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Nike Outdoor Nationals: Another title for Coombs, podium finishes for Vause, Wittenburg
Rio Rancho High School graduate Charlie Vause, right, and Organ Mountain High School graduate Corbin Coombs, middle, compete Thursday in the 5,000 meters at the Nike Outdoor Nationals/USATF U20 Championship in Eugene, Oregon. Coombs won the event while Vause finished third. The duo had the same finish Saturday in the 3,000 meters.
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Las Cruces track star Corbin Coombs on Saturday ran to his second national championship in the past three days.
The Organ Mountain High School graduate won the boys 3,000 meters at the Nike Outdoor Nationals/USATF Championships in Eugene, Oregon, clocking an 8:03.58 — more than a full second ahead of second place Paul Van Laningham of Kentucky. Coombs, who has committed to run for Wake Forest in college after first completing a two-year mission, won his first outdoor national championship on Thursday in the 5,000 meters.
Coombs’ Nike Elite teammate and fellow New Mexican Charlie Vause, the recent Rio Rancho High School graduate who will run for BYU in college, finished third (8:07.66) in the 3,000 meters — his second podium of the week after also taking third in Thursday’s 5,000-meter race
Albuquerque Academy’s Nicholas Ponte ran an 8:31.03 in the 3,000 meters, finishing 24th in a competition of the nation’s best runners under 20 years old.
Earlier in the day, Coombs ran a 1:51.40 in the 800 meters to finish 11th.
The winner of the 800 was 16-year-old Cooper Lutkenhaus of Justin, Texas, who holds both the indoor and outdoor national records in the 800 meters. Saturday, he clocked a 1:45.45 to break his own record by 0.81 seconds. Lutkenhaus ran a 1:46.26 on June 8, which then broke a 29-year-old record in the event.
Santa Fe High graduate Valin Wittenburg took third in the 400 meters with a time of 46.65.
Wittenburg, who will be running this coming season for UNM, clocked a 46.42 to a state high school record May 17 in the 400 meters and and earlier this month ran it in 45.66 at the Great Southwest Classic in Albuquerque.
St. Pius’ Bryan Thomas was 14th in the 400 (47.98) at the Nike Outdoor Nationals.
La Cueva’s Tanner Montaño, who last month tied a 55-year-old New Mexico high school record in the long jump at 23-feet, 3¼ inches wasn’t able to match that on Saturday in Eugene. His jump of 21-3½ (6.49 meters) was good for 24th place.
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Sunday’s final day of the event, held annually at historic Hayward Field, where last week’s NCAA Outdoor Championships were held, has plenty of New Mexicans competing, too.
Among them: Bryce Melton, Bryan Thomas and Wittenburg in the 200, Morgan James in the girls 400 hurdles, Ponte and Coombs in the boys mile, Portales’ Manny Chavez in the javelin, and the foursome of Montaño, Melton, Thomas and Wittenburg in both the 4x100 and 4x400 relays.
