PORTLAND, Ore. - The Warner Pacific University track and field teams competed at two meets in the Portland area today with more personal bests and conference qualifiers as a result. The jumpers went to the Lewis and Clark Invitational while the rest of the team went to the Clackamas Open meet in Oregon City. Both meets had great competition and good weather, giving the WPU athletes good opportunities for some improved marks.
Leading the way at the Lewis and Clark Invitational,
Brittany Coleman won the women's triple jump with a mark of 37' 11.5" (11.57m). On the men's side, Rico Handy also got his conference qualifier in the triple jump with a mark of 39' 11.25" (12.17m), good for 4th place in the event. Andrea Jackson took second in the men's long jump with a mark of 21' 0" (6.40m) while
Mark Meier opened in the men's pole vault with a conference qualifying mark of 11' 9.5" (3.59m).
Meanwhile, the rest of the group was getting ready to compete in the Clackamas Open in Oregon City, an evening meet with great competition at historic Pioneer Stadium. The hammer throwers got off to a great start with
Nick McKenzie hitting 152' 3.25" (46.41m) for 6th place, while teammate Jake Brauchler set a personal best of 40.81m (133' 11") for 9th place and also moved up on the conference list a few places. On the women's side,
Vanessa Guerrero took 4th place with a season best of 140' 9" (42.91m), then later set a personal best in the discus of 103' 5" (31.53m), the 5th best mark in school history.
Andre Jackson came over and high jumped a season best 6' 2" (1.87m) to move up the conference list a little while Rico Handy and
Jackson Cootey each ran well in the 100m, getting 6th and 14th place respectively, Cootey running a season best of 11.86. In the 400m hurdles,
Taylor Waters and
Savannah Lee each ran well, with Waters running a season best 1:05.50 and Lee running just .02 seconds off her personal best.
"We got some more new conference qualifiers and some personal bests, so it was a good weekend" said Head Coach
Randy Dalzell. "We will continue to chase a few more qualifying marks as we get ready for conference in a few weeks and just try to keep everyone healthy."
The Knights are at the Oregon State High Performance meet next weekend in Corvallis, OR.
