Sami Oblad, the senior from Stansbury Park, made a little history by advancing to the finals of the 400-meter dash during Thursday’s NCAA track and field championships in Eugene, Ore.
Oblad, a converted heptathlete and high jumper, finished eighth in the semifinals with a time of 51.20.
No matter what happens in Saturday’s nine-woman final, she will be the highest-placing female sprinter in BYU history. BYU, one of the premier distance-running schools in the nation, has competed in collegiate track and field for 43 years and has totaled some 290 event qualifiers for the NCAA championships during that time. Counting Oblad, only seven of them qualified in the sprints — the 100, 200, or 400 — and none of them advanced to the finals (the highest finish was 15th).
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Georgia’s Aaliyah Butler, who competed for the U.S. in last summer’s Olympics, had the fastest time, 50.16.
The men will take the track tomorrow for the second and final day of their competition. The women’s finals will be Saturday.
There was only one men’s event Thursday and that consisted of the final five events of the decathlon, continuing from where they left off Wednesday. BYU’s Ben Barton, a junior from Michigan, finished sixth with 7,777 points. The top eight placers in each event are designated as first-team All-American.
The event was won by Mississippi State’s Peyton Bair, a junior from Kimberly, Idaho. He scored 8,323 points to beat the runner-up by 435 points.
Barton’s teammate, sophomore Jaden Roskelley, was 19th, with 7,475 points.
Meanwhile, as anticipated, Lexy Lowry and Meghan Hunter easily advanced out of Thursday’s semifinals to Saturday’s finals.
Lowry, the fifth fastest collegiate steeplechaser ever, appeared to run just hard enough to qualify, claiming an automatic qualifying spot by finishing second in her heat, third overall, with a time of 9:36.24. Teammate Taylor Lovell also grabbed an automatic qualifying spot by finishing fourth in her heat. She had the ninth fastest time overall, 9:37.97, a personal record by 6 ½ seconds.
Alabama’s Doris Lemngole, the defending champion and collegiate recordholder, had the fastest time, 9:26.44.
Hunter, the third fastest collegian ever at 800 meters, eased off near the finish to claim second place in her heat, .04 behind winner Makayla Paige of North Carolina. Hunter’s time was1:59.96. LSU’s Michaela Rose, the 2023 NCAA champ, had the fastest time of the day – 1:58.95, an NCAA meet record, just ahead of Duke’s Lauren Tolbert, 1:59.39.
BYU’s hopes for the team race suffered a setback when Carlee Hansen and Riley Chamberlain failed to advance out of the semifinals of the 1,500-meter run. They both ran in the first of two heats, and it proved to be a slow one — so slow that all 12 women were bunched in a tight pack with a lap to go. It turned into a 100-meter sprint to the finish and Chamberlain and Hansen placed sixth and seventh, with times of 4:12.28 and 4:12.35 — about four seconds faster than they ran two weeks ago in the prelims. Northern Arizona’s Maggie Condon won the heat with a relatively slow time of 4:11.04.
The top five in each heat automatically advanced to the final, but the next two fastest times overall also would advance, leaving the door open for Hansen and Chamberlain. But the BYU duo’s hopes vanished when the next heat was much faster. Seven women in the second heat ran under the winning time in the first heat. Chamberlain and Hansen finished 14th and 15th overall, respectively.
In other local developments, Utah Valley’s Kelsi Oldroyd, a senior from Cedar City, claimed eighth place and first-team All-America honors in the javelin with a throw of 184 feet, 11 inches.
In the only final on the track, Utah’s Morgan Jensen and Mckaylie Caesar finished 19th and 20th, respectively, in the 10,000-meter run with times of 33:11.05 and 33;34.36.
Utah State’s Shelby Jensen claimed an automatic qualifying spot in the steeplechase by finishing fifth in the first heat, 10th overall. Her time of 9:38.01 was a whopping 10 ½ seconds faster than her personal record.
BYU’s Tessa Buswell finished 21st overall in the 800-meter run to conclude a tremendous freshman season in which she became the eighth fastest in school history with a time of 2:02.26.
Utah’s 4 x 100 relay team of Meagan Rose, Emily Martin, Bailey Kealamakia and Chelsea Amoah was 17th in the semifinals with a time of 43.86.
BYU’s Gretchen Hoekstre was 24th in the shot put with a throw of 52-1 ¼.
