Ewen produces in professional debut; Morris repeats as pole vault champion, Bougard bounces back from last year’s disappointment to capture heptathlon crown

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

DES MOINES – Maggie Ewen entered the USATF Outdoor Championships with a pair of NCAA Division 1 shot put titles and one giant asterisk in her mind.

Despite going unbeaten in 12 indoor and outdoor competitions against her peers, Ewen remained humble about the achievements during her final season at Arizona State, always wondering if the outcomes of those NCAA finals would have been different had Raven Saunders remained at Ole Miss for her final year of eligibility.

All those doubts were erased and any remaining uncertainty was put to rest Sunday at Drake Stadium.

Ewen, competing in a Nike kit as a professional for the first time, produced a fifth-round effort of 63 feet, 3.50 inches (19.29m) to surpass the first-round mark of 63-1.25 (19.23m) of Jessica Ramsey and capture her first U.S. national title. Saunders, last year’s champion, was third at 61-5.75 (18.74m).

“It’s awesome. It feels great. We’ve been wanting to compete against these women all year and this was such an amazing field, so I’m just so happy that I did what I did (Sunday),” Ewen said. “When you know you have that level of competition, it either brings out the best in you or the worst in you, and I think it brought out the best of what I had (Sunday).”

Neither Ewen or Saunders matched their season-best efforts from April, both marks among the top four in the world this year. But Ewen’s poise and patience resulted in four efforts of more than 60 feet, helping her become the first female athlete to win Division 1 and U.S. national shot put titles since Laura Gerraughty in 2004.

“This does a lot of good for my soul,” Ewen said. “It gives me a lot of confidence that even when it’s a very different meet than I’ve been to all year, a big meet and a bigger situation, I can still perform at that level, so it’s a very good sign.”

Sandi Morris repeated as pole vault champion, despite having the competition shortened because of a weather delay that lasted more than three hours.

Morris made six consecutive bars, the last being 15-9 (4.80m), before passing her attempts at 15-11 (4.85m) in order to take a shot at the world-leading mark of 16-2.50 (4.94m).

After one miss by Morris, officials ordered the competition to be halted because of threats of thunder and lightning within eight miles of the venue.

“It’s frustrating, but I just have to take the positives away from (Sunday). I came away with another U.S. outdoor title and I’m really proud of that and just excited about the season,” Morris said. “I was jumping really well. My technique felt great (Sunday), so this gives me a lot of confidence going into my upcoming competitions.”

Katie Nageotte, the reigning U.S. indoor champion, cleared 15-5 (4.70m) to place second after a seventh-place finish last year. Jenn Suhr, a 10-time champion, had a 15-1 (4.60m) clearance to make her 13th consecutive podium at U.S. nationals, the longest active streak by any American athlete in any event.

Following a seven-point setback last year to Kendell Williams, Erica Bougard rebounded to capture her first national title in the heptathlon with 6,347 points.

“When you lose by seven points, it’s fuel for any heptathlete because that’s literally a tenth of a second,” Bougard said. “If I had been a little bit faster in the 800 or a little bit faster in the hurdles or jumped one centimeter further in the long jump, it could have been just one thing, so that was all the fuel I needed and I came back even stronger (this year).”

Bougard built a 250-point advantage following the first day and didn’t have to sweat it out in the 800 like she did last year against Williams, leading all competitors by clocking 2:11.08. Alex Gochenour, fourth last year, placed second with 6,003 points.

“This has been a long time coming. A couple of years ago, I was getting third in this meet and every time, it seemed like there was something I needed to improve on,” said Bougard, who also has a pair of national indoor pentathlon titles.

“My throws weren’t as strong, but I’ve really been working on those the past three years and I’m glad it all came together. It’s nice to finally win a championship outdoors.”