NCAA DIV. III TRACK & FIELD - NATIONAL CHAMPION

Even going back to his high school days as a Medford Raider, there was always one thing certain about Joey Sullivan. If there was a race to be won, or even just a place to be achieved at the end of that race, you didn’t bet against him getting it. Now in his third year at UW-La Crosse, Sullivan saw his opportunity at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field National Championship on May 23 and seized it when he beat teammate Adam Loenser to the finish line and won the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase national title. Sullivan’s race plan worked to perfection as he comfortably paced himself with the pack until the last two to three laps when he moved into title contention. Of the 12-man field in the final, he clearly had the most left in the tank on the last lap and his competitive drive took over as he pulled away and won by a 2.03-second margin in 8:50.51. “It really was awesome, just to look up and have my whole team right in front of me,” Sullivan said of the moments after he won the race. “They ran over to the finish line, so they were all standing there. Obviously my parents were right there. It was really amazing to have all the support.” The 2022 Medford graduate moved up from a fifth-place national finish last year in this unique distance event where male runners must clear 28 3-foot barriers during the race and seven water jumps. A 3.66-meter long water pit exists behind a hurdle. Unlike hurdles, the normal barriers do not move. This was his second full year in the event. His national time was just a shade off his personal-best of 8:49.37, which he set last year, but, of course, in the national championship race, simply finishing first is the goal. Sullivan only finished sixth in the steeplechase just three weeks earlier at the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) championships at UW-Oshkosh in a time of 8:57.57 and was third out of five UW-L entrants who finished in the top eight that weekend. That finish, Sullivan said, really wasn’t a concern going into the national meet, which was held May 22-24 at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio. “I feel like one thing we preach is one race doesn’t dictate another,” Sullivan said. “I took more of a shot at conference. I made a move with like three laps to go. I wasn’t really racing for much. I was like, this is another chance just to see if I could run a fast steeple time. So with a few laps to go I went hard and I just didn’t have it in my legs the last lap or two. It didn’t work out.” On May 14, Sullivan placed third in the 1,500-meter run with a personal-best time of 3:48.92 at UW-L’s Final Qualifier meet. “I ran 3:48 high, nothing crazy, but I felt really good doing it,” Sullivan said. “I closed in like a 60(-second lap) and I was like, ‘man, I haven’t closed like that in awhile.’ That felt really good. I knew conference didn’t matter. That’s not me. That’s not how I race. I had full confidence coming into nationals.” Sullivan came into the national meet with the second-best regular-season time among the 22 qualifiers, an 8:49.74 set in April at the Bryan Clay Invitational in California. Still, he said he had a little chip on his shoulder, feeling he wasn’t viewed as a title contender. “Maybe I wasn’t seen as the total front runner,” he said. “They never mentioned me. But in my eyes I’m always up there.” He won his preliminary heat on day one of the meet in 8:59.26. Late the following afternoon, in gray, cool and slightly windy conditions, he made sure people noticed. “It was awesome because the race really worked out exactly how I planned it in my mind,” Sullivan said. “I knew it wasn’t going to be super fast. No one took it, I was just chilling in the pack and with three laps to go, the Wartburg guy, Lance Sobaski, takes it. That was the first move. So I felt like I had to react. I got up, moved around and was able to sit on his hip for another lap. Maybe with 500 to go, I took the lead. “Then my teammate, Adam Loenser, came up around me,” he continued. “Then with 400 to go we kinda started moving. But I felt really good. It was one of those races where you haven’t felt like that in awhile and you feel really good. It was super nice. I owe it to my coaches for peaking me at the right time. It couldn’t have worked out better. With 350 to go, I was like I feel good, I can do this. I passed (Loenser) with 250 to go. I got clean over the water and then it was like, just don’t fall on that last barrier.” Sullivan cleanly cleared the last barrier, Loenser clipped the top of it and stumbled slightly. Regardless, Sullivan clearly appeared to be the one who was going to have the better finishing kick. “I was like I’m not celebrating before the finish because I’ve watched way too many videos of people celebrating and someone comes by,” Sullivan said. “That will not be me. I will not do that. I just put my head down, got to the finish line.” Sullivan’s title was just part of another big weekend for the nation’s most dominant Division III men’s program. UW-La Crosse easily repeated as national champions, scoring 84 points, while UWEau Claire was a distant second with 56. UW-Oshkosh was fifth with 39. UW-Platteville’s Caden Schneider was third in the steeplechase at 8:53, followed by Concordia-Moorhead’s Brady Goss (8:55.18), Pierce Young of New York-Geneseo (8:56.03) and Sobaski (8:56.47). Sullivan said he and the Eagles are already aiming high for next year’s meet, which UW-La Crosse will host May 21-23. That figures to be Sullivan’s last national meet as he is on track to graduate and pursue a career as a high school history teacher. Also this season, Sullivan was second in the steeplechase at the Washington University (St. Louis) Distance Carnival March 27 at 8:55.64. Sullivan was 10th in the 5,000-meter run at the Drake Relays April 23 with a time of 14:34.31. In that 1,500-meter run at UW-L’s Final Qualifier, he was 0.37 seconds behind winner Ignatius Fitzgerald of St. Olaf and 0.07 seconds behind his UW-L teammate Jayden Zywicki. “I’m loving (the steeplechase) more now,” he said. “It certainly helps you like an event when you do good in it. It is a lot of fun. I do enjoy it. I love practicing it. Next year the national outdoor is here. We’re really excited for that just because of how strong our team should be. We’re so good on the distance side. We’re hoping to come away with a lot of national titles.”