MARION, Ind. -- Eastern Oregon University track and field student-athlete, Robbie Haynie, captured the NAIA outdoor national pole vault title Saturday.
The junior had a top mark of 17 feet, 6.5 inches to win the event. Haynie won the indoor national title in March. The 5.35-meter mark is a new school record and is currently 12th out of any collegiate level.
Haynie became the first EOU outdoor national champion since Tim Riley won the 10,000 meters in 2004. It is the fifth outdoor national champion in school history and Haynie's third national title this year after winning the indoor pole vault and indoor heptathlon titles.
Eastern's women finished 15th with 20 points. The finish is the highest in school history, besting the 16th place finish in 1999. The Mountaineer men were close to having their highest finish as well, finishing ninth with 26 points. The EOU men came in seventh in 2004. Both of this year's finishes were the second highest point totals by a member of the Cascade Collegiate Conference. Concordia's women won the national team title, while its men came in fifth.
Last year, The Mountaineer women finished 32nd in the nation, and the men were 35th. Eastern's men came in 11th at the NAIA indoor national championships and the women finished 12th.
Alma Garcilazo finished fourth in the women's 800 meters with a new school record time of 2:10.67. It is the second straight fourth place finish for Garcilazo at the national championships and another All-American finish. Christine Eckstein placed seventh in the event with a time of 2:11.67, which is a personal record. In the men's 800 meters, Ryan Booth also had a seventh place finish with a time of 1:51.44.
Isaac Updike capped off an impressive freshman season by surging to an eighth place finish in the men's steeplechase final. His time of 9:15.30 puts him at third on the EOU all-time list. He was also the top freshman in the steeplechase.
Karlee Coffey finished an impressive year and meet with a fourth place finish in the women's 5,000 meters. Her finals time of 17:15.71 is only 15 seconds off her personal record and comes at the end of 20,000 meters of racing over three days.
Damion Flores ran into EOU history when he broke Don Stearns' 5,000-meter school record from 28 years ago. Flores' time of 14:18.34 shaved close to eight seconds off the old record, and placed him fourth in the race. Flores ran a 60-second last lap and a 28.8-second final 200 meters to surge pass four runners.
Overall, the Mountaineers had a great national championship meet, one for the record books. The seven All-American finishes at this year's national championships is four more than last season, and the most in school history at a single meet.