Mountie Track Teams Perform Well at EOU Mini Meet
LA GRANDE, Ore. -- Despite chilly weather, the EOU track and field team had a good day at the EOU track this afternoon. With weather hovering around 40 degrees (tops) EOU had several NAIA national qualifying marks and a couple of near misses in a low key, fun day (Treasure Valley Community College was the only other college participating, so meet officials split things into EOU Blue and EOU Gold to make things more fun).
The following are some, but not all by far, of the highlights.
Men’s throws
Newcomer Quinten Baxter continues to tear it up, setting yet another personal record and improving on his NAIA qualifying mark in the men’s hammer. Last week Baxter threw a lifetime best and surpassed the NAIA automatic qualifying mark by two fee. This week he improved by an outstanding nine feet with a throw of 177-0. Joining Quinten in the big-time improvement column in the hammer was Andy Munsey, who improved by another 12 feet after improving his PR by 10 feet last weekend. Munsey just missed the NAIA provisional qualifying mark.
Women’s field events
Sophomore Cayla Weissert followed up her Indoor national qualifying season by opening the outdoor season with a PR 11’6” in the pole vault to surpass the NAIA auto standard for the outdoor national meet. Also, freshman Rachel Jackson continues to put it together in the hammer, throwing about 10 feet better than last week in the hammer for the win today.
Track Events
Women: La Grande High product Melisa Abesa continues to run well, winning both the 100 and 200 today with solid marks. Hermiston High product Chelsee Harmon ran a strong 400 and a very good anchor leg on the never before run (here, and virtually anywhere else) 4 x 300 relay. Distance standout Marcella Bosch ran a strong and relaxed 1500 for the win and then dropped down to “play” in the sprints, running a good 200 and a very strong second leg on the 4 x 300 relay to put EOU in the lead.
Men: Running nice and relaxed in the 110 high hurdles, Chris Hoppie and Lucas Ohmes both destroyed their PR’s and ran considerably faster than they did to run 1-2 at the Cascade Conference meet here last May. Hoppie’s time of 14.85 barely missed the NAIA provisional nark of 14.84. In the men’s 1500, both Doug Benson, who ran a very even-paced race for a wire to wire win, and Jeff Roy ran to lifetime PR’s. In the shorter sprints, big Nate “Husky” Schmidt had another outstanding meet in the 100 and 200, lowering both of his PR’s -- not an easy feat in this kind of weather for a sprinter.
Overll, it was a satisfying performance. Considering the weather, the stress of finals week and some hard training cycles, the coaches are very excited about where the teams are at this point in time.
Up next is the Linfield Decathlon/Heptathlon in McMinnville, Ore., on Monday and Tuesday. Competing for EOU should be Cayla Weissert, Kasie Gillespie, Erin Ontko and Carla Hoppie in the heptathlon and Nathan Humphreys, Chris Hoppie and Lucas Ohmes in the decathlon.
The next full team meet will be at the Willamette Invite, April 4-5.