PERFECTION: Hoppel completes undefeated season with 800-meter national title

AUSTIN, Texas – Kansas junior Bryce Hoppel completed an undefeated season by winning the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field national title in the 800-meter run on Friday night at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas. The win moved Hoppel to a combined 19-0 in individual races during the 2019 NCAA indoor and outdoor seasons, and made him the first Jayhawk to win an outdoor championship in the 800 meters.

The win for Hoppel came with a personal-best performance of 1:44.41, which proved to be a Mike A. Myers Stadium facility record, the No. 2 time in Kansas track & field history behind only Jim Ryun’s 880-yard converted time of 1:44.3 seconds set in 1966, and the No. 5 all-time collegiate mark.

Hoppel’s national championship gave him a sweep of the 2019 NCAA 800-meter titles, as he was also the indoor champion in March. The sweep makes Hoppel the fifth men’s athlete in the last 10 years to win both the indoor and outdoor NCAA 800-meter crowns in the same year. The outdoor title also gives Hoppel his second-career outdoor First Team All-America honor.

The Kansas men’s team totaled 21 points to place 14th in the team standings, which was the highest finish by the KU men’s program since an 11th-place finish in 2017. Hoppel’s title gave the Jayhawks 10 points, and junior Gleb Dudarev added eight to the team total with a second-place finish in the hammer throw on Wednesday, while freshman Zach Bradford added three points with a sixth-place finish in the pole vault on Wednesday as well.

Along with Hoppel’s title on Friday, freshman Treyvon Ferguson posted a 10th-place finish in the triple jump to earn Second Team All-America honors. Ferguson notched a personal-best mark of 16.18 meters (53-1 ft.) to become the No. 5 performer in the event in Kansas men’s history.

Sophomore Alexandra Emilianov will conclude the Kansas action at the NCAA Track & Field Championships on Saturday as she competes in the discus, scheduled for 5:05 p.m.