Photo courtesy of Travis Rae, Eastern Oregon University.
Alexander, Maguin secure NAIA titles for SOU
SOU Sports Information
Complete Results
GULF SHORES, Ala. – Following two relatively quiet days at the NAIA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, Dylan Alexander (Encino, Calif./Birmingham) and Amelia Maguin (Fernley, Nev./Fernley) helped Southern Oregon University to a booming finish Saturday in the final events of the meet.
Individual national championships cemented their own spots in Raider history, too.
Alexander's stunning kick in the final lap gave him the 5,000-meter title, Maguin turned the 400-meter hurdles into a laugher with a two-second win, and Zach Boyd-Helm (West Linn, Ore./West Linn) ran to third place in the 800 as the 2015 season came to a close at the 64th annual meet. The Raider men finished 12th in the team standings with 26 points, and Maguin's title gave the women 10 points and a tie for 28th.
"Things ended well with Amelia and Dylan," SOU coach Grier Gatlin said. "Things could've gone much better but we got through another national meet with some great performances."
A runner-up in the 400 hurdles the last two years, Maguin broke her own school record for the fourth time this season with a time of 58.96 seconds. The runner-up, Taylor Neehham of Southwestern (Kan.), was 1.92 seconds back, making it the biggest margin of victory in the event at the meet in six years.
Maguin, who lost last year by three-tenths of a second, was in control for the duration of the race. Hers was SOU's seventh NAIA women's title and the only win in a running event for the Raiders besides Theresa Walton's in the 1994 marathon. SOU endured a 19-year drought without a women's title before Stephanie Techler (Berlin, Germany) won the pole vault last season.
Maguin ended her SOU career as the fourth three-time outdoor All-American in Raider women's history.
Alexander, the No. 3 seed, only led for about a second of the men's 5K. He cruised behind leader Geoffrey Kipchumba of William Carey (Miss.) until making his push in the final 400 meters, making up a gap of nearly five seconds. His long strides prevailed at the finish, where he came in at 14:45.74 to Kipchumba's 14:46.18, becoming the 12th SOU men's outdoor champion and just the third in a running event.
SOU had never produced an All-American in the 5K before Saturday.
Eric Ghelfi (Redding, Calif./Redding Adventist Academy) was 12th (15:19.74), Ray Schireman (Medford, Ore./North Medford) was 15th (15:29.47) and Max Runia (Central Point, Ore./Crater) was 16th (15:30.00) in the 5K, which consisted of 29 runners due to the trials being called off after lightning cut Thursday's events short.
Boyd-Helm attempted to pull off similar theatrics in the 800 but settled at third place in 1:51.62. Winner Clay Shepperson of Oklahoma Baptist came in at 1:50.70. Of the 11 top-three outdoor running finishes in Raider history, Boyd-Helm owns two of them, also placing second in the 800 in 2013.
Dylan Paulk (Portland, Ore./Grant) started the day at 6 a.m. with a 15th-place finish of 34 in the marathon, clocking 2:49:55.30.
SOU ended the meet with six All-American performances. To go along with Saturday's efforts, Markus Sanders (Modesto, Calif./Carthage) was fourth in the hammer and sixth in the discus, and Ghelfi was seventh in the 10K.
COMPLETE SOU RESULTS
MEN
800m finals (8 total entries)
3. Zach Boyd-Helm (West Linn, Ore./West Linn), 1:51.62
5000m finals (29)
1. Dylan Alexander (Encino, Calif./Birmingham), 14:45.74
12. Eric Ghelfi (Redding, Calif./Redding Adventist Academy), 15:19.74
15. Ray Schireman (Medford, Ore./North Medford), 15:29.47
16. Max Runia (Central Point, Ore./Crater), 15:30.00
Marathon finals (34)
15. Dylan Paulk (Portland, Ore./Grant), 2:49:55.30
WOMEN
400m Hurdles final (8)
1. Amelia Maguin (Fernley, Nev./Fernley), 58.96