Photo by Rachel Gosney
By Rachel Shelley Staff Writer
Western track competed at two separate meets in preparation for the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Meet, the Oregon State High Performance Meet and the Mt. Hood Track Festival.
Just 20 miles down the road, the Wolves traveled to Oregon State to set multiple personal records before conference. Emily Wetherell started it off for the Wolves, throwing a personal record of 45.72 meters in the hammer throw, finishing 11th overall.
Justin Larson took third with his javelin throw of 61.06 while Aaron Whitaker would take home a season-best and first place in his section of the 400-meter dash, finishing in 49.21 seconds, giving him eighth overall.
Jeremy Moore threw a season-best with 14.88 in the shot put, finishing 11th overall. Cody Warner would finish second overall with 10.68 in the 100.
In Gresham, the team would set 14 personal records in the final meet before conference. Nine personal records were set by the women’s team, with Alecia Falck starting it off with a PR in the discus and hammer throw with 38.68 and 34.51, respectively. Leah Nicklason would also throw a personal record in the discus with 36.47.
Megan Rose would then set a personal record in the 400 in 59.67 seconds, right behind Suzanne Van De Grift who also would post a season best time of 59.43. Laura Knudson set a personal record time of 1:05.16 in the 400-meter hurdles, winning the event while Felicia Covey would win the following section of the 400 hurdles with her personal record time of 1:07.76. Rebecca Laible won the triple jump with a season best mark of 11.68 meters.
For the men, five personal records were set in four different events. in the 1,500 meter, Josh Dempsey won section two in 3:57.60. Lucas Clark and Chris Mudder would set their PRs in the discus with 38.92 and 37.53, respectively. Kegan Allen threw 45.24 in the hammer throw – a personal record – while Jacob Kantola would jump 6.36 in the long jump, his personal record.
Badane Sultessa would earn a NCAA Division II provisional time, the second Western runner to do so, and became number 20th in the country in the 800 with a time of 1:51.13, placing second in the race.
The team will now race at the GNAC Outdoor Championships held Friday, May 8, and Saturday, May 9, at McArthur Field starting 2 p.m. Friday and 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
