BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Samford University's track and field team competed at and hosted the 2019 Southern Conference Outdoor Championships on Saturday and Sunday at the Samford Track and Field Complex.
 
The Samford women's track and field team won their first conference outdoor championship since 2017 while the men finished as narrow runner-up's to Western Carolina and saw two athletes win individual awards when Maggie Johnston was named the 2019 Most Outstanding Athlete and Amanda Dumar was named the winner of this year's Pinnacle Award.
 
The women's team totaled 228 points to take the championship, finishing 102 points higher than the next team (Wofford). Samford's men's team finished with 169 points, second only to defending champion Western Carolina's 186 points. The Catamounts overtook the Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon of the meet.
 
The meet started on Saturday with the finals of both the men and women's 10,000-meter runs. Samford had just one compete on the women's side. Freshman Mary Kellison Thorne finished 12^th overall in the event with a time of 39:51.76. For the men, only Dillon Dean earned points toward the overall total. Dean finished fourth with a 31:05.92-minute time and earned five points. Senior Paul Richardson also competed for the Bulldogs and finished 11^th with a time of 32:53.80.
 
The multi events began on Saturday and finished on Sunday morning. Samford's Thomas Ozburn competed in the men's decathlon. Ozburn set a SoCon meet record in both the 100-meter dash and the long jump of the decathlon with a 11.53 second and 6.93-meter distance performance in the events respectively. Ozburn took wins in each of those events as well as the men's discus throw and the men's high jump. The sophomore finished with 6,343 points and a second-place finish.
 
Samford's Erin Hines and Amanda Dumar competed for the Bulldogs in the heptathlon. Hines finished fifth with 4,465 points and Dumar finished ninth with 2,481 points. Hines finished inside the top three in three different events.
 
On the track, Hannah Lueders of Samford qualified for the finals of the 100 and 200-meter dashes. She finished fifth overall in the 100-with a 12.04 second time and finished fourth overall with a 24.26 second time in the 200-meter. Emmanuel Tait qualified for the finals of the 100-meter and went on to finish second in the event with a 10.62 second time on the men's side.
 
Freshman Vada Samuels finished sixth in the 400-meter dash, earning three points, after posting a time of 57.54 seconds. For the men, Jordan Woodbine placed fourth overall to earn five points for the Bulldogs. The freshman finished in 49.04 seconds in the finals.
 
Two Bulldogs advanced to the finals of the 800-meter run. Juniors Veronica Lyle and Shian Mallory each earned points in the event. Lyle ran the event in a 2:11.91 time to gain six points and finished third, while Mallory ended with a 2:14.48 time and earned one point in eighth place. For the men, freshman Seth Corey advanced to the finals where he placed sixth and earned two points for Samford. Corey finished the event with a time of 1:55.67.
 
Mallory also competed in the 1500-meter along with senior Karisa Nelson and sophomore Mary Grace Strozier. Mallory finished seventh with a 4:33.00 time, Strozier finished fourth with a 4:28.81 time, and Nelson set the meet record in the event as well as becoming the conference champion with her 4:18.52 time. Strozier also competed in the 5,000-meter, placing fourth with a 17:43.41 time to earn five more points toward the Bulldogs' team total.
 
Owen Bailey of Samford advanced to the finals of the 1500-meter in the men's division where he placed eighth and earned a point for the Bulldogs after a 3:56.72 time. Dillon Dean, Ben Bryant and Ben Garner competed for the Bulldogs in the finals of the 5,000-meter. Each placed in the top ten as Dean finished fifth in 14:55.96 while Bryant finished ninth with 15:23.38 and Garner finished 10^th with 15:32.65.
 
Dean also ran the 10,000-meter event for Samford and placed fourth in 31:05.92 to earn five points toward the men's team total.
 
Garner, too, competed in another event when he ran the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Garner placed second overall in 9:18.97 minutes to earn eight points toward Samford's team total.
 
In the 100-meter hurdles event, Sarah Sanford and Lauren Beard placed to earn points for Samford. Beard finished seventh in 14.86 seconds and Sanford finished in 14.18 seconds to place fourth overall. Both Sanford and Beard also competed in the 400-meter hurdles event where they placed first and second in the event. Sanford won the event in 1:01.91 while Beard came behind her in second with a 1:02.08 time.
 
For the men in the 110-meter hurdles, it was a clean sweep and then some. Four of the top five finishers were Bulldogs. Tait ran and won the event with a 14.15 second time. Titus Moore and Michael McMahan finished behind him in second and third with times of 14.27 and 14.48 seconds respectively. Sophomore Jack McHugh capped it off in fifth in 14.91 seconds. The men's team earned a total of 28 points from the 110-meter hurdle event alone.
 
McMahan would also go on to compete in the 400-meter hurdles, where he won the event in 52.47 seconds. Junior Jordan Oballe and sophomore Warren Fitzpatrick finished fifth and sixth with times of 53.94 and 55.35 seconds.
 
The women's 4x400 meter relay team came in third with a 3:52.03 time to earn six points for Samford.
 
Perhaps the most exciting event of the day was the men's 4x400 meter relay. Samford won the event and ended Western Carolina's eight-year streak as Fitzpatrick leaned for the win to create a photo finish. Samford won the event by a thousandth of a second to take the 10 points away from the Catamounts.
 
In the field events of the meet, Samford had several top finishes. Junior Charlotte Krause finished first in the women's high jump with a height of 1.69 meters. Three more Bulldogs finished inside the top four of the event. Freshman Megan Elliott finished third overall with a height of 1.66 meters while senior Selena Popp and sophomore Tally Wilson tied for fourth with a 1.61-meter height. The four competitors earned a total of 25 points for the Samford women's team total.
 
Wilson also competed in the women's pole vault. She won the event with a vault of 3.78 meters. Fellow sophomore Jackie Barnes also put up a 3.78-meter height but finished second. The two tacked on eighteen more points for Samford.
 
Popp competed in the women's long jump with Hines, Caroline Huff, and Madeline Ballard. Popp was the highest finishing Bulldog at second with a 5.86-meter distance to earn eight points. Hines finished fourth with 5.79-meters, Huff finished seventh with 5.63-meters, and Ballard finished eighth with 5.55 meters recorded.
 
For the men, Keyth Fightmaster and Justin Stuckey saw the podium in the men's high jump. Each landed a 2.08-meter height and Fightmaster took home second while Stuckey took home third. Sophomore Matt Cahoon also earned points toward the Bulldog total placing fourth and earning five points.
 
Cahoon also competed in each of the throwing events for Samford. He placed fourth in the shot put with a distance of 15.13 meters, second overall in the discus with 48.56 meters, sixth overall in the hammer throw with 48.68 meters, and second overall in the javelin throw with 60.17 meters.
 
Juniors Hunter Schlatter and Jordan Oballe also earned points in the javelin throw placing seventh and eighth with distances of 43.73 and 43.53 meters, respectively.
 
Hugh Duggan won the men's pole vault event by half a meter. Duggan landed a vault of 5.20 meters to take the win and ten points for Samford.
 
Sophomore Morayo Bhadmos finished second in the women's triple jump with a distance of 12.08 meters. Krause also competed in the event and finished at 11.66 meters in fifth overall.
 
Samford's Maggie Johnston won the women's shot put event, the women's discus throw event, and finished second in the women's hammer throw behind Samford senior Tatiana Taylor. Her winning throw in the shot put was recorded at 14.35 meters. Johnston also set the conference meet record for the third consecutive in the discus throw when throwing for 51.40 meters – besting her own record from last year of 48.31 meters. After finishing in second of the hammer throw with a distance of 52.81 meters, Johnston alone totaled 28 points for the Bulldogs making her the 2019 Southern Conference Most Outstanding Athlete on the women's side.
 
In women's javelin, freshman Emorie Long took home her first conference championship. Long threw for 39.49 meters to win the event. Popp competed in the javelin as well and placed fifth after a distance of 36.07 meters.
 
Several athletes from the Samford track and field teams will compete to try and better their times and distances for the NCAA Regionals in the Tennessee Challenge on May 4^th in Knoxville, Tennessee.
 
For all news and results from the Samford University track and field program, follow @SamfordXC_TF on Twitter and @samfordxctf on Instagram.