For the first time in the five-year history of the Bellevue University distance running program, the Bruins will be represented by two men in the 2023 NAIA National Indoor Track Championships on March 2-4 in Brookings, S.D. Saba Khvichava and Richard Marcoux will line up for the semi-final races in the mile run on Friday, March 3, on the campus of South Dakota State University.
Both men are new transfer student-athletes at BU this year, coming from vastly different backgrounds. Khvichava, a native of Poti, Georgia on the shores of the Black Sea, came to the United States and enrolled at Cloud County Community College in Kansas. There he had an outstanding junior college record including an outdoor track national championship as part of the 4 x 800-meter relay and a runner-up finish in the steeplechase in 2021. He transferred to NCAA Division II Academy of Art in San Francisco, where he recorded personal bests on the track of 3:49.81 in the 1500 (4:08 mile equivalent), and 8:50 in the 3000-meter steeplechase, qualifying for the D2 outdoor track championships. During his first competitive season at BU this winter, Khvichava brought home four gold medals from the NSAA indoor track championships with individual wins in the 800, mile, and 3,000 while also anchoring the winning 4 x 800 relay team. He was named the meet's outstanding male athlete on the track, another BU first.
Marcoux, on the other hand, is a local product who attended Omaha North High School. After recording a modest mile best of 4:48 as a junior, COVID canceled his senior track season, and he enrolled at North Iowa Area Community College. There he improved his mile best to 4:41. Following graduation from NIACC, Marcoux looked to return to the Omaha area, where he enrolled at BU and was the team's top cross country runner this fall. He returned from the recent NSAA Indoor Track Championships with a gold in the 4 x 800 relay and a silver medal in the mile.
Both men achieved NAIA national meet qualifying times, with Khvichava doing it early in the season and ultimately running an outstanding 4:13.89 clocking at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invite. After three tries at the standard, Marcoux achieved the mark at the final regular season meet at Concordia, running 4:20.14, a stunning 21 seconds under his personal best from a year ago.
"I told Richard after he qualified that the stars had aligned to get him to nationals," said Head Coach Craig Christians. "The fact that Coach Barbosa was here with his world-class experience and training plan, Saba had transferred, giving him a guy to chase, and now we had the Offutt Fieldhouse to practice indoors all contributed. His teammates, of course, were contributors to his success, too. Ultimately, it was his hard work that got him there."
Twenty men have qualified for the mile championship, with Bellevue being one of two schools with two entrants. Two semi-final races will be run, with the top three finishers from each section and the next four fastest times advancing to Saturday's final.
It's been a record-breaking indoor season for us thanks to all of our six guys," said Christians. "Saba and Richard have the fitness and confidence to represent us well, and I know they'll do that."
