DES MOINES, Iowa - Samford's Michael Seaman earned second-team All-America honors with his performance in the pole vault at the NCAA Championships Wednesday evening at Drake University.

"Michael had another great season," Samford head coach Rod Tiffin said. "He ended up at the NCAA final round for the second year in a row, and this time he came home with the title of All-American. The great thing is we have him for another year."

With his performance Seaman became the first male track athlete in Samford history to reach All-America status.

"This is definitely a huge honor," Seaman said. "With the direction our program is going I don't think I'll be the only All-American for long. We have a lot of young guys who are coming up and qualifying for big meets, but I am definitely honored to be the first. Being an All-American is something I've wanted since I was in high school, and it's exciting to be able to check that off my list."

Seaman turned in a vault of 16-10.75 during Wednesday's meet, tying him for 16th with Andrew LeHaye of Florida State.

Seaman cleared the first two bars easily. However, prior to his next vault, which was raised to 17-02.5, the wind changed, forcing the athletes to vault into the wind. After the change of wind, only four bars were cleared out of 61 total attempts.

"It was a very, very tough meet," Seaman said. "We had a lot of wind and it rained at one point. I didn't have a stellar performance, but I was happy to be able to be All-American."

Earlier this season, Seaman won his second-consecutive Southern Conference title in the pole vault. He qualified for the NCAA Championship by tying for first place at the NCAA East Region preliminary meet on May 28.

Seaman became the first Samford male track athlete to reach the NCAA Championships last season. In last year's competition, the junior from Bardstown, Ky., placed 16th with a vault of 16.04-75.