PORTLAND – Mountaineers Track & Field got the outdoor season underway Saturday afternoon, competing at the Lewis & Clark College Spring Break Open. Eastern Oregon had 13 event winners and three athletes hit NAIA qualifying standards. In all, the Mounties had 42 top-five finishes for the day.
Highlighting the day was the efforts of
Darrian Walker as he not only won the pole vault, but hit an NAIA A qualifying standard to punch his ticket to Nationals. He cleared the bar at a height of 15-9 ¼. His mark was ahead of second by over a foot and is now the top mark in the NAIA.
Joining the fun of hitting a NAIA qualifying mark was
Maggie Ledbetter in a pair of events. She currently ranks second in the NAIA now in the shot put and hammer throw after winning both events with B standard marks. She won the shot put with a throw 42-9 ½. Her throw was well over two feet further than second place. In the hammer throw, she cleared a mark of 160-3 which also blew out second place by over four feet. Ledbetter also finished second in the discus, clearing 127-3.
The final NAIA qualifying mark came from thrower
Moses McAninch in javelin. In his debut, McAninch was superb as he blew out the competition to win the javelin with a throw of 180-6. His mark is an NAIA B standard throw and ranks 10th in the NAIA. His throw was also nearly 34 feet further than second place.
Including Ledbetter's two victories, the EOU women had a stellar start to the outdoor season with nine total wins across multiple events. In the short sprints,
Katie Brown made quick work of the field in both the 100-meter and 200-meter dash. She won the 100 in a time of 12.56, edging second by 0.22 seconds. In the 200, Brown ran a 26.11 to take home the win and was 0.31 seconds ahead of second place.
Also picking up a pair of sweeping wins was
Morgan Bayes in the hurdles as she was victorious in both the 100-meter and 400-meter hurdles. She clocked a 15.77 in the 100 hurdles, defeating second by 0.39 seconds. In the 400 hurdles, Bayes cleared the one-lap obstacle race in 66.25 to take down the field. Her time was well over 2.5 seconds faster than second place.
The final win on the track for the Mountaineers came in the 4x400-meter relay. Eastern ran two squads that finished first and second, respectively, to take home the top two spots. The "A" squad that secured the win for EOU consisted of
Morgan Bayes,
Katie Brown,
Michelle Herbes, and
Lauryn Mitchell. The quartet ran 4:04.17 to secure the win.
In the field, the Mountaineer women also had wins in the pole vault and the javelin. Winning the pole vault was
Abby Winstead as she cleared the bar at a height of 10-6 ¾. In the javelin, the Mountaineers took the top four spots with
Allie Best winning the event. She chucked the spear a distance of 113-10 to be crowned the event winner.
For the Mountaineer men, they had four total event winners. McAninch and Walker led the charge with wins in the javelin and pole vault, respectively. Also picking up wins on the day were
Tyler Jones in the high jump and
DJ Wilson in the triple jump.
Jones led the way for an EOU high jump squad that secured the top-three finishes in the event. Jones won the event with a height clearance of 6-2 ¾.
TJ Davis was second with the same mark, but Jones was the winner based on attempts. Finishing third was
Jacob Gates, clearing 5-8 ¾.
In the triple jump, Wilson was the lone entry for EOU and squared off against three College of Idaho athletes. He made quick work of the three as he won the event with a leap of 44-7 ½. His mark was over six inches ahead of second place as he walked away on top.
The Mountaineer will have the rest of March off before returning to action. The team's next scheduled meet will be April 1-2 at the NNU Invitational in Nampa, Idaho. The two-day meet will be hosted by NCAA Division II institute Northwest Nazarene University.
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