St. Louis area athletes put their best foot forward at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon last weekend.
Sophomore middle distance standout Brandon Miller of Texas A&M finished in third place in the 800-meter run. The former John Burroughs star recorded his best time of the season with a 1 minute 45.09 second performance. It earned him a second consecutive top three finish at the Nationals. Miller finished second last year. He earned a second All-American medal by running a leg on the Aggies’ 4×400-meter relay that finished in fifth place. Miller turned in a split of 45.05 seconds on the third leg.
  Miller’s performance in Oregon capped another outstanding season. He was the national champion in the 800 meters at the NCAA Indoor National Championships and a repeat champion at the Southeastern Conference meet as well. He is also the two-time indoor SEC champion in the 800.
Former McCluer North standout Lance Lang of the University of Kentucky earned an All-American medal as a member of the Wildcats’ 4×400-meter relay team. Lang helped the Wildcats to a sixth-place finish in the finals, helped set a new school record in the process. The Wildcats also finished second in the 4×400 at the recent SEC Outdoor Championships. Lang is among Kentucky’s top sprinters, earning All-American status in multiple events during his career. He was an Indoor All-American in the 60-meter dash in 2020, the 200-meter dash in 2021 and 2022, and the 4×400 in 2020-22.
Former Belleville West star LaQwasia Stepney of Nebraska earned Second Team All-American status in the women’s long jump in her first appearance at the NCAA Championships. She finished in 13th place in the finals. Stepney also finished second in the long jump at the Big Ten Championships in Minnesota, which was an improvement over her 18th place finish last season as a freshman. Stepney was a former Illinois state champion in the long jump and hurdles during her career at Belleville West.
Former Nerinx Hall sprinter Courtney Williams of Clemson earned a Second Team All-American medal as a member of the Tigers’ 4×400-meter relay team that finished in 16th place. Williams ran the anchor leg to earn her first All-American medal. She also helped Clemson to a second-place finish at the Atlantic Coast Conference championships in the 4×400. She also finished in sixth place in the open 400 at the ACC meet.
Former Hillsboro High multi-event talent Isaiah Martin of Purdue finished in ninth place in the decathlon to earn Second Team All-American status for the second consecutive season. Martin scored 7,708 points, which was a career best. He has earned All-American honors for the fifth time in his career at Purdue.
 Former Brentwood High field star of the University of Missouri finished ninth in the women’s javelin to secure Second Team All-American honors. She had a seasonal best throw of 176 feet 9 inches on her final throw of the competition to secure her spot on the All-American team.Â
 Another pair of area sprinters who competed at the NCAA meet were Justin Robinson of Arizona State and Madison Fuller of Vanderbilt. Robinson, a former Hazelwood West star, qualified in the 400-meter dash and earned Honorable Mention All-American honors. Fuller is a former John Burroughs standout who earned Honorable Mention All-American honors as a member of Vanderbilt’s 4×400-meter relay.
 *Courtney Ramey is headed to Arizona
 On the men’s college basketball front, former Webster Groves standout Courtney Ramey will play his final year of collegiate ball at Arizona as a graduate transfer. Ramey enjoyed an excellent four-year run with Texas, where he was one of the top defensive players in the Big XII Conference. In four seasons at Texas, he averaged 10 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.9 assists in addition to his defensive prowess. He finished with 1,275 points, 445 rebounds, 358 assists and 125 steals while shooting 36 percent from 3-point range and 73 percent from the free throw line. Arizona was the regular season and postseason tournament champion of the Pac 12 Conference and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. As a high school star at Webster Groves, Ramey led the Statesmen to back-to-back Class 5 state championships in 2017 and 2018.
