Raevyn Rogers never fails to deliver on big stage

By Romaine Soh for DyeStat

In a pinch and you absolutely need to win the last event of the day to win a national championship?

Have no fear, Raevyn Rogers is here.

Less than an hour after winning her third consecutive 800-meter title at the NCAA Division 1 Outdoor Championships, Rogers was running the final leg of the 4x400 relay in a nail-biting showdown against archrival USC.

Entering the final event, Georgia was leading with 62.2 points, Oregon trailing with 54. The Ducks desperately needed a win in the relay if they wanted to complete the “triple crown,” a collection of NCAA titles from cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field in the same academic year.

“I hate to put this on you,” Oregon head coach Robert Johnson told the relay squad of Makenzie Dunmore, Deajah Stevens, Elexis Guster and Rogers prior to the race.

“But I also want to put it on you because I wouldn't want it to come down to any other group of girls on our team.”

As Rogers roared around Bowerman Curve, the crowd of 12,992 rose to its feet and cheered at the top of its lungs as two runners struggled to get to the finish line first.

Rogers clocked a 49.77-second split to hold off Kendall Ellis, the 400 bronze medalist who actually split 49.63, helping Oregon prevail in a collegiate record time of 3 minutes, 23.13 seconds.

USC clocked 3:23.38 as both teams dipped under the previous collegiate record of 3:23.75 set by Texas in 2004. But this time, Oregon’s name would be emblazoned at the top.

Rogers not only anchored a winning relay team, but also won the day. The 10 points elevated Oregon past Georgia by 1.8 points to win the women’s outdoor title and complete the historic triple crown. If Oregon had taken second in the relay, the Ducks would have fallen 0.2 points shy of their third outdoor championship.

That’s probably why Rogers let out a guttural roar of victory when she broke the tape, a strikingly similar reaction to the one she had back in 2015 when she won her first NCAA 800 title as a freshman in 1:59.71.

“It’s amazing,” said Rogers, now a junior, and a member of a combined four – two indoor, two outdoor – national team championships.

“It feels really good to be the first to ever do it. Coming in freshman year, I’d heard so much about the Men of Oregon. It needs to be the Women of Oregon.”

Rogers’ athlete bio showcases a bevy of achievements that are dominated with first- and second-place finishes. The lowest achievement listed is fifth, and that was when she was competing against the nation’s best at the 2016 U.S. Olympic trials.

At the collegiate level, she has never lost an 800 national final.

“She’s a heck of a competitor,” said BYU senior Shea Collinsworth, who has raced Rogers for the past three years, placing in the top five on four occasions in national championships.

“I feel like she’s helped everyone get better and motivate me to run faster and train harder. I’m very grateful for her.”

Rogers attributes her consistency to finding a balance between stressful moments, be it school or personal life, trusting her coaching staff and maintaining her usual routine.

Besides practicing her Christian faith, she keeps in touch with her family. She met her mother and three aunts, who have diligently traveled for her NCAA races the past three years, for breakfast Friday. Rogers called her grandmother, who was in Texas, immediately after her 800-meter win Saturday to update her.

Even before Rogers donned an Oregon singlet, she was initially shocked by how knowledgeable the Hayward crowd was when she won her first U.S. Junior title in 2014. What she didn’t expect, however, was just how invested they were in the sport, even tracking her yearly progression.

“I don’t think I could appreciate any more than I do now because I know for sure if we went somewhere else, they don’t have as many track fans as Eugene does. We’re all in this together,” Rogers said.

A key person in Rogers’ support structure is her training partner, Brooke Feldmeier. Rogers credited her multiple times this season for helping her post fast times, and Feldmeier finally got her own personal breakthrough by placing third in 2:01.54, as Rogers won her record fifth NCAA title, indoors and outdoors, in 2:00.02.

“It’s nice that we both could come out here and do good things (Saturday),” said Feldmeier, Rogers’ next-door neighbor.

If Rogers completes her final year of eligibility in the collegiate ranks, she could potentially become the first woman to sweep four outdoor 800 titles.

When asked Saturday whether she still had anything left to prove in her collegiate career before entertaining the prospect of turning professional, Rogers did not give away any information.

“I don’t know anything,” she said with a coy smile.