[Spokane, Wash.] Even brief periods of sunshine couldn’t stop the action on Thursday and Friday on the Boppell track during the Whitworth hosted Buc Scoring meet. The Bigfoot track and field teams certainly made the most out of what at times were very challenging weather conditions.
It all began on Thursday morning with the first events in the decathlon and heptathlon. Competing in their first multi event ever were Jaxson Nichols and Cameron Galbreath in the decathlon, and Miranda Irwin and Saira Schoener in the heptathlon. Ten events over the two days for the men and seven events over the same time period for the women ended with some of the top performances in the conference so far this year.
Nichols won three events out of ten along the way, notching victories in the long jump with a personal collegiate best of 22’ 1”, a first time collegiate debut in the javelin tossing the spear 149’ 1” for the win, and then the expected performance in the high jump with a leap in super cold soggy condition clearing 6’ 1”. His total score of 5463 is currently the top ranked mark in the event. Nichols long jump ranks second on the conference list, while his javelin mark stands at seventh overall.
Teammate and also first-time decathlete Cameron Galbreath earned marks in every event along the way and his 4755 total score has him sitting in second overall. For both athletes it was the first time competing in many of the decathlon events without a great deal of practice beforehand.
The same situation was true for Miranda Irwin and Saira Schoener in the seven-event heptathlon. Each had some limited practices in each event, but a great portion of the meet was “learn by doing”. For the first timers, hurdles, high jump and javelin can be very intimidating events. As was true for the men, Irwin and Schoener showed great attitudes and courage throughout. Irwin showed great consistency and her score of 3111 stands as the second-best mark of the year on the conference performance list, while Schoener’s mark ranks fifth overall.
A highlight of the meet and a rallying point was the support these multi athletes received from the rest of the team as they competed throughout the day leading the way for a number of other great performances.
Once again leading the way were the athletes in the distance crew. Facing sub-freezing temperatures, icy water jumps and solid wooden barriers, the steeplechase’s showed their chops and came away with the top marks on the conference list so far. At last year’s NWAC championship Charlotte Falstad finished as conference runner-up in a time of 13:14.67. What a difference a year makes, Falstad lowered her time by a whopping 56 seconds on Friday night running the 3K distance in just 12:14.07, and giving her the conference lead in the event for 2023. Hard work and determination have been the hall mark of her improvement through the year.
Teammate and fellow steeplechaser freshman Kiler Borg also made his season debut on Friday night under the same frigid conditions. Borg ran an outstanding first steeple of his career finishing in fifth place overall with the best time in the conference so far this year of 10:20.48. Teammates Luke Hurd was close behind in 10:42.87 good for fourth on the conference list and followed by Darian Slack in 1057.18 and is ranked sixth on the performance list. Bigfoot steeplers have a long and successful history and this year looks to be more of the same.
Sophia Farraro continues to improve and yet again lowered her time in the women’s 1500m this week recording the second fastest time in the conference with a time of 5:01.20. Sydney Burke made his mark running the 10k for the first time this year running 43:17.78 currently the third fastest time in the conference.
Three sport star Madeline Gebers, the defending NWAC champions in the javelin opened the season up by finishing third overall in the meet and recording the number four throw in the conference so far this year with a mark of 129’1”. The NWAC Field Event Athletes of the week Skilar McLean once again improved her conference leading mark in the triple jump with a leap of 34’ .75”. McLean earned her AOW award for last week’s performances in the long and triple jump where she is the conference leader in both.
Other athletes earning season or personal bests in the meet included Isabella Carpenter in the discus throw with a mark of 114’ 3”, she also hit an outdoor best in the shot-put throwing 34’. Sydney Balzer improved her season best in the discus tossing 93’ 3”, Samantha Emigh doubled up on her season best marks in the hammer and shot, throwing 124’ 11” and 34’ 2.75” respectively. Two sport star Sydney Kinch recorded her best jump of the season in the pole vault clearing 9’ 10.50” giving her the third best jump of the season so far. Team captain Reise Raymond remained consistent in the javelin with another good week throwing close to his season best with a throw of 175’ 4” remaining in the third spot on the conference list.
Currently the team has 37 athletes ranked in the top five on the conference performance list in 2023.
Up next: Spring Break ! The Sasquatch trackster’s will return to Boppell track and it’s new Mondo surface on April 7 at the Whitworth Peace Meet
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#Men's Track and Field