BATON ROUGE, La. — BYU's Michaela Mannova did just enough to stay with the pack through most of the race and made a big push over the final laps to pass the leader and win the national championship in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
Mannova finished in a new NCAA Championships record of 9:45.94 to give the Cougars back-to-back national titles in the steeplechase. Elizabeth Jackson won the steeplechase title last year for BYU.
After hanging with the pack for most of the race, Mannova moved to the front with three laps to go. Northern Arizona's Ida Nillson pushed past Mannova coming into the bell lap.
Mannova stayed with Nillson and made it a two-person race over the final lap. With just over 300 meters remaining, Mannova made a strong move to catch Nillson and passed her after going over the water hurdle. Mannova stretched her lead to three meters from there, easily winning the title.
"I felt good coming into the race, so I just went out and ran my race," Mannova said. "I was not sure I was going to win the race until the final 50 meters because I knew anything could happen."
Mannova's time is the top steeplechase mark in the world this year and breaks the Czech Republic record she set in heat races on Thursday.
Kassi Andersen, a freshman from Provo, earned All-America honors in the 1,500 meters, finishing in ninth place. On the bell lap, Andersen found herself in 11th place, but a strong finish over the final 300 meters saw the Provo High alum overtake two other runners to pick up the final All-America citation in the event. She completed the race in 4:18.27, just .04 from an eighth-place finish.
"I didn't feel as good as I did in the trials on Thursday, but I went out there and just ran as hard as I could," Andersen said. "When I made the push over the final 400 and passed a few people I thought I had done enough to score, but I just got passed at the end."
The Cougar women finished the NCAA Championships in a 10th-place tie with Illinois and Texas at 19 points apiece. South Carolina won the women's title, and LSU won the men's title.
Utah State's Joel Johnson was unable to finish the decathlon competition Saturday. Johnson sprained his ankle in Friday's long jump, the second event of the 10-event competition, and did not compete in the javelin or 1500-meter run, Saturday's final two events.
After eight events, Johnson, a junior from Brigham City, had moved into 12th place among the 18 competitors with 6,146 points.