1996.

He won three NAIA Division II national championships and posted a 183-48 record in 24 seasons of football coaching, and led the Wildcats to the NAIA national baseball championship in 1971, the first of his 13 seasons of coaching baseball. One of his sons, Randy, is now an assistant baseball coach at George Fox.

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