Mar. 14, 2016
Track and field flourishes at PLU; Eggleston takes on nationals
The CWU track and field team opened its outdoor season Saturday with numerous top finishes at the Pacific Lutheran Open, while Dani Eggleston raced at the 2016 NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships.
"Heart break today," Head coach Kevin Adkisson said. "Dani was in perfect position halfway through and got to where she needed to be. In the second half her legs didn't have anything to give her." Eggleston finished in 19th place in the 3000 meter run with a time of 10:05.58.
Twenty-one Wildcats finished first out of 42 events at the PLU Open.
Megan Rodgers finished the 10,000 meter run in a time of 36:45.26 — good enough for a national provisional qualifying time.
"Great to hear that we had a lot of event winners," Adkisson said upon hearing about finishes from PLU. "It's always good to get into our first meet and have a lot of success."
Madison Garcia had first-place finishes in both the 100 meter dash and the 200 meter dash. Following closely behind Garcia in the 100 meter was Diamond Martin and Tianna Banfro who finished in second and third, respectively.
Freshman Say Dozark-Morris captured a second-place finish in the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 17.10.
The Wildcats again saw a 1-2-3 finish in the 400 meter dash as Banfro took first with a time of 1:07.68. Mariyah Vongsaveng followed closely behind for second place and Allison Deck ran to third.
Two women's relay teams also captured the top spot in Tacoma. The 4x100 meter relay comprised of Vonsaveng, Banfro, Ashley Harmon and Garcia finished in a time of 48.35 while Ali Anderson, Harmon, Garcia and Jayna Inderbitzen ran to a first place time in the 4x400 relay with a time of 4:03.69.
Inderbitzen also won the 800 meter. Hannah Dowdell and Stephanie Rexus finished one and two in the 5000 meter run while Brenna Liebel and Kaitlyn McKinney followed suit with first and second place in the 1500 meter run.
The men's team
The men also found success. Jonathan Lafferty ran a second-place 1000 meter with a time of 33:16.24.
Trevaughn Scott won his 400 meter hurdle race by a three second gap, finishing with a time of 56.61.
Scott also helped guide the men's 4x400 meter relay to the top spot along with Darren Arndt, Ron Leaf, and Justin Peterson as the foursome finished in 3:25.83.
Field events tallied a handful of top finishes as well.
Peterson made the transition from the track to the field as he finished first in the high jump, clearing 1.91 meters for the win. Junior Berlie Walker snagged first in the pole vault clearing 4.11 meters.
Luke Plummer won both the long jump and the triple jump with distances of 6.80 meters and 14.36 meters, respectively.
James Lehr won the discuss event with a throw of 43.36 meters, while Angeli Whistocken's throw of 39.59 meters earned her a first place finish in the javelin throw.
Amanda Youngers captured a first place finish in the shot put with a throw of 12.73 meters and took second in the hammer throw.
Armando Tafoya was first in the shot put and hammer throw.
March 14, 2016