LA GRANDE, Ore. – Eastern Oregon University hosted the first ever Lew Thorne Invite on Saturday. The meet was a historic event marking the first indoor track competition ever held at Eastern Oregon University in the new EOU Field House. The meet's name is a nod to EOU's first ever indoor track and field competitor, Lew Thorne, who competed for the Mountaineers in the early 1960's.
MEN – FIELD
EOU started the day off with a win in the throws as
Tanner Nett narrowly edged out Northwest Nazarene's Dylan Hendry by a centimeter in the shot put. Nett's toss of 14.86 meters earned him the top spot on the podium. Hendry wasn't denied in the following weight throw as he won by nearly a meter with a throw of 16.53 meters.
In the jumps, Eastern led the way with
DJ Wilson winning the triple jump and
Tyler Jones winning the high jump while also notching a "B" standard clearing 2.02 meters. Gerohm Rihari of Northwest Nazarene took the win in the long jump with a mark of 6.91 meters while LC State's Christia Bothwell put up a dominant performance in the pole vault. Bothwell cleared 4.30 meters for the win.
WOMEN – FIELD
On the women's side it was a battle between EOU and Northwest Nazarene in the throws. NNU's Destany Herbert took the top spot on the podium in the shot put followed by EOU's
Maggie Ledbetter who notched an NAIA "B" standard mark and
Kenna Woodward. When it came to the weight throw the Mounties took the top two spots.
Maggie Ledbetter and
Kenna Woodward both posted "B" Standard marks. Ledbetter won the event with a throw of 16.23 meters followed by Woodward's throw of 16.06 meters.
Everybody got a piece of the pie in the jumps as LC State's Sydnie Zywina started off dominating the triple jumping with an "A" mark of 11.63 to win the event. College of Idaho's Addison Trent took the top spot in the long jump with a jump of 5.45 meters. The Warriors of Lewis-Clark State struck again in the high jump as Jennah Carpenter cleared 1.67 meters for an NAIA "A" Standard and first place finish. Wrapping up the field events and taking a win in the pole vault was NNU's Kinsey Yenor who cleared 3.92 meters on her third try.
MEN – Track
On the track College of Idaho started the day off on a strong note when Lane Maher notched an NAIA "B" Standard mark in the 60-meter hurdles prelims. Maher then took care of business in the finals with a win by six hundredths of a second over EOU's
Israel Miles. As for the 60-meter dash it was Lewis-Clark State's Jed Barnaby edging out a win with a time of 7:00. The 200-meter dash was dominated by NNU who took the top three spots led by Brayden Durfee who finished with a time of 22.90 seconds. Durfee also took a win in the 400-meter dash with a time of 51.14 seconds.
In the mid-distance races EOU's
James Thatcher took the win as the only competitor in the 600-meter run with a time of 1:28.75. LC State's Conner May came out on top in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:00.27.
When it came to the distance races it was all EOU.
Hunter Nichols and Jonny Wind dominated the mile run earning an "A" Standard and "B" Standard respectively. Nichols finished with a time of 4:19.99 and Wind finished with a time of 4:23.27.
WOMEN – TRACK
The women's track events started off hot as Kelly Madigan (LCSC) ran a blazing 8.76 "A" Standard time to open the women's 60-meter hurdles prelims. In the finals Madigan took the win with another strong time but she had some competition as EOU's
Morgan Bayes was hot on her heels with an "A" standard time of her own. Bayes ran an 8.96 second time which broke her own EOU program record. In the 60-meter dash it was NNU's Abbey Wood taking the win with a time of 7.69 seconds followed by Eastern Oregon's
Yahaira Chavarria-Mondragon. Moving into the longer sprints in the 200-meter dash Eastern Oregon took the top two spots.
Katie Brown narrowly beat her EOU teammate Chavarria-Mondragon with a time of 26.47 seconds. Wrapping up the sprints with the 400-meter dash NNU took the top three spots with Laine DeJong claiming the top spot on the podium thanks to a time of 1.00.34.
Eastern Oregon took charge of the mid-distance races taking the top three spots in the 600 and 1,000-meter races. It was EOU's
Katie Jo Gebhardt finishing first in both events with a time of 1:44.14 in the 600 and 3:07.68 in the 1,000. As for the 800-meter run NNU's Keelin Stewart was the only competitor finishing with a time of 2:31.43.
NNU also had the only runner in the mile as Morgan Erler finished with a time of 5:25.83. The Nighthawks also took the top two spots in the women's 3,000 meter run with Olivia Klein blowing away the field. Klein finished with a time of 11:04.59.
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