The RiverHawk Track and Field teams compete at the last two regular season meets of the season, splitting Friday and Saturday between the Oregon Twilight at Hayward Field in Eugene and the Linfield Open in McMinnville. It was pouring down rain on Friday night at Hayward, hard enough the pole vault was canceled. The rain continued for over 24 hours with a constant drizzle throughout the day at Linfield. Talons crossed the weather will start clearing up as the Hawks go into championship season the next couple of weeks.
On Friday night at Hayward we saw some big performances by the RiverHawks! On the track, Travis Tyler had two big performances in the 100m and the 200m. Going into the 100m, he was ranked 16th and finished 8th and as the top junior college athlete in the competition with a time of 10.86. Then he turned around to run the 200m, going in ranked 9th and finishing in 6th, again as the top junior college athlete, with a time of 21.80. In the NWAC, Travis maintained his #1 ranking in the 200m and his #3 ranking in the 100m. Will Hills had a strong performance in triple jump, finishing in 2nd place with a new collegiate best of 14.30m/46-11ft. He also had a big foul jump that would've easily moved him into first, which was significant to see as we know he has the ability to take those big jumps. Xavier Hills qualified in the triple jump, but passed his jumps. Tarron Metz attempted to pole vault, but the event was canceled due to the heavy rainfall.
On Saturday, the rain and a headwind made it difficult for many of the Hawks. Isaac Heard took 2nd in the javelin, throwing 52.23m/171-4ft into a headwind. Travis Tyler, after running two races the night before, took on the 100m as training for NWAC Championships, and placed 3rd with a time of 11.05 and headwind at -1.9m/s. Travis was the top junior college athlete once again. The pole vault competition was once again tough as 23 competitors were signed up, 14 did not start, 6 no heighted, and only 3 had clearances. One of those clearances was by Landen Salley, as he cleared 3.22m/10-6.75ft for 3rd place. Connor Deveny had a 3rd place finish in the 3k steeplechase as he took on the event for the first time and finished in a time of 11:54.69. Notably, Jacob Loudenslager had a strong performance and collegiate best of 2:01.98 in the 800m. In the women's steeplechase Lexi McWilliam had a big performance by running 12:50.77 for 4th and fast enough to break the school record by 23 seconds and hit the auto-qualifying standard for NWAC Championships. After only practcing the steeple jumps 15 minutes prior to the start of the race, Lexi's performance moved her into 6th of 16 in the NWAC rankings. Kylie Anderson finished in 7th in shot put amongst a large field of 35 competitors. Her mark of 11.59m/38-0.25ft was the farthest amongst all NWAC competitors on the day. Talia Hosford had a notable performance in the hammer throw as she threw a new personal record of 33.28m/109-2ft.
The RiverHawks have concluded their regular season competition and will next compete at the NWAC Southern Region Championships with the likes of Chemeketa, Clackamas, Clark, Lane, Mt. Hood, Southwestern Oregon, Umpqua, and Treasure Valley. The meet will be hosted at Mt. Hood in Gresham, OR on Saturday, May 11th. After that, the RiverHawks will compete at the NWAC Championships on Monday and Tuesday, May 20th and 21st to conclude their season. The men's team will go into the championships with 18 points from the decathlon and the women's team will go in with 4 points from the heptathlon.
Roll Hawks!!
The following are all automatically qualified for the NWAC Championships in May:
Ismayil Abdoulaye: Javelin
Kylie Anderson: Hammer and Shot Put
Amy Barnwell: Hammer
Leikel Cabrera-Gay: Javelin
Daniel Gee: Pole Vault and Decathlon (1st: 10pts)
Isaac Heard: Javelin
Taylor Heie: Pole Vault
Will Hills: Triple Jump
Xavier Hills: Triple Jump and High Jump
James Kelly: Pole Vault, 110m Hurdles, Long Jump, and Decathlon (2nd: 8pts)
Lexi McWilliam: Steeplechase
Tarron Metz: Pole Vault
Okenoko Pascall: Discus and Shot Put
Rachel Noyce: High Jump and Heptathlon (5th: 4pts)
Kylie Rubrecht: Javelin
Madelyn Sharp: Javelin
Ethan Sumpter: Javelin
Travis Tyler: 100m and 200m
Men's 4x100m Relay
