GULF SHORES, Ala. – The UBC Thunderbirds have reclaimed the NAIA women's Outdoor Track & Field National Championship with a dominant performance over three days in Gulf Shores, Alabama while the men's team finished a strong third.
On the strength of a whopping five gold medallists, the T-Birds women's team accumulated 138 team points for a 44 point cushion over second place Indiana Tech, securing their second NAIA championship in team history, repeating their feat from 2019.
The men's team was in a tight battle for third late Friday, but some clutch performances including
Tyler Dozzi's 5000 metre victory secured a total of 39 points for UBC, eight back of second place Southeastern and 13 behind the champions from Life University.
"We won by such a large margin because our girls continued to outperform their rankings and just created a fantastic performance," said UBC Head Coach
Laurier Primeau who was also named NAIA Women's Coach of the Year for the second time. "It's not like other teams performed poorly, we just had an incredible meet. We were extremely well-rounded and that evenness combined with the high end performances really served us well. There were so few races on the track we didn't have a finalist in, so few events in the field that we didn't have someone that had the potential to score in. By any measure it would have been tough to compete against us this weekend."
In addition to Primeau's Coach of the Year award,
Rowan Hamilton was named the men's Outstanding Performer of the meet after his record setting hammer throw on Wednesday.
Already with a sizeable lead in the standings heading into the final day of the meet, the T-Birds women started Friday with a bang in the 4x800 metre relay, securing gold for the third straight time UBC has competed at the championship.
Amelia Pfohl,
Abby Ylipahkala,
Rachel Mortimer, and
Holly MacGillivray completed the relay in 8:57.70, securing ten more points to the total.
It turned out to be a stellar day for the women's relays with three podium appearances in total. The 4x100 metre team finished in third with a 46.17 time, just one hundredth out of second.
Hassy Fashina-Bombata,
Cayla Smith,
Hanna Sobkowich, and
Katherine Lucas picked up another eight team points.
The final women's event of the meet, the 4x400 relay completed the medal trifecta for UBC as Smith, Sobkowich, Fashina-Bombata, and Lucas powered their way to a second place finish.
The men had also qualified for the 4x800 metre final and secured a point with an eighth place finish in the relay run by
Aiden Miller,
Paul Fisher,
Liam Kramer, and
Ryan Goudron.
Among the many highlights of the sunny and warm final day of the meet was the women's 3000 metre steeplechase where
Jenna Melanson had a tremendous run of 10:16.87 to secure NAIA champion status in her final meet as a Thunderbird. Fellow T-Bird
Jamie Hennessey wasn't far behind as she finished fourth.
In his first NAIA meet, freshman
Dylan Uhrich finished on the podium with a bronze in the men's 3000 metre steeple, finishing in 9:06.48, less than two and a half seconds off the pace.
Holly MacGillivray also took part in her first NAIA championship this week, as did a significant number of T-Birds, and managed to make a statement with a second place finish in the women's 1500 metre final. Her time of 4:26.40 was just a half second back of the winner. Mortimer also ran the 1500 and finished sixth.
It was a busy afternoon for Fashina-Bombata as the senior Thunderbird not only ran two of UBC's three relays but also competed in the 100 metre hurdles final, finishing fifth with a personal best time of 13.93.
Speaking of busy afternoons for the women's team,
Katherine Lucas took things to a new level in an inspiring performance with four events total on Friday. Aside from her two relays, the graduating T-Bird finished third in the 100 metres with a time of 11.86. Little over an hour later, Lucas was back on the sprint track again where she put together a fifth place finish in the 200 metre dash with a 24.11.
Inspiring could also certainly be used for both the men's and women's 5000 metre finals which were dominated by the blue and gold.
Glynis Sim not only won gold for the T-Bird women with a 16:50.95, she clobbered the competition with a 16-plus second margin of victory.
Tyler Dozzi had himself a dominant performance in the men's 5000 as the Terrace, B.C. native turned on the jets in the final few laps, including a sub 61-second bell lap, to claim first by nine seconds in 14:38.31. Dozzi's gold medal run helped solidify third for the UBC men's team as the 'Birds finished seven points ahead of St. Mary (Kan.).
"It's a young team and so many of them are returning so I think this was a fantastic experience and they're probably really hungry to improve on that third place in 2023," added Primeau of the men's performance as a whole.
All told, the week in Alabama was one full of excitement, persistence, and the final culmination of three years' worth of work for a program that missed out on so much due to the pandemic.
Aside from the tremendous results by both the women and men in Gulf Shores, perhaps the biggest win of all for UBC is getting back to doing what the athletes, coaches, and support staff all strive for: the chance to compete on the biggest stage and come away from that experience with a smile and memories to last a lifetime.
"Kudos to so many of these athletes who decided to extend their degrees just so they could finish on an NAIA championship. It's super fulfilling for us to be here, whether they won, got personable bests, exceeded expectations or just had a learning experience, it was phenomenal all around."
FULL RESULTS
