On the last straightaway of the 2013 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Ashland’s Joe Horn looked up and saw what the Eagles had been seeing all day: nobody else was even close.

The men’s team dispatched perennial power Grand Valley State with ease, 199 points to 169. The women claimed runner-up with 109 points to GVSU’s 220.

“It just got done,” AU head coach Jud Logan, who was named GLIAC men’s coach of the year, said. “I’ll go back and look but I don’t know how. It just got done.”

The Eagles won conference championships in 15 different events, 11 on the men’s side and four on the women’s. The dominance at the Dwight Schar Athletic Complex was real, and it was contagious.

“Every boost that we get, it just bumps everybody’s intensity level up another one,” sprinter Jordan Hoppel said. “As a team, we train so hard together… We want it bad.”

At one point Friday, Ashland men won eight running events in a row. The only men’s race that was not won by an Eagle on the final day was the 5000 meters.

The women went a different route, claiming all of their championships in field events and the heptathlon.

The heptathlon, contested Wednesday and Thursday, helped set the tone for the rest of the meet. Junior Macy Caldwell claimed first with 4,947 points, just ahead of senior teammate Kendra Bassitt, who finished with 4,923 points. Sophomore Jennifer Bjelac was fourth with 4,756 points. That gave the Eagles a healthy 23-point start to the week.

“It’s amazing,” Caldwell said. “I mean, how else was it gonna feel? I’m excited. I’ve been trying to work for it all year and I’m happy that it paid off.”

Thursday also saw a dominant performance by senior Katie Nageotte in the pole vault. Nageotte won the indoor national championship in March, and she followed that up by setting a new NCAA Division II record with a vault of 4.44 meters (14-feet, 6.75-inches) at the GLIAC outdoor championships.

“Everything just lined up,” she said. “Everything felt good and I had it by a little bit. I didn’t touch it, which was awesome to know that I have more in me.”

The only points the men claimed Thursday came in discus. Junior Kyle Steinhauser reached the podium with a third-place throw of 52.77 meters. Chris Powell (fourth, 50.72m) and Clay Harris (seventh, 48.74) also placed.

Heading into Friday, the AU men sat in eighth place. While that was deceiving because of how many athletes were set for finals on the last day, it still meant the Eagles had a lot of work to do. All it took was a spark for them to catch fire.

Horn – the last AU athlete to cross the finish line Friday – was also the first to leave the starting blocks. He led off a winning 4×100 team consisting of Eric Thompkins, DeAndre Davis and Hoppel. Hoppel crossed the finish line in 40.55, sending a message to the rest of the field.

“We were just trying to get the ball rolling for everybody,” Hoppel said.

The next race was the 1500 meters, and Brian Baum brought home the second championship of the day with a time of 3:53.19. Jacob Sussman faded at the end but still held on for fifth at 3:54.88.

While the excitement was kicking up on the track, the throwing venue also featured some outstanding performances. Donald Duke started things off with a second-place finish in the shot put (17.12m). Dustin Porter also picked up a point by finishing eighth (16.93m).

The hammer throw is always one of Ashland’s strong suits, and Friday was no exception. Garrett Grey finished his last home meet a champion with a toss of 68.70 meters and Zac Ball turned in a personal best 62.29 meters to finish third.

“Everyone wants to be number one and I’m just fortunate to be the one standing on top,” Grey said.

In the men’s pole vault, Nate Kirk and Sean Doty channeled a little bit of the magic from the day before. Kirk came in seeded 14th but cleared 4.90 meters to win the title.

“I just turned my brain off and ran down the runway,” Kirk said. “As soon as I was upside down, I knew I had it.”

As soon as he stepped on the podium, the buzz that Ashland was probably on its way to a team title reached an all-time high.

“I was speechless,” he said. “I’ve never been speechless before. It was just the most amazing feeling to ever come over me.”

Doty, who battled back from an injury in the winter, took fifth (4.60m).

Another special performance came in the women’s high jump, where Jennifer Foster cleared six feet for the first time in her life to take first and set a new conference mark.

“It felt amazing,” she said. “I wasn’t sure, I hit it with my leg a little bit, but then I landed and it was just the best feeling ever.”

Other great field performances on the women’s side came in the triple jump, where Shaunisha Winter won with a mark of 12.22 meters, and in the hammer throw, where Kim Habeggar was third (57.06m), Cynthia Watt fourth (56.85m) and Jessica Bridenthal sixth (56.60).

Back on the track, the men were just getting started.

Elijha Owens continued his amazing season by setting a record in the 100 hurdles (14.04).

“How low can I go?” Owens said. “That’s my motto right now.”

Waquiem Comar was just behind in fourth (14.31), but he got his championship moment in the 400 hurdles (51.82). Owens was third (52.37).

No one had more championship moments Friday than Joe Horn. Along with his titles in the two relays, he also chased down a GLIAC mark in the 200 meters (20.84) and won the 100-meter dash by .01 over Tiffin’s Emmanuel Grembo.

“(Grembo) started closing at the end and I just had a little bit of an extra gear the last three steps to really lean him at the end,” Horn said. “He’s just … I’ve been scared of him.”

The senior who left for a year-and-a-half to try to play professional football was awarded GLIAC male runner of the year for his efforts. 

“That really helped me, made me a more explosive person,” Horn said. “…Hopefully, being a GLIAC champion will be on my name in the 100-meter dash and I’ll be able to use that as material to help me get back on a football team.”

In the 200, Keith Cleveland was right behind Horn in second (21.10), and DeAndre Davis (fourth, 10.66) and Thompkins (seventh, 10.85) each picked up points in the 100.

Nearly lost in the fray was the face-melting speed on display by the Eagles in the 400. The Eagles finished first, second and fourth, including the first career win by Cleveland (47.12).

“If I could have another Keith Cleveland, I would keep my job and be smiling for a long time to come,” Logan said.

Cory Lamar took second in 47.30 and Jacob Cook broke 48 seconds as well to take fourth (47.76).

Not to be outdone, Drew Windle and Tom Scott put on a show in the 800. Windle, the indoor national champion in the event, set a new personal best and conference record (1:48.04). The time was also the best in the nation this year.

“I feel great,” Windle said. “I’ve hit 1:48 four times now and I’m ready to run something pretty fast.”

Scott’s time –1:49.88 – is the second-fastest time in the country for Division II.

“Every day we’re out here training with the best,” he said. “It makes it so much easier. It makes it easy to run fast.”

Giving Windle and Scott their medals was Ashland track and field legend Jay Fabian. Fabian holds the school record in the 800, which he set in 1971 (1:47.54). It is one of the few marks Windle has yet to break in his first two years at AU.

“He’s a star,” Fabian said of Windle. “He will break my record someday. He didn’t today, thank goodness for the wind.”

By the time the 400 rolled around, the men had already clinched the team title. That didn’t stop the team of Cleveland, Lamar, Windle and Horn from setting one more conference record.

They led from start to finish, leaving everything on the track in the last event of the day.

“We knew we had the meet wrapped up, but it was all about leaving our legacy,” Windle said.