Allen stumbles, wins in Nike Nationals

By Justin Janssen '11

The Nike Track Nationals at legendary Hayward Field in Eugine, Oregon started when Devon Allen '13 stumbled in the 110 meter hurdles and the Brophy Broncos couldn't recover from Allen's disqualification.

Allen, who was projected to finish second, got off to a clean start, but looked like he overextended his left leg after the second hurdle.

Allen was off-balance, but he recovered and continued the race. He lost a little less than two seconds off his time, but it all went for not because Allen was disqualified.

Allen made up for the blunder later by surging to a first place victory in the 100 meter dash.

It was the oppositie of a wire-to-wire win for Allen, who only led the race at the finish.

At the midway point Allen was in 5th place, but a late surge gave him a tightly contested victory. The victor of the race could not be seen with the naked eye. Electronic times showed Allen crossed the finish line first.

Ironically, Allen stumbled this time too, but this time it was after the race.

Allen extended his body at the finish line ever so slightly to push ahead, but his extension at top speed forced him to the ground.

Allen needed every last step and extension because second place finished two milliseconds behind him.

"You know I just wanted to get out and PR," Allen said. "I didn't make up as many points (as projected) in the hurdles. I wanted to make up points for my team."

Scoring at the Nike Nationals Meet is in a decathlon format, meaning times, distances, and heights are converted onto a point scale.

Allen's disqualification in the hurdles earned 0 points for the Broncos, a blow that no team could recover from.

If Allen finished his projected 13.90 seconds in the race (1000 points), the Broncos finish 3rd out of 12. Instead they finished last.

Allen crossed the finish line at about 15.6 seconds, which would have given Brophy more than 700 points. This would have placed them 8th.

But Allen still has a bright future ahead of him as the record holder of 11 school events (100 meter dash freshman, sophomore, varsity; 200 meter dash freshman, sophomore, varsity; 400 meter sophomore, 110 meter hurdles sophomore, 4 X 100 meter sophomore, and freshman and sophomore decathalon.

Allen was also Brophy's leading track scorer in route to their first ever track state championship. He scored in four events at the state meet.

On the gridiron, Allen was Brophy's leading receiver in 2010 (915 yards 6 TD) and already has a scholarship offer.


Video of both races:

Allen stumbles in 110 hurdles- DQ

Allen wins 100 meter 10.75 - 919.05 points