Kelsey Kinzer and the EOU women had another stellar meet.
NAMPA, Idaho – The Eastern Oregon University track and field team had captured eight event titles Saturday at the Northwest Nazarene University Open.
Eastern Oregon’s Kimmy Moore used a strong finish to drop a half second off her personal record (64.92) from last year and close to a second off her season best of 65.35 in the 400-meter hurdles to surpass the NAIA National Championship Auto-qualifying mark. More impressively, the sophomore broke the school record of 64.89 set by Katie Douglas back in 1996. Moore battled down the home stretch with College of Idaho’s Emily McCutchan to finish second.
Sarah Hanchett hit EOU’s other NAIA Auto-qualifying mark in the women’s 800 meters. Running in her first open 800 of the season, the freshman dropped almost four seconds off her high school PR of 2:18.2 to finish second with a time of 2:14.54. She ran a very even race, running the first 400 in 67.2 seconds and the second one in 67.3 seconds.
In other women’s action, Alma Garcilazo was a double winner, in the 400 meters (58.16) and the 200 meters (26.22). Moore won the 100 Hurdles (15.82), Grace Deboodt won the High Jump (5’1”) and Talissa Baldovino teamed up with Hanchett, Garcilazo and Moore to win the 4x400-meter relay in 3:56.93. The later, was well under the NAIA Auto mark and ranks as the third fastest in school history behind the school record set at the 2009 Outdoor National meet and last week’s squad at the EOU Open.
McKinzie Anderson added to her outdoor season’s best in both the long jump (16’9 ¼”) and triple jump (34’7 ½”). Senior Marybeth Nash added a conference qualifier in the shot put to go with her earlier conference qualifiers in the discus and hammer throw.
The Eastern women added 10 new conference qualifying marks to the list of EOU qualifiers, four in just the 200 meters. In addition to Garcilazo’s winning performance, Grace Deboodt (26.86), Kelsey Kinzer (27.05) and Maddison Stapleton (27.10) all hit conference marks in the 200. Baldovino qualified for conference in the 400 (60.25), as did Kami Hernandez in the 800 (2:25.53) and Nancy Cardenas in her debut in the 3,000 meter steeplechase (12:16.70).
On the men’s side, EOU had three event champions in Chris Dilley in the Hammer (193’5”), Ryan Booth in the 400 (50.05) and Drew Wise in the 200 (23.06).
Dilley also had one of three new conference qualifying marks for the Mountaineer Men with his shot put throw of 44’ 6 ¾”. Brian Bragg (10:07.81) and Zach Seely (10:27.76) were the other pair of qualifiers in the steeplechase. Bragg ran his first one of the year and Seely his first one ever.
Other men’s highlights included Dustin Cloud (15.79) for second in the 110-meter hurdles, Kody Coxen dropped 19 seconds off his previous best in the steeplechase (10:03.76), and Andy Munsey hit a season best in the shot put (45’ 3 ½”).
The Mountaineers await to see if they have accepted applications in this year's Oregon Relays which run Friday and Saturday. The college sections at this year's event are very limited. Announcements of accepted applications will be announced Monday. Eastern will send athletes to the Pacific Twilight on Saturday too. This will be the final tune up prior to the Cascade Conference championships on May 13 to 15.