New Mexico's own Alex Heffelfinger ran clean over the barriers to win his second Great Southwest steeple crown in three tries. Photos by Alan Versaw.
That steeplechase factory better known as East Mountain High School continues to produce on the big stage.
For the second time in three years, East Mountain's Alex Heffelfinger held off some stiff competition and won the steeplechase crown at Great Southwest. This year's winning effort was also a PR effort of 6:12.13.
But, going over the last water jump, Heffelfinger's title was in serious doubt. After building a solid lead through four laps, Utah's Tracen Warnick was closing fast and threatening to overtake the local favorite.
Warnick, however, stumbled coming out of the pit and face planted on the track. That provided enough victory for Heffelfinger to preserve the lead and come away with a margin of victory of just over one second.
A few minutes earlier, Utah's Alison Pray had taken a fairly easy win in the girls steeplechase at 7:17.06. Pray overtook Oklahoma's Ashley Barnes on lap four and never looked back, winning by eight seconds.
During the heat of the afternoon, Joshua Hernandez of Texas chucked the US #7 hammer of 203-8 to win that competition. Hernandez just edged Jacob Slate of Arizona, who threw 201-8. The girls hammer title went the way of Utah's Maia Garren, with a heave of 151-0.
All other events on Friday after completion of the multis were relays. As such, some incredible performances went down--as might be expected with all-star relay teams. A 56.14 shuttle hurdle relay by the Texas 'A' team likely figures as the best of those relay marks.
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