BOISE, Idaho — THIS DAY IN SPORTS…June 7, 2012, 10 years ago today:
Boise State’s Kurt Felix wins the national title in the decathlon at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Des Moines, IA. Felix, already ticketed to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London to represent Grenada, won the competition by 106 points. He see-sawed in and out of first place but ended on top thanks to career-best performances in the discus and pole vault and a win in the javelin on day two. Felix eclipsed the 8,000-point plateau for the first time in his career.
Felix became the fourth Bronco ever to win an individual event at outdoor nationals, joining Jake Jacoby in the high jump in 1984, Eugene Greene in the triple jump in 1991, and Gabe Wallin in the javelin in 2004 and 2005. He has since been joined by Emma Bates, who became the first Boise State female athlete to win a national outdoor title at the 2014 NCAA Track and Field Championships, taking the 10,000-meters. Bates was the most decorated track and field athlete in the sport in school history to that point. She’s been elected to the Boise State Athletic Hall of Fame and is still waiting for the COVID-delayed induction ceremony.
Then along came Allie Ostrander with her historic three-peat in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Ostrander is the only women ever to win win three consecutive national championships in the event. The first one came just months after Ostrander had added the steeple to her distance-running repertoire.
Allie Ostrander update: now running out of Seattle, she won the 44th Freihofer’s Run for Women in Albany, NY, Saturday. The significance of that? It was her first race in a year. Last June, Ostrander shared her struggles with an eating disorder and took a hiatus from the track after finishing eighth in the steeplechase at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Allie’s only been training again for three months, but she won Saturday’s 5,000-meters race by 27 seconds.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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