For the last 26 years the Shotwell Invitational has been one of the largest track and field meets hosted at the University of Puget Sound. The 26th Annual version certainly lived up to expectations. With twelve teams participating, the first field events kicked of at 10:00 a.m. and the final running event was scheduled for after 5:00 p.m. The marathon meet was full of strong performances as Logger athletes had the chance to measure up to a plethora of strong opponents.
At the end of the day the men finished in sixth place overall. Although they finished in the middle of the pack there were several notable performances. Sophomore Matt Klein (Portland, Ore.) ran the 5k in an impressive time of 15:54.80, good enough for fourth place in the event. Other distance runners who posted impressive performances included sophomore Anthony Charvoz (Sandpoint, Idaho) and freshman Lucas Sokolsky (San Mateo, Calif.) who finished in third and fourth place, respectively, in the men’s steeplechase.
Freshman Bryan Soto (Davis, Calif.) and sophomore Emerson Sample (Madison, Wisc.) each took home sixth place in the 800m run and 400m hurdles respectively. Sophomore Lukas Diesing ran a strong 100m race and finished in 11th place out of 31 competitors. Diesing was also a member of the Logger 4x100m relay team that crossed the finish line in second place.
On the women’s side, a number of top three finishes propelled the team to a fourth place finish overall. Andrea Leiken (Portland, Ore.) led the charge with a second place finish in the 400m dash, clocking in with a time of 59.51 seconds. Other top finishers included junior Marnie Hazlehurst (Portland, Ore.) who came in third in the 5k and sophomores Carrie Keith (Erie, Colo.) and Cara Gillespie (Boise, Idaho), who took first and second place, respectively, in the women’s steeplechase.
Other notable performances included junior Maggie Klee’s (Portland, Ore.) fourth place finish in the hammer throw and a second place finish for the women’s 4x400m relay team.
While track and field is often thought of as solely an individual sport, the Loggers understand that the big-picture goal is to bring home a NWC team title.
“As a team, we combine to score points. So we always go out and compete for both ourselves and for each other,” sophomore Myles McDonald (Vancouver, Wash.) said.
McDonald expressed his personal goals for the next two meets leading up to the NWC Championships.
“My individual goals are really to qualify for as many events as possible and always to compete,” McDonald said.
The teams will travel to Pacific University this coming weekend to compete in the Luau Invitational.