alt=Doug RobinsonCourtney Wayment, the recently graduated BYU distance runner, finished second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships to win a spot on the U.S. world championship team.
After her collegiate-record performance in the NCAA championships two weeks ago, Wayment told reporters that she had had a couple of gears she hadn’t needed to use in the race. Apparently, she was right. She knocked another four seconds off her record performance in the NCAA meet — which was eight seconds faster than any collegian has ever run — finishing with a time of 9:12.10.
Emma Coburn, the former world champion and Olympic medalist, won her 10th national championship in the steeplechase, clocking a time of 9:10.63. Courtney Frerichs, the American record holder and Olympic silver medalist, was a distant third in 9:16.18.
The world championships will be held on this same track at the University of Oregon in three weeks.
Meanwhile, former BYU star Conner Mantz, the two-time NCAA cross-country champion, was fourth in the 5,000-meter run, missing a spot on the world championships team by one place. Teammate Casey Clinger was 15th in 13:51.60.
The race was won by Grant Fischer with a meet-record time of 13:03.86. Woody Kincaid was second in 13:06.70, Abdihamid Nur third in 13:08.63, with Mantz next in 13:11.81. It is Mantz’s second near miss. He finished fifth in last summer’s U.S. Olympic Trials in the 10,000.
Whittni Orton Morgan, another former BYU athlete, was eighth in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 15:59.83. The race was won by Elise Cranny in 15:49.15.
BYU’s Michael Whittaker placed 15th in the javelin with a throw of 213 feet. Ethan Dobbs won the event with a throw of 266-8.