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That record-breaking time he had in Ogden got him to Eugene after all.
 
Eastern Washington University track and field standout Parker Bowden has received and accepted an invitation to compete on Friday, June 25, at the United States Olympic Team Trials at historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
 
Although he came up short in his bid to advance to the finals of the NCAA Championships in Eugene, his school-record time of 13.58 –second-best all-time in the Big Sky Conference -- was good enough to rank him 21st among the entrants and secure an invite to the trials.
 
The automatic qualifying standard is 13.48 and 14 of the competitors met that standard, but officials are in the process of accepting non-qualifiers to fill a maximum field of 32. The trials are used to determine the representatives for the United States in this summer's Olympic Games in Japan.
 
"The trials have been the goal since the beginning of the season," said Bowden. "Having the opportunity to race the best in the country is exciting. I'm happy to get another competition in this year after the performance I had in Texas."
 
Bowden, a graduate of Spokane's Central Valley High School, won EWU's first-ever Big Sky title in the high hurdles with a 13.58 time on May 15 in Ogden, Utah., to earn the meet's male Top Performer honor. His effort broke the meet record of 13.68, and was just .16 from the Big Sky all-time mark of 13.42.
 
"In Parker being selected for the US Olympic Track & Field Trials, the specialness of his season was revealed," said Eastern head men's coach Stan Kerr. "It was saddening for him to not run at the finals of the NCAA Championships, but being selected to race in the trials starts an adventure for him with many, many possible outcomes. The EWU track & field coaching staff, athletic department and university is abundantly proud of Parker, and knows he is ready for this Olympic adventure."
 
Twice previously he earned All-Big Sky Conference honors with a top three finish at conference championship meets, but both of those came indoors. He was fifth in the hurdles the first time he competed at the Big Sky outdoor meet in 2018. Before the Big Sky Championships, he previously had a top time this season of 13.87 to rank 40th nationally and shatter the previous school record of 14.23. Entering this season, his own best was 14.25 (14.34 non wind-aided).
 
Bowden came a race away from advancing to the finals of the NCAA Championships. He finished sixth in his heat with a time of 13.94 in the quarterfinals at the NCAA West Regional in College Station, Texas, finishing with the 19th-fastest clocking among the 21 who finished their races (three false started). He would have had to finish in the top three in his heat or have a time of 13.69 or better to advance to the finals at Hayward Field. Three days earlier, he was second in the preliminaries with a time of 13.85 to automatically advance to the quarterfinals.
 

 
More on Parker Bowden . . .

 
Bowden is a second generation member of his family to compete for the Eastern track and field program. A former competitor for his father, Chuck Bowden, at Central Valley High School in Spokane, Wash., Parker has been among the top high hurdlers in the league since transferring from Community Colleges of Spokane. His father was a thrower at Eastern in the late 1980's, so hurdling wasn't necessarily in the family genes.
 
But the 110-meter hurdles has been for Parker, and he's the best in EWU history. Earlier this season he set the school record in that event, but his lasting legacy at Eastern is way beyond that. He's won Big Sky Conference All-Academic honors five times in his career (six when this year's teams are announced in late June or early July), and is currently working on his master's degree in business administration. He has a 3.96 grade point average in that program after previously earning his bachelor's degree in marketing.
 
"Parker is a great teammate," said long-time Eastern head coach Stan Kerr. "From his methodical warmup, diet and sense of humor, to his being a dedicated student of the sport, his competing at this high level of sport is an example to others. He serves as a solid testimony to being in the here-and-now, and doing everything you need to do in order to be successful at the NCAA Division I level."
 
After a pair of All-Big Sky Conference honors with top three finishes at conference meets indoors, Bowden came into his second try of his career outdoors hoping to compete for the league title. He had a school-record time of 13.87 on March 27 in Missoula, Mont., setting the stage for his championship performance and record-shattering 13.58 time on March 15 in Ogden.
 
"The school-record performance for Parker is something that represents a lifetime of work in the event," said Kerr. "He's a fifth-year student, has been through injuries, is in graduate school maintaining a near-4.0 grade point average, and he works. There's a lot on his schedule, so to come out with a blazing time like that, it set him up well for the rest of the outdoor season."
 
He became EWU's first-ever Big Sky champion in the 110 hurdles, with a total of six other former Eagles finishing in the top three. The last came in 2014 when Steven Warner finished second. Earlier this season, Bowden broke Warner's school record of 14.23, set at the league championships that season.
 
In his first outdoor campaign in 2018, Bowden finished fifth in the high hurdles (14.25). Most recently, at the 2020 Big Sky Indoor Championships, Bowden's had a 7.94 clocking in the 60-meter hurdles to place third. This year's indoor championships were canceled because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but Bowden didn't have any indoor eligibility remaining anyway.
 
In 2019 indoors, Bowden was fourth in the league (8.07). In 2018, in his Big Sky debut season, Bowden was the runner-up (8.00). Bowden holds the school record in the 60-meter hurdles with a 7.94 time in 2020.
 
Chuck Bowden received his degree from Eastern in 1991 in education after competing as a thrower for the Eagles. Formerly from Prosser, Wash., he has since gone on to a successful teaching and coaching career, including serving as President of the Washington State Track & Field Coaches Association.
 
The Bowden's are actually one of three second-generation families in the Eagle program.
 
The father of freshman pole vaulter Brayden Freitag is Todd Freitag, who in 1988 won the Big Sky Conference indoor title in the pole vault and the outdoor title in the decathlon. He ranks sixth all-time at EWU with a pole vault of 16-7 that season, and he's fourth in the decathlon with 6,599 points. Both of those marks stood as school records for more than 10 years (12 for the decathlon, 17 for the pole vault).
 
Freshman sprinter Samiah Kuntz out of Spokane's  Lewis & Clark High School is actually a second-generation Eagle twice. Her parents are both former Eastern competitors from the 1990's, Greg Kuntz and his wife Celeste Kuntz (formerly Stutheit).
 
Greg Kuntz remains eighth on EWU's all-time best lists in the 3,000 steeplechase with a time of 9:15.9, and was also EWU's top finisher at the Big Sky Conference Cross Country Championships in 1994 (17th) and 1993 (29th). Celeste Kuntz (Stutheit) placed second at the Big Sky Conference Outdoor Championships in 1998 in the 100 to earn All-BSC honors, and twice she was named to the league's All-Academic team. In addition, she ranks fourth on the women's all-time list in the 100 outdoors (11.71), and is also sixth in the 60 meters indoors (7.67). She held the school record in the 60 meters for 10 years. In addition, she ranks on both lists in the long jump -- 18-9 to rank eighth indoors and 18-7 1/4 to rank 10th outdoors.