Heather Miller-Koch ’10, a nursing graduate and 10-time Huskies All-American, is one of three U.S. heptathletes who will compete at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
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Miller-Koch earned her ticket to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with a second-place finish in the heptathlon at the United States Track and Field Olympic Trials July 9-10 in Eugene, Oregon.
The heptathlon — 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200-meter run, long jump, javelin throw and 800-meter run — is Aug. 12-14 in Olympic Stadium Maracanã.
Miller-Koch competes for Central Park Track Club, a New York City organization sponsored by apparel manufacturer New Balance. She is an operating room nurse at United Hospital in St. Paul. Her husband and coach is Ryan Koch ’05, a former Huskies football and track star.
Barbara Nwaba of the ABEO / Santa Barbara TC won the event with a score of 6494. Miller earned 6,423 points. The third qualifying spot went to Kendell Williams of Georgia, with a score of 6402.
She will become the 13th St. Cloud State athlete to compete in the Olympic Games. Recent Huskies Olympians include Andreas Nodl, who played on the Austrian men’s hockey team in Sochi in 2014, and Ryan Malone, who played on the U.S. men’s hockey team in Vancouver in 2010.
Miller-Koch was the 2010 NCAA DII Pentathlon National Championship and a 15-time Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) champion. She broke 10 school records during her career and set NSIC records in the pentathlon, indoor and outdoor triple jump, the heptathlon and outdoor long jump.
In 2010, Miller-Koch was named the 2010 U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association National Field Athlete of the Year.
View her Olympic trials results:
