Reigning NCAA Steeplechase Champion Drops Five Seconds Off Previous Best Set At Last Year's National Outdoor Final; South Carolina's Salma Elbadra Moves Into Top 5 Collegiate All-Time 1500m List

By Keenan Gray of DyeStat

Tavan Smith photo

In just a short time, Doris Lemngole has taken the women's collegiate steeplechase to a world-class level.

Friday afternoon in Winston-Salem, N.C. she added to the legacy she's built in less than two years.

The Alabama sophomore knocked five seconds off her own collegiate record in the steeplechase, running 9 minutes, 10.13 seconds at the Wake Forest Invitational to win by 17 seconds over the invitational field.

Lemngole broke the collegiate record in the steeplechase the first time at the NCAA Outdoor Championships last spring in Eugene, Ore., running 9:15.24 to best Courtney Wayment's time of 9:16. 

Sophie Novak, a Notre Dame student-athlete competing unattached, finished second in 9:27.97. NC State's Angelina Napoleon ran an NCAA No. 3 time of 9:29.20 to finish third.

South Carolina's Salma Elbadra produced the fifth-fastest time in collegiate history in the women's 1,500, winning the invitational section in 4:05.85.

Villanova's Marco Langon dropped a 53.86 second final 400 to win the men's invitational 1,500 in a facility record 3:37.25, shattering Tom Lancashire's time of 3:42.13. 21 athletes total were under the facility record.

Toledo's Laura Nicholson finished second in 4;07.17 and Eastern Kentucky's Bahiya El Arfaoui finished third in 4:07.31. Both are fourth and fifth in the NCAA, respectively.

NCAA indoor champion Makayla Paige of North Carolina ran an NCAA No. 6 time of 2:01.11 to win the women's invitational 800.

Virginia Tech's Christian Jackson and Wake Forest's Rynard Swanepoel were separated by two thousandths-of-a-second in the men's invitational 800, with Jackson winning in 1:46.36 for the sixth-fastest time in the country.