Track & Field Weekly Notebook
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THIS WEEK IN PACIFIC TRACK & FIELD
NORTHWEST CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Fri., Apr. 22, 2 p.m., & Sat., Apr. 23, 10 a.m.
Maxwell Field, McMInnville, Ore.
Website: www.linfield.edu/sports/nwctrackfieldchampionships.html
BOXERS TO BE WELL REPRESENTED AT NWC CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Pacific track and field teams will be better represented than at any other time in recent history at the 2011 Northwest Conference Track & Field Championships. A total of 37 athletes will represent the Boxers in 32 different events at the annual league championship event, which takes place Friday and Saturday at Linfield College's Maxwell Field.
BOXER BYTES
• Kasey Fisher became Pacific's first conference meet scorer of the season last Tuesday, finishing sixth in the heptathlon at the Northwest Conference Multi-Event Championships in Spokane. Chloe Hallyburton finished 10th in the heptathlon while Aaron Koford finished ninth in the decathlon. All three athletes had season best point totals.
• Murphy Busek reset his own school record in the men's hammer to win the event at Saturday's Rich Allen Classic. Busek threw 155 feet, 8 inches, surpassing his former record of 154 feet, 7 inches set at the 2010 NWC Championships. Busek went on to also win the shot put and finished second in the discus
• The Boxers also had individual event winners at the Rich Allen Classic from John Fredericks in the men's pole vault, Nicole Smith in the women's 200 meters and Lauren Barnard in the women's 800 meters.
• Pacific added three more qualifiers for the NWC Championships at the Rich Allen Classic. Lauren Barnard qualified in the women's 800 meters. Jenny Novak qualified in the women's javelin and Steve Stoller earned a spot in the men's 800 meters.
• Pacific hopes their increased numbers will translate into an improved finish in the NWC Championships. The Pacific men finished the 2010 meet in seventh place with 29 points while the women were eighth with 23 points.
MEET RECAPS
NWC MULTI-EVENT CHAMPIONSHIPS
A strong second day for Kasey Fisher (So., Denair, Calif.) translated into a person best of over 400 points in the heptathlon Tuesday (Apr. 12), lead Pacific's three competitors at the Northwest Conference Multi-Event Championships at Whitworth University's Boppell Field.
Fisher finished the seven-event discipline with a total of 3,717 points to place sixth in the competition. The three team points she earned with the finish will go towards the Boxers' point totals at the upcoming NWC Track & Field Championships, Apr. 22-23 in McMinnville. Chloe Hallyburton (So., Dayton, Ore.) finished ninth in the heptathlon. She accomplished a 700-point personal best in her second attempt at the competition with a score of 3,090 points. Aaron Koford (Fr., Wilsonville, Ore.), Pacific's only competitor in the men's decathlon, finished the day in ninth place with a personal best of 5,274 points.
Fisher came through the second day with three season best performances. She opened the day with a sixth place finish in the long jump with a mark of 15 feet 6 inches, then added two feet to her javelin best with a fourth place mark of 99 feet, 5 inches. Fisher closed the day with an eight-second best in the 800 meters, placing seventh in 2:40.53. Hallyburton also put together three season best performances in the individual disciplines. She finished 10th in the long jump at 13 feet, 4.75 inches, seventh in the javelin at 83 feet, 1 inch and fourth in the 800 meters at 2:38.42.
Koford finished the final five events of the decathlon with three season bests. After opening the day with a ninth place time in the 110-meter hurdles of 18.66 seconds, he put together a an effort of 110 feet, 3 inches, to finish fifth in the discus. Koford put together a season best in the pole vault of 10 feet, finishing eighth, and a 14-foot best in the javelin of 148 feet, 8 inches to place sixth. He closed the day with a 10th place finish in the 1,500 meters with a season best of 5:17.75.
Willamette's Evan Colignon won the decathlon with a total of 6,419 points. George Fox's Nate Dillow with second with 6.141 points, while his brother David was third with 6,037 points. The Bruins will enter the NWC Championships with 14 points to their credit in the men's competition, with Willamette earning 12. George Fox swept the top two places and four of the top five spots in the heptathlon to enter the NWC Championships with a commanding 27 points. Alexis Arnold won the event with a total of 4.456 points with Beth Stam taking second at 4,266 points.
RICH ALLEN CLASSIC
Murphy Busek (Sr., Mountain View, Hawaii) won two events and reset his own school record in the hammer Saturday, leading four individual event winners for Pacific at the Rich Allen Classic, held at George Fox's Colcord Field. Busek won the hammer with a throw of 155 feet, 8 inches. The effort was over a foot better than his old record of 154 feet, 7 inches, which he threw at last year's Northwest Conference Championships. Busek also took top honors in the shot put, beating a field of eight competitors with a mark of 42 feet, 8.75 inches. In addition, Busek placed second in the discus with a throw of 128 feet, 4 inches. John Fredericks (Sr., Forest Grove, Ore.) was Pacific's other champion on the men's side of the ledger. He won the pole vault with a mark of 13 feet, 4.5 inches.
On the women's side, Nicole Smith (Sr., Wailuku, Hawaii) won the 200 meters with her third best time of the season at 27.05 seconds. Lauren Barnard (Jr., Lyons, Colo.) won the 800 meters, capturing the event in a season best and NWC Championships qualifying time of 2:25.41. The Boxers' 1,600-meter relay team of Kori Bellwood (Fr., Yamhill, Ore.), Smith, Jessica Head (Fr., North Bend, Ore.) and Punneh Abdolhosseini (Fr., Seattle, Wash.) won in a time of 4:29.85.
Pacific saw three more athletes earn qualifying marks for the NWC Championships in the last possible meet. In addition to Barnard's mark in the 800 meters, Jenny Novak (Jr., Dexter, Ore.) qualified in the women's javelin with a mark of 102 feet, 8 inches. Steve Stoller (Sr., Canby, Ore.) qualified in the men's 800 meters with his second place time of 1:59.49.
The Boxers received runner-up finished from three other men's athletes and one relay. Avery Neal (Jr., Los Alamos, N.M.) finished second in the 400 meters with a time of 51.30 seconds. Nathan Gilpin (Sr., Oregon City, Ore.) was second in the 400-meter hurdles in 59.78 seconds and Alex Florence (Sr., Tigard, Ore.) was second in the 200 meters with a time of 23.20 seconds. Abdolhosseini placed second in the women's 800 meters, clocking 2:28.35, while Bellwood placed second in the 400-meter hurdles with a season best of 1:09.35. Sam Lee (Sr., Fort Wayne, Ind.) finished second in the 1,500 meters with a time of 4:58.20.
PACIFIC NEWS & NOTES
RECORD EFFORT: For the second year in a row, Murphy Busek (Sr., Mountain View, Hawaii) found himself as a record-setter in the hammer. Busek put together a record effort of 155 feet, 8 inches, to win at the Rich Allen Classic. The performance was an 11-foot improvement over his previous season best of 144 feet, 3 inches, which came at the season-opening Frank Haskins Four-Way Meet on Feb. 26. The record effort was over a foot better than the previous best of 154 feet, 7 inches set at the 2010 NWC Championships. In addition to his record effort in the hammer, Busek won the shot put with a mark of 42 feet, 8.75 inches and finished second in the discus with a mark of 128 feet, 4 inches. Busek stands a good chance of scoring points for the Boxers at the NWC Championships in multiple events. He enters the meet with the conference's eighth best marks in the hammer and shot put.
BARRIERS OF SUCCESS: Nathan Gilpin (Sr., Oregon City, Ore.) has himself lined up for success in both hurdle events as Pacific comes into the NWC Championships with strength in the event on both the men's and women's sides. Gilpin finished second in both the 110-meter hurdles and 400-meter hurdles at the Rich Allen Classic on Saturday. He ran 16.82 seconds in the high hurdles and 59.78 seconds in the intermediates. Gilpin was the runner-up in the 400-meter hurdles at the 2010 NWC Championships after running 56.90 seconds.
The Boxers will enter this year's championship with no less than three athletes in each hurdle event. Gilpin and Michael Hunker (So., Cornelius, Ore.) will compete in both men's events while Jenna Matsumoto (Jr., Kailua, Hawaii) and Kori Bellwood (Fr., Yamhill, Ore.) will compete in both women's events. Hunker and Gilpin enter the NWC Championships with the league's third and fourth best time in the 400-meter hurdles, respectively. Matsumoto is ranked sixth in the 400-meter hurdles after finishing fifth in the event last year. Fisher is ranked sixth.
VAULTING UP THE STANDINGS: Pacific also looks ahead to the potential of some scoring performances in the pole vault. John Fredericks won his fourth men's pole vault competition of the season at the Rich Allen Classic, easily beating the competition with a mark of 13 feet, 4.5 inches. Fredericks finished third at the 2010 NWC Championships with a personal best of 14 feet, 2 inches. He enters the meet with the league's third best mark at 13 feet, 10.5 inches.
Kasey Fisher, meanwhile, will also look to give the Boxers some significant point-scoring potential in the women's side of the event. Fisher last vaulted on Apr. 3, going a season-best 10 feet, 6 inches at the Linfield Jenn Boyman Memorial Invitational. She spent the last two weeks concentrating on preparation for the NWC Multi-Event Championships. The Pacific record holder in the event at 11 feet, 1.75 inches (set in 2010), Fisher owns the third best mark in the NWC this season.
11TH HOUR QUALIFIERS: The Rich Allen Classic provided last chance qualifiers for the NWC Championships for three Pacific athletes. Lauren Barnard snuck under the qualifying mark for the women's 800 meters, winning the event at the Rich Allen in 2:25.41. Steve Stoller earned a qualifying spot in the men's 800 meters with a time of 1:59.49. Jenny Novak secured a spot in her final NWC Championships with a mark of 102 feet, 8 inches in the women's javelin.
GOING THE DISTANCE: Perhaps no Pacific athlete has a better chance to score more points for their team than Sam Lee in her final NWC Championships. A qualifier in ever event from 800 meters to 10,000 meters, Lee will compete for the Boxers in the 5,000 meters and the 10,000 meters. Lee enters the NWC meet with the conference's fifth best time at 18:20.77, which she ran in the season-opening Frank Haskins Four-Way on Feb. 26. She owns the second best time in the league in the 10,000 meters. Her time of 37:31.84 from the Mar. 4 Linfield Erik Anderson Memorial Icebreaker is just seven seconds off the NCAA Championships provisional qualifying mark of 37:24.
Lee will notably be absent in an event in which she is the school record holder. She finished third in the 2010 NWC Championships in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and ran a school record of 11:35.77 at the Apr. 9 Pacific Luau Meet. She has the third best mark in the NWC season. The decision not to run the steeple, according to Head Coach Tim Boyce, relates to putting Lee in events where she has the best chance to score the most points for the team. Another run in the steeplechase later this season has not been ruled out.
THE FOOTBALL EFFECT: The addition of athletes to the Pacific track and field squad from the reborn Pacific football program had paid some significant dividends. Of the 14 crossover athletes competing in both sports, six will compete for the Boxers at the NWC Championships. Kelson Kawai (Fr., North Kohala, Hawaii) stands the best chance to score big points. He enters the meet with the league's fifth best mark in the high jump at 6 feet, 4 inches. He also has the sixth best mrk in the triple jump at 42 feet. 11.5 inches. Taylor Hickson (Fr., Red Bluff, Calif.) will compete in all three jumping events. He enter the NWC Championships with the sixth best mark in the long jump at 20 feet, 11.75 inches and the eighth best mark in the high jump at 6 feet. He will also compete in the triple jump.
Aaron Koford will compete in the discus, long jump and 100 meters after just missing placing at the NWC Multi-Event Championships. Koford's top event is the discus with a mark of 133 feet, 10 inches. Craig Bailey (Fr., Fairfield, Calif.) will run the 200 meters, Sean Valente (Fr., Ewa Beach, Hawaii) will run the 400 meters and Austin Alvarez (Fr., Stockton, Calif.) is scheduled to compete in the triple jump.
THE ENTRY LIST: Pacific's entries into the NWC Championships by event. A (WC) indicates that the entrat is one of three wild card entries allowed for Pacific in each gender.
WOMEN
100 Meters: Nicole Smith, Kelli Aken-Pagdilao
200 Meters: Nicole Smith, Kelli Aken-Pagdilao
800 Meters: Lauren Barnard, Punneh Abdolhosseini (WC)
5,000 Meters: Sam Lee, Jilinda Franklin (WC)
10,000 Meters: Sam Lee, Jilinda Franklin, Kiersten Iwai, Ally Shackelford
100m Hurdles: Jenna Matsumoto, Kasey Fisher, Kori Bellwood
400m Hurdles: Jenna Matsumoto, Kori Bellwood, Jessica Head,
Chloe Hallyburton
High Jump: Annie Mutchler, Chloe Hallyburton
Long Jump: Annie Mutchler, Kelli Aken-Pagdilao
Triple Jump: Annie Mutchler
Pole Vault: Kasey Fisher
Shot Put: Julia Naumes
Discus: Julia Naumes
Hammer: Julia Naumes
Javelin: Anna Toyas, Jenny Novak
MEN
100 Meters: Vince Mull, Aaron Koford
200 Meters: Alex Florence, Craig Bailey
400 Meters: Sean Valente (WC)
800 Meters: Avery Neal, John Cushman, Steve Stoller, John Gillem (WC)
5,000 Meters: Adrian Shipley
10,000 Meters: Adrian Shipley, Dan Flora, Joe Deardorff
110m Hurdles: Michael Hunker, Nathan Gilpin, Taylor Hickson
400m Hurdles: Michael Hunker, Nathan Gilpin, Tony Lam
Steeplechase: Jon Larson
High Jump: Kelson Kawai, Taylor Hickson
Long Jump: Taylor Hickson, Aaron Koford (WC)
Triple Jump: Kelson Kawai, Taylor Hickson, Austin Alvarez
Pole Vault: John Fredericks
Shot Put: Murphy Busek
Discus: Murphy Busek, Ryan Culp, Aaron Koford
Hammer: Musphy Busek
