The RiverHawk Track & Field team competed at the Raider Invitational hosted by SOU in Ashland, OR on both Friday and Saturday, April 21-22, 2023. This was the first meet this season the RiverHawks finally had some warm weather, which helped lead the team to 6 school records.
On the men's side, James Kelly led the team with a first place finish in the men's pole vault, second place in the triple jump, and second place in the 110m hurdles, and he broke the school records of all 3. In pole vault he jumped 4.55m/14'11", in the triple jump he jumped 13.34m/43'9.25", and in the 110m hurdles he ran 16.03. James Kelly now has 5 school records under his name (pole vault, long jump, triple jump, high jump, and 110m hurdles). In the men's javelin Colby Neron finished 2nd (63.21m/207'4"), Ismayil Abdoulaye finished 5th (56.08m/184'0"), and Isaac Heard finished 6th (54.58m/179'1"). Alex Duguid-Green competed in both the hammer and discus throws, and finished 4th in hammer with a new personal best and 46.04m/151'0" and 5th in the discus with a throw of 42.62m/139'10".
On the women's side, Whitney Lindsey had a big win in the javelin and broke the school record with a throw of 46.78m/153'6". In the steeplechase, both Kristen Thomas and Mariah Summers competed, and Kristen broke the school record with a time of 13:13.78 for 2nd place, and Mariah ran 13:45.35 for 3rd. Kristen also ran in the 800m and finished 8th overall, with a time of 2:34.41 (this is quite the double in distance events), teammates Mariah and Emma-Kate Crouse also ran the 800, with Mariah running a season's best and Emma-Kate running a new personal best. In shot put, Kylie Anderson took 2nd with a throw of 11.65m/38'2.75" and Hailey Combie threw 10.20m/33'5.75" for 6th. Eve Elmore broke another school record in the hammer with a throw of 45.57m/149'6" for 2nd overall, Kylie Anderson took 7th with a throw of 40.01m/131'3", and Aubry Brownson also threw a new personal best. Hailey Combie also placed in the discus with a personal best of 34.61m/113'6" for 5th place. Taylor Heie took 5th place in pole vault with a clearance of 2.80m/9'2.25" and she ran personal best in the open 100m. Bailey Wallack ran a time of 1:04.84 in the 400m for 7th, and she ran a new personal best in the 1500m. In the long jump, jumpAvery Shinkle jumped 4.68m/15'4.25", which was a new personal best, and teammate Emma-Kate established her first ever time in the 1500m race.
The RiverHawks plan to give the upcoming weekend off for most of the team, while a select few will be competing at the OSU High Performance Meet hosted by Oregon State on Friday and Saturday, April 28th and 29th. After that the team will then compete at the Oregon Twilight for some and the Linfield Open for everyone else on the first weekend of May. Those will be the last open meets the Hawks compete at before the South Region Championships and the NWAC Championships.
For their performances, James Kelly was selected as Men's Field Athlete of the Week, Whitney Lindsey was selected as Women's Field Athlete of the Week, and Kristen Thomas was selected as Women's Track Athlete fo the Week.
Go Hawks!!
