Magic Moment: Three Southlanders, one US athletics meet
How big is big? The Texas AM football stadium can hold the combined populations for Otautau, Gore and Winton and Invercargill and still have a few seats left over.
Southland athletics has produced many magical moments so as part of a Tribune series we are recalling some of them. Today we turn the clock back to when three Southlanders all lined up the American NCAA Western Regionals in Texas.
It’s big, it’s huge, it’s the Texas A & M University campus that covers 5500 acres and has about 70,000 students.
It was also the venue for an athletics event almost as huge, the American NCAA Western Regionals where the top 48 from all the Western half of the United States compete to qualify for the NCAA finals, in Oregon.
Three Southlanders were there.
While remarkable as it seems having three Southlanders mixing with the best athletes in America, all the more remarkable is that all were from the same small Surrey Park training squad and had the same coach.
All three won athletics scholarships to American Universities.
The championships however did not go smoothly. Thunderstorms caused postponement of the second day and rearrangement of programme a day later to fit everything in.
First to compete was former Gore resident Hannah Miller in the 10,000, following up two days later with the 5000m. Hannah graduated with a degree at SMU in Dallas and is now studying for her masters and representing the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
She was however disappointed with both races, finishing way down compared to previous results, probably a legacy from health issues that plagued her earlier season. The times did not alter her No 1 NZ ranking in the 10,000 and second in the 5,000m
Jack Beaumont, originally from Winton and now a student of North Texas U (one of America’s top universities, located just out of Dallas) is studying for his masters in finance. Jack, a three times NZ rep at the World Mountain Running champs and NZ steeplechase champion, competed in the 3000m steeplechase.
His time of 8.53.58 placed him 18th.
As he said in a Facebook post: “Turned it up a gear for national prelims!! Ended the season on a big high with another personal best of 8:53 in the 3km steeplechase I went into the meet ranked 40/48 and finished 18th.”
This improved his top New Zealand ranking and increased his own university record by 3 seconds.
Atipa Mabogna from Otautau is studying at SMU and was at the Western Finals for the triple jump, the event that won her the athletic scholarship. Her 12.74 was not up to her 13.02 PB but is her second best of the season and kept her number 2 on the NZ rankings, just 4cm behind first.
How big is big? The Texas AM football stadium can hold the combined populations for Otautau, Gore and Winton and Invercargill and still have a few seats left over. NCAA athletics has the same impression of size.
While none of the Southlanders qualified for the NCAA finals in Oregon, achieving the second to highest rung of American University athletics is a long way from a small Southland town.
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