By: Burke De Boer Sports Editor
The Western Oregon track and field team blew out the competition in their first outdoor meet of 2017.
The Willamette Opener was hosted by Willamette University. The Wolves’ men’s team topped their table with 60 points, a 24-point advantage on second place Corban. The women’s team also won their table, totaling 48 points, which was 12 points ahead of second place University of Portland.
The women’s team swept all throwing competitions.
Wolves cleaned house in women’s javelin, taking the top three spots. Junior Amanda Short’s event winning distance of 148’7” was a personal best as well as fifth on the Western Oregon all time list. Junior Sheila Limas De La Cruz came in second with 139’9” and first year Halie Korff took third with 131’2.25”.
Senior Rachael Huffman won the shot put with a distance of 42’1.5”, a new personal best and ninth on the Western Oregon all time list.
Huffman won women’s discus with a throw of 136’3.75”. Korff came in third, her own throw recorded at 122’2”.
Sophomore Alecia Falck’s 147’7.5” hammer throw took top honors. Junior Sylvia Dean came in third and Short placed fourth to add another point to the Western Oregon tally.
“Our throws team opened up the outdoor season just how we anticipated,” Huffman said. “All of our throwers are chasing big marks and we are well on our way to accomplishing that. I’m personally excited for us to keep this ball rolling as we continue to move through the season/”
Men’s throws saw junior Brandon Bowen win shot put with a lifetime best of 49’7’.
Junior Keegan Allen, Bowen and sophomore Logan Baker took second, third and fourth at discus respectively.
Keegan Allen also won the men’s hammer throw, chucking it 139’2”.
Wolves runners were short staffed, as many headlining runners are competing in this weekend’s NCAA Indoor Track Championship in Alabama. But the runners available worked to prove how deep the talent goes on the team, consistently taking top three places.
Junior Codi Blodgett won the men’s 100 meter with a time of 11.04, while first year Devon Fortier finished at 11.20 for second place.
Senior Sara Madden won both women’s hurdling events, completing the 100 meter in 16.14 seconds and the 400 meter in 1:06.41.
Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu
