There were a lot of firsts on Friday and Saturday in Virginia Beach, Virginia, at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Nationals Championships for senior Brady Burrough and Fort Lewis College.
It was the first time the Skyhawks qualified a male for the indoor national championships, and Burrough became the highest placing Skyhawk, male or female, in indoor track with his runner-up finish in the mile. His second-place finish tied Katie Heck’s mark for best finishing position for a male or a female in indoor or outdoor track for FLC.
The Skyhawks left Virginia Beach with multiple All-Americans, including senior Hannah Hartwell and the women’s distance medley relay of freshman Eliana Angelino, freshman Caroline Laughlin, sophomore Janaya Mancell and senior Alliyah Molina.
“There’s some good and bad,” FLC track and field head coach Dalton Graham said. “With Hannah, you want to constantly chance improvement at a national meet. It was a rough weekend … Then Brady was a storybook ending to an indoor career being a senior, only going to one cross country national meet two years ago and always identifying more as a mid-distance guy.”
After finishing third in the women’s 5-kilometer race and 10th in the women’s 3K race at last year’s indoor national championships, Hartwell was hoping to improve on those marks, but she didn’t have the legs to do it. In the 5K race, she was second through 2200 meters, but she eventually dropped back to ninth entering the final lap, before she was passed at the end of the race to finish in 10th.
Hartwell finished the 5K in 16 minutes and 37.40 seconds. Allison Kuzma from Hillsdale won in 15:58.57.
Angelino also competed on Friday in the women’s 800 as one of three freshmen in the 18-woman field. She didn’t qualify for the final, finishing in 11th in 2:10.46 seconds, three spots away from qualifying.
The FLC distance medley finished 10th in 11:52.77, good for second-team All-American. CSU Pueblo won in 11:08.20. Graham was proud of how the distance medley ran for the Skyhawks, especially since it wasn’t the foursome that qualified for nationals. Graham and the rest of the coaches decided to take Hartwell off the anchor leg to let her focus on the 3K and the 5K. Molina replaced her and performed admirably.
On Saturday, Hartwell wrapped up her national championships with the 3K. Hartwell got up to seventh early in the race, but dropped down outside the top 10 and finished 14th in 9:35.20. Aria Hawkins from Lee won in 9:18.46.
Burrough’s weekend was full of fireworks. He began his work in the mile on Friday in Heat 2. It was a very physical race on the tight and banked 200-meter track, with a lot of runners getting their elbows out and tripping over other competitors. Runners had to be tactical, and Graham thought this fit Burrough’s style because he can close very hard.
The senior Skyhawk was in fifth, rounding the final curve, when a runner behind him got tripped up with Burrough’s trail leg, causing Burrough to trip. He ended up finishing sixth and was outside the required times and finishing positions to make the final. However, since Burrough had tripped, Graham decided to protest the result for the first time in his coaching career.
“You have to protest within a 20-minute window of the finish of that event.,” Graham said. “So we protested, and then it took every bit of an hour and a half for them to make the call … I was very nervous and he was the last decision made. I was seeing Adams State get declined and seeing Grand Valley and Wingate talk back and forth, and none of theirs get advanced.”
Burrough’s protest was the only one that got upheld and he advanced to the final with the argument being that he was so close to the finish and had so much momentum that he would’ve made up enough ground to advance if he wasn’t tripped.
The men’s mile final was on Saturday, and Burrough started the race toward the back, staying relaxed and watching out for falls. Burrough made his move with about 400 meters left, getting on the outside and rising from ninth to second. He crossed the finish line in third in 4:12, but Adams State’s Housem Hrabi was disqualified after crossing the finish line in first, pushing Burrough up to send behind Dylan Sprecker in first in 4:11.92.
“Getting in a race with those people, he’s going to compete well,” Graham said about Burrough. “He definitely belonged there which was super rewarding.”
The Skyhawks begin their outdoor track season at Colorado Mesa on Thursday and Friday and at CSU Pueblo on Saturday.
The Skyhawks softball team had a winless February, and they made sure they wouldn’t have a winless March with two home wins against the University of Colorado Colorado Springs on Saturday.
FLC moved to 3-23 overall and 2-14 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference after going 2-2 against the Mountain Lions.
The Skyhawks started the series with a 1-0 win on Saturday thanks to a standout performance from redshirt senior Hailie Mann, who finished with four strikeouts. The Skyhawks scored the winning run in the 10th inning thanks to a hit from freshman Carmen Alexander that brought redshirt senior Alex Tenorio home.
It was an opposite Game 2 for both teams as the Skyhawks emerged victorious in a 9-8 shootout. FLC and UCCS both scored five runs in the first inning, and FLC’s three runs in the sixth were the difference.
On Sunday, UCCS responded with a 10-4 and a 9-8 win to even the series.
The Skyhawks will play at CSU Pueblo on Saturday and Sunday.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
