BOSTON  Methodist senior Jeremy Prichard earned All-American distinction Saturday, placing eighth in the championship heat of the men's 400-meter dash at the 2019 NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championship.

Prichard posted a time of 48.73 seconds, bettering his preliminary heat mark (48.82), on the six-lane oval at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center.

Patrick Mikel (47.52) of Loras College finished first, repeating as the national champion in the event.

The all-American honor is Prichard's first.

In the Friday prelim heats, Prichard and teammate Erran Greene -- a two-time outdoor 400m all-American -- raced in the opening heat of five, finishing with the identical time of 48.82 seconds. That time turned out to be the eighth fastest -- but only the top eight runners would advance into the Saturday final.

Needing to examine the times to the 1,000th of a second it was Prichard who earned the final qualifying spot, by 0.009 seconds ahead of Greene.

Running in the first of two timed final championship heats, Prichard tucked into third place halfway through at the break to the inside lane.

He held firm in that spot until A.J. Digby from Mount Union circled to the outside coming out of the final turn and out-leaned Prichard for a finishing time of 48.63.

In the second heat, Mikel easily broke out in front, even with the staggered start, and was the first to slide to the inside lane at the break.

Peyton Piron of North Central gave chase but was unable to reel in the now two-time 400-meter champion.

Each of the four runners from Heat 2 bested Prichard's fourth-place Heat 1 time, but that eighth-place final ranking earned Prichard a spot on the podium and an all-American certificate.