OKLAHOMA CITY (Dec. 31, 2018) – Landon Huslig put a bow on a remarkable track and field career in 2018 with what will go down as one of the seminal events in Oklahoma Christian athletic history.

The senior from Edmond earned three more All-America honors this year, none bigger than the NCAA Division II title in the 400-meter hurdles in May. The first Division II title in any sport in OC history ranks as the No. 1 story in OC athletics in 2018.

Huslig entered 2018 with two Division II All-America awards and doubled that total in March at the Division II Indoor Championships in Pittsburg, Kan. First, after barely qualifying for the final in the 400 meters, Huslig took full advantage and placed fourth in 47.54 seconds, just off his school record of 47.41 seconds, set in February.

A few hours later came the 4x400-meter relay and OC's quartet of Ian Colbert, Huslig, Sawyer Pehkonen and Austin Kruzich won their heat in 3:13.37, good for a seventh-place finish and All-America honors in the event for the second straight year. Pehkonen and Huslig ran on both OC squads.

Huslig just was getting started. His best event, the 400-meter hurdles, is run outdoors, and he entered that season coming off a third-place national finish in 2017. Three times during the regular season, Huslig lowered his own school record in the event, going as low as 50.32 seconds at the Oxy Invitational in Los Angeles.

Khallifah Rosser of California State-Los Angeles was the prohibitive favorite to win the title in the Division II Outdoor Championships in Charlotte, N.C., with a time seven-tenths of a second better than Huslig, who was ranked No. 2 on the national list. Rosser won his heat in 49.23 seconds, more than a second better than any other entrant, including Huslig, who won his heat in 50.65 seconds.

But two days later, in the title race, Rosser fell after hitting a hurdle on the first curve of the race, opening the door for someone. Huslig, only vaguely aware of what had happened, found himself in a fierce battle with Chad Miller of American International (Mass.) down the stretch for the title.

Huslig barely outleaned Miller at the finish line to win in 49.67 seconds – then fell down, breaking his arm. But in the jubilation, Huslig barely noticed and reveled as OC assistant coach Tony Wallace – who also was Huslig's coach at Deer Creek High School – presented him with the championship trophy.

Huslig's national title not only was the first by an OC athlete at the Division II level, it was the first ever won by a Great American Conference athlete in any sport. It was also Huslig's fifth career All-America honor.

His national title was the first by an OC athlete since 2014, when Austin Wallace won the decathlon at the National Christian College Athletic Association Outdoor Championships in Rome, Ga. It was the 37th individual or relay national title in the program's history, with the first coming in 1966, when Dick Gray won the NAIA long jump championship.

Huslig, a one-man OC team at the Division II meet, earned 10 team points with the win, giving the Eagles a 25th-place finish among the 112 schools represented at the meet.

Huslig's time was good enough to qualify him for the USATF Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, in June. He finished 17th – just .09 of a second from qualifying for the semifinals – at the biggest track and field meet of the season.  He is thought to be the first OC athlete to compete at the USATF meet since current OC assistant coach Jeff Bennett did so in the decathlon in the early 1970s.