COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - It was the international phone calls that helped bring Ryan Bugler to Saint John's University.

Bugler's father was in the Marine Corps, meaning Okinawa was home for much of his high school career. But the family spent a short time in North Carolina. 

And that's when he began reaching out to a number of schools.

"During that short stint we were there, I joined the high school track team and really loved it," said Bugler, a 2017 SJU graduate. "I knew I wanted to run in college, but I wasn't sure I was good enough so I knew I'd have to do the (recruiting) outreach myself. Since I didn't really have a home state, I picked two schools in every state at random and emailed them. Saint John's happened to be one of the schools I reached out to.

"We moved back to Okinawa and almost all that communication ceased. But (then-SJU head coach) Tim Miles was one of the few exceptions. He kept in touch. I can still remember him calling at off hours - like 8 a.m. my time. It made me feel like Saint John's was the place for me."

Miles' diligence paid off in perhaps the most unexpected national championship in SJU track and field history 10 years ago.

Unexpected because Bugler, then a junior, didn't even qualify for the NCAA Division III outdoor national field in the 3,000-meter steeplechase until recording a time of 9:08.50 at a Last Chance qualifier held at Wisconsin-La Crosse on May 19 of that year.

He entered competition at the national meet - held May 26-28 at Wartburg in Waverly, Iowa - seeded 17th in a 20-man field. But he finished fourth in his qualifying heat, earning a spot in the finals.

And from there, he went for broke.

"I remember walking off the track after prelims and seeing a couple of runners from (MIAC rival) St. Olaf, who were all national championship contenders in their own events," Bugler recalled. "I'd never even spoken to them before. I just knew who they were. One of them walked over to me and said, 'I think you're going to win.'

"That was a pretty unique endorsement from someone I didn't even know and it did a lot for my confidence. Tim and (teammate) Tommy Feichtinger (who was competing in the 1,500-meter run) were great too. They didn't outright tell me they thought I had a chance to win because they didn't want to add any undue pressure. But they did a lot to pump me up. There was just a feeling that everything was clicking at the right time."

That proved to be the case in the finals. Bugler was in sixth place out of 14 runners with three laps to go. But he worked his way up to third with two laps remaining, then made his move - crossing the line first in a time of 9:11.98 - two seconds faster than runner-up Jordan Carpenter of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

"Just because of where he came from to where he ended up, that one has to be the national championship that came the most out of left field," said Miles of Bugler's win - the fifth of now six national championships in program history, and the first since Darwin Dumonceaux's title in the shot put in 1999.

"He put everything together when he needed to most."

It was an accomplishment that also had a ripple effect on Bugler moving forward.

"One of the things I appreciate most about that is that it encouraged me to take a forward view of running competitively after college," said Bugler, who is now the director of Human Resources for a healthcare technology company in Greenville, S.C.

"In fact, I chose my first job out of college with running in mind. It led me to a mining company in Silver City, New Mexico. That, in turn, did two things. First, I met my wife Taryn at a dog park there and we now have a five-year-old son (Drew). Second, I was able to connect with a professional team sponsored by Asics that allowed me to focus exclusively on running for a couple of years. That's what brought me to South Carolina and the life we had now. It all started with winning that national title."

70 years ago (1956)
Don 'Beezer' Carlson, captain of the 1956 SJU baseball team, signed a pro contract with the Chicago Cubs.

90 years ago (1936)
Leander Wagner homered in the top of the 10th inning to put the SJU baseball team ahead to stay in a 4-2 win over Gustavus Adolphus on May 30 in St. Peter. The win gave the Johnnies the first MIAC title in program history and the first conference title of any kind since 1919.