The RiverHawk Track and Field teams competed in three different locations between Friday and Monday, March 22nd-25th. Friday and Saturday, 5 Hawks qualified to compete at the UO Preview at Hayward Field, Saturday had 15 Hawks qualified to compete at the Willamette Invitational, and then 4 Hawks competed at the Pacific Multi to establish marks for the NWAC Multi-Events Championships in May.
At the UO Preview, Leikel Cabrera-Gay and Ismayil Abdoulaye both competed in javelin on Friday night. Leikel took 3rd, behind NCAA DI and DII throwers, with a mark of 66.30m/217'6" and Ismayil (also only behind NCAA DI and DII throwers) threw 58.41m/191'8" to finish 7th of 14 competitors. Daniel Gee and James Kelly followed up on Saturday to compete in pole vault. Daniel jumped 4.50m/14'9" to finish 5th, while James Kelly cleared 4.35m/14'3.25" for 7th place. They were the top attached junior college athletes in the event.
At the Willamette Invitational on Saturday, several Hawks had strong performances and placed well. Tarron Metz won pole vault with a collegiate best jump of 4.30m/14'1.25. Okenoko Pascall took 2nd in discus with a throw of 42.58m/139'8", then threw the shot put 12.93m/42'5.25" and took 4th in the event. Xavier Hills finished 2nd in the high jump clearing 1.80m/5'10.75". Oluwatomiwa Olubisi ran 23.18 in the 200m foir a 5th place finish. On the women's side, Amy Barnwell and Talia Hosford both competed in hammer throw. Amy had a throw of 36.74m/120'6" and Talia threw 30.31m/99'5", finishing in 2nd and 5th, respectively.
Sophomores James Kelly, Daniel Gee, Rachel Noyce, and Taylor Heie all competed in the Pacific Multi on Sunday and Monday. The 4 athletes haven't been particularly training for the events, and still finished considerably well for their respective abilities. James Kelly took 3rd overall with 5,803 points in the decathlon. He won the pole vault event, ran a personal best in the 100m, and he threw PRs in each of the throwing events. Jimmy went 11.30 in the 100m (2nd), 11.04m/36'2.75" (2nd), 27.70m/90'10" in discus (7th), 4.54m/14'10.75" in pole vault (1st), and 37.45m/122'10" in javelin. Daniel Gee also had strong performances with 2 personal bests in the discus and javelin throws, finishing in 4th with 5,444 points. In discus he threw 28.92m/94'10" (5th) and 34.06m/111'9" in javelin. He also finished 2nd in the pole vault behind Jimmy. The two guys now lead the NWAC in the decathlon. Rachel Noyce opened up her season in the heptathlon after finishing off basketball (the team took 2nd in the NWAC). Rachel scored 2,920 points, breaking the school record by 2 points. She now ranks 7th overall in the NWAC. Taylor Heie, still new to the world of track and field outside of pole vault, scored 2,302 points in the heptathlon and is ranked 11th overall in the NWAC.
The four athletes that competed in the multis will take the upcoming weekend off, while the rest of the team will travel up to Pacific University again for the Pacific Open on Saturday, March 30th. Live results for the upcoming meet can be found at live.tf.
Roll Hawks!!
The following are all automatically qualified for the NWAC Championships in May:
Ismayil Abdoulaye: Javelin
Kylie Anderson: Hammer and Shot Put
Leikel Cabrera-Gay: Javelin
Daniel Gee: Pole Vault and Decathlon
Isaac Heard: Javelin
Taylor Heie: Pole Vault
Xavier Hills: Triple Jump and High Jump
James Kelly: Pole Vault and Decathlon
Tarron Metz: Pole Vault
Okenoko Pascall: Discus and Shot Put
Kylie Rubrecht: Javelin
Ethan Sumpter: Javelin
