The results of the NCAA track and field championships had several East Valley graduates finding their way to the podium, including two national champions.

Perry product Taylor Lovell won the 3,000 steeplechase title for BYU, while Gibert’s Vance Nilsson brought home the 400M hurdles championship for Florida.

Two Williams Field products also came away with some hardware from the weekend in Eugene, Ore.

Arkansas junior Saira Prince finished third in the 400M hurdles, while Alyssa Colbert ran the first leg on Texas Tech’s 4x100 relay team that finished eighth.

Lovell came in with the third best qualifying time and pulled ahead on the last lap to set a PR by seven seconds at 9:21.03.

With 300 meters to go, Lovell overtook Notre Dames’s Sophie Novak and hit the finish line first.

“I did everything I wanted to do and followed the race plan,” Lovell told the Salt Lake Deseret News. “It was really fun!”

Nilsson, a former U20 world champion who set the national record in the 300 hurdles at 34.83 as a Tiger, has ninth best time in NCAA history at 48.06.

“As far as Vance goes, he had some personal things going on last year and I'm man enough to admit that I mismanaged his talent,” Floria coach Michael Holloway said on the Gators website. “We sat down, he gave me another chance and I'm glad he did because he showed the world who Vance Nillson really is."

In the 400m hurdles a career best of 54.36 placed Saira Prince third in the race as she remained No. 3 on the UA all-time list.

Comings and goings

After 28 years and 10 state titles, Mike Woods stepped down as the Hamilton baseball coach.

While it will be hard to replace him, the job has already been filled as Greg Bordes was selected as the new coach, just the second in school history.

After a prep career at Dobson, Bordes helped Arizona State to two World Series appearances in 2005 and 2007 and played two seasons in the Diamondbacks organization before turning to coaching.

He has been in the dugout at ASU, Grand Canyon and University of Arizona before taking over the Crismon program in 2022 when the school opened. The Ratters went 25-5 in 3A this past season.

Summer hoops

Now that Section 7 is over, there are still some games to be played as local teams head to Basha on Wednesday for the final week of the summer league.

Here is the schedule courtesy of Monarch Sports

4 p.m. – Basha vs. Willow Canyon

5 p.m. - Desert Ridge vs. Perry

6 p.m. - Casteel vs. Willow Canyon

7 p.m. - Basha vs. Queen Creek

8 p.m. - Williams Field vs. Mesquite

9 p.m. – Casteel vs. Perry