CCC Champs kickoff with Multi-Event Championships on Thursday
GRESHAM, Ore.—With the Cascade Collegiate Conference track & field championships just over two weeks away, several teams will look to secure early points as the league’s multi-event championships will take place April 24-25 at Mt. Hood Community College’s Earl Klapstein Stadium.
Hosted by Warner Pacific College and Concordia University, 13 women will be taking part in the CCC heptathlon championship while nine men will vie for the decathlon title.
Action gets underway on Thursday with the men’s 100-meter dash at 10 a.m. The women, meanwhile, begin with the 100-meter hurdle competition at 10:10 a.m.
Friday’s festivities will kick off at 9 a.m. with the men’s 110-meter hurdles and the women’s long jump at 9:15 a.m.
Decathlon Preview
Four of the top eight finishers from a year ago will return to the decathlon field in 2014, including returning champion Austin Basterrechea, who will be looking to become just the third CCC performer to complete multiple titles in the 10-event competition.
After a runner-up finish as a sophomore, Basterrechea dominated the competition last season by compiling 6,933 points, winning by a whopping 899 points in his junior season. His tally was the third highest total in meet history, just behind Robbie Haynie’s (EOU) 7,112-point sum and Ross Kennedy’s (SOU) conference-record 7,355 tally set in 1997.
Basterrechea’s closest completion in the two-day gathering looks to be Concordia’s Jordan Reeher. Reeher posted a 6,052-point total in his decathlon debut last month and represents the only other CCC competitor to break the 6,000-point plateau so far this year.
Three other point scorers from 2013 will be joining Basterrechea as Oregon Tech’s Anthony Padilla and the Corban duo of Jordan Hatfield and Taylor Wilkins will also be joining the fray. Padilla placed fourth a year ago with 5,613 points and upped his season best to 5,790 points this year for a No. 3 ranking in the CCC.
Hatfield and Wilkins placed fifth and seventh last year and are currently ranked No. 4 and No. 6 in the CCC with both athletes already surpassing their 2013 CCC total by several hundred points this season.
Four CCC decathletes hold own top-20 marks in the NAIA with Basterrechea leading the pack at No. 4 nationally. At No. 9, Reeher also breaks the top 10 with Padilla and Hatfield close behind at No. 16 and No. 20 on the NAIA performance list.
Heptathlon Preview
Returning champion Jasmine (Sibert) Hurd will be the favorite once again while competing for College of Idaho. With a 4,473-point sum, Hurd won the heptathlon by over 400 points last season after finishing in third place as a sophomore.
Not only looking to become a three-time All-CCC performer in the event, Hurd will also be eyeing the CCC meet record total of 4,818 points set by Southern Oregon’s Jill Carrier during the 1995 season. Carrier also holds the all-time CCC mark with a 5,108-point sum set in 1998.
Pushing Hurd through the seven-discipline competition will be Concordia’s Holly Pfaff and SOU’s Amelia Maguin. Pfaff, a junior transfer to CU, is ranked No. 2 in the CCC performance list with 4,118 points while Seguin, the third-place CCC finisher a year ago, is ranked No. 3 at 4,986 points.
Corban’s Jenny Harman joins Hurd and Seguin as one of three returning athletes to score during the 2013 heptathlon championships, taking seventh place last year while entering the meet ranked No. 8 this year.
In the national performance lists, Hurd is ranked No. 8 in the NAIA and is followed by Pfaff and Meguin at No. 14 and No. 15, respectively.