Central College’s three-time national champion men’s track and field multi-events champion Will Daniels was named a winner of an NCAA postgraduate scholarship for academic and athletics excellence.

Daniels, who graduated in 2019 after just three years at Central with a 3.99 grade point average and a biology major, captured the NCAA Division III indoor heptathlon crown in 2018 and 2019 for the Dutch. He then rolled to the NCAA outdoor decathlon title in Geneva, Ohio, compiling the second highest score in Division III history with 7,427 points. He set the national heptathlon record earlier with 5,441 points. He’s among five Central athletes ever to win three national titles. Daniels is a five-time all-America honoree, also finishing third in the 2018 NCAA decathlon and seventh in the 2018 indoor high jump. He had nine all-conference performances.

Daniels is Central’s 26th winner of the NCAA postgraduate scholarship since 1970, when former NFL star Vern Den Herder was honored. He’s Central’s first recipient since his former multi-events teammate Ryan Kruse was selected in 2018. It’s the ninth selection for a member of Central’s track and field program.

Daniels is now a graduate student in the master’s program in clinical exercise physiology at the University of Iowa with hopes of eventually enrolling in medical school. With a year of athletics eligibility remaining, Daniels intends to compete in the decathlon for Iowa next spring.