EOU Women Rewrite Record Books at Boise Invite
Ben Welch
NAMPA, Idaho - Three EOU women’s school records highlighted a busy weekend for the Mountaineer track team here at the Boise State Team Invitational.
Leading the charge for EOU was freshman standout, Orie Gamez (RS-Fr, Oakridge, OR). Gamez out right set two of the records and had a hand in the third. First up for Gamez was the women’s 60 meter dash where she bested teammate Melisa Abesa’s (So., LaGrande) school record of 8.20 seconds, set in 2008, by .07 to run 8.13 seconds. Gamez then followed that up with a 200 meter indoor school record of 26.01 (a meager .03 off the NAIA Auto qualifying time), to break former LaGrande High Standout Mardee Potts’ school record set in 1990.
Gamez closed out the meet with teammates Kelsey Kinzer (Fr., Genesse, ID), Samantha Boyd (Fr., Oakridge, OR) and Kimmy Moore (Fr., Noxon, MT) in the 4 x 400 meter relay where the foursome broke the school record set in 2007 by just under 2 seconds.
Senior Sara Bates also had an outstanding day, shaving about 10 seconds off of her own personal record (PR) in the 800 to win her heat. Sara also came back with her fellow distance runners to record a PR by about 2 seconds for a 400 meter relay split and help the distance crew to the third fastest indoor 4 x 400 time in school history.
All in all, there were 11 marks achieved on Saturday that now appear on the EOU top five list for Indoor Track and Field.
On Friday, Senior Erin Ontko competed in the women’s Pentathlon, recording 4, out of 5, event PR’s.
Men
On the men’s side, there were a number of solid performances, including Quinten Baxter adding a provisional qualifying mark in the 35 pound weight to go with the auto qualifier in the shot put he hit earlier in the season.
Fernando Morales (RS- So., Hood River, OR) had a very good day running an Indoor PR in both the 800 to win his heat and for a 400 split on the 4 x 400. Andrew Wise (Jr., Vernonia, OR) also had a two PR day, as he recorded EOU top 5 marks in the 60 and 200 meters.
On Friday and Saturday, Ivan Staeheli (Fr. British Columbia, Canada) and fellow freshman Asa Miller (Spray, OR) competed in the Heptathlon, with Asa improving on his mark from last week and Ivan quite possibly hitting a score that will lift him into the 16 person field at the National meet. Ivan also finished 2nd over all against NCAA Div. 1 and 2 athletes.
Up Next
The NAIA Indoor National Championships will be held in Johnson City, TN on March 5-7th.