Last weekend the men’s and women’s track & field teams headed down to Forest Grove, Ore. to compete in the Luau invitational for their second to last regular season track meet. Several Loggers finished the day with personal records in their respective events, many of which were Northwest Conference qualifying marks.
Freshman Joe Cerne (Ravensdale, Wash.) took third place in his pole vaulting event with a height of 12 feet, 10.75 inches, a personal best for him. For the women, junior Maya Heck (Corvallis, Ore.) set a PR for pole vault at 10 feet, 5.25 inches, giving her a fourth place finish in the meet, putting her third all time in Logger history. Heck said that she is “really happy with [her] new PR, but is even more excited about what [she] can do with the rest of the season,” adding that this week at practice she’ll be using a bigger pole and hopefully clearing higher bars. “With only two weeks left in the season,” Heck said, “we’ve got to go big or go home.”
Hayley Walker (Cambria, Calif.) took home the Loggers’ only solo first place finish on the day, taking the title for the 1500m with a NWC qualifying time of 4:54.17. The women’s 4x400m relay team also took home a first place finish with a season-best 4:08.64 finish. Junior Andrea Leiken (Portland, Ore.) had a strong day, taking second place in both the 200m and the 400m with 26.69 and 1:00.46 finishing times, respectively, which were also NWC automatic qualifying times. Freshman Alicia Burns also had a strong day, taking a fourth place finish in the 400m dash with a NWC qualifying time of 1:01.24 and taking third in the women’s 800m with another NWC qualifying time of 2:24.05.
For the men, sophomore Emerson Sample (Madison, Wisc.) took a fourth place finish with a season best, NWC qualifying time of 58.88 in the 400m hurdles. Freshman Sean Tyree (Minneapolis, Minn.) took fourth place in the 400m dash, finishing with a 52.05. The men’s 4x400m relay team, consisting of sophomore Michael Haas (Cupertino, Calif.), Sample, freshman Brian Soto (Davis, Calif.) and Tyree finished in third place with a finishing time of 3:31.19.
With their performance last week and throughout the season, sophomore Myles McDonald (Vancouver, Wash.) and freshman Joe Cerne qualified for the NWC multi-event track meet in Spokane, Wash.
McDonald says that this event will “be a great experience for both himself and [Cerne] to gain confidence for next year. [His] goal was to qualify for the conference championships, and now that [he’s] done that, [his] new goal is to compete and do his best. Not many people can say that they did that and actually enjoyed it.”
[Photo Courtesy / Kevin Curlett)