Add Stephanie Kuhn's name to a list that includes Babe Ruth, Chuck Noll and Roger Bannister.

Ruth was the first major league baseball player to hit 60 home runs in a season, Noll was the first NFL coach to win four Super Bowls and Bannister was the first to run a mile under four minutes.

Kuhn's accomplishment might not be as noteworthy, but this Ringgold High School alumna was the first Robert Morris University athlete to qualify for the NCAA Division I women's track and field championships.

Now she is the first to compete in the NCAA track championships twice.

A senior, Kuhn placed 15th in the javelin competition at the NCAA meet at Sacramento State University in California on June 7. She had a throw of 156 feet, 11 inches in the preliminary round. Her throw, however, wasn't good enough to reach the final. Only the top 12 from the preliminary round advanced.

She also had qualified for the NCAA Division I meet as a freshman.

"It was a little disappointing that I didn't make the finals," said Kuhn, a Finleyville resident. "But I was pretty happy with the season I had."

It's too bad she didn't come up with a throw similar to her effort at the NCAA East Regional in Gainesville, Fla. At that meet, Kuhn had a toss of 162-7 and placed third.

Had she thrown that distance in the preliminaries at the NCAA championships, she would have advanced to the final round. And had she thrown that distance in the finals, she would have placed in the top eight, which would have qualified her for All-American status.

"I was pretty consistent during the season, throwing in the high 150s most of the time," Kuhn said. "And I had a throw of 165 [feet] this year, which was one of my goals."

She came up with a toss of 165-6 to take first place at the Northeast Conference championships at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, N.J.

Kuhn also had a throw of 160-11 to place first at the Bennie Benson Memorial Invitational at Robert Morris.

Her track resume with the Colonials is impressive. Besides the two trips to the NCAA championship, Kuhn has competed in the NCAA East Regional and the ECAC outdoor championships the past four seasons. She holds the Colonials' record in the javelin.

Perhaps the most remarkable part of Kuhn's success is that, by javelin thrower standards, she's diminutive. Kuhn is only 5 feet 5.

Her older sister, Maggie, competed in the event and Kuhn just naturally picked it up.

"I ran track in middle school, mostly the 100 and the jumping events," Kuhn said. "I didn't get into [throwing] the javelin until I was in high school."

She was good enough to win the WPIAL Class AAA title in the javelin as a junior. As a senior at Ringgold, she was second in the WPIAL and fourth in the PIAA.

Although her college athletic career has ended, Kuhn's track career has not. She was making the 45-minute drive from her parents' Finleyville home to Robert Morris almost daily for workouts. She competed in the USA Track and Field Championships at IUPUI in Indianapolis last weekend.

At that meet, she had a toss of 149 feet, low by her standards, and finished 14th in the javelin. Dana Pounds of the United States Air Force Academy won the competition with a throw of 195-8.

Kuhn hasn't been a one-event wonder for the Colonials. She also competed in the hammer throw during track season and was a forward on the soccer team in the fall.

She still is involved with soccer, playing in games on Sundays.

"I'd miss [soccer] if I didn't still play," Kuhn said. "That was one of the reasons I came to Robert Morris because there was the opportunity to play both sports."

Kuhn would like to keep her track career going past this summer. A long-range goal is to qualify for the Olympic trials next year.

A business major, she has used up her NCAA eligibility but still has classes to finish at Robert Morris and hopes to help the Colonials next season as a volunteer assistant coach.

"I set goals for myself and at the start of the season I wanted to throw 160 feet and I got that," she said.

"The next goal was to throw 165 and I did that at the [Northeast] conference meet. Now it's 170, and once I get that, I'll keep going."