Portland, Ore. - The Boxer track and field teams competed in one last meet this Saturday before the Northwest Conference Championship meet. The conference championship meet will be held this Friday and Saturday at University of Puget Sound. Freshman Angelica Gatica-Gomez was the star of the meet for the Boxers this weekend.
Saturday's meet started out cold but sunny before a storm rolled in bringing hail, thunder and lightening. Gatica-Gomez was set to race the women's 400m against a field of 8 other runners. She toed the line in the middle of a downpour of hail, and the gun went off. Gatica-Gomez dashed around the track to win the race in a time of 59.21. This is a life-time best for Gatica-Gomez and ranks her at the #3 spot in the Northwest Conference standings. Right after her 400m win, a big crack of lightning and clap of thunder sounded overhead, and the track meet was delayed for about an hour. It was quite an unusual weather situation for the PNW.
Other highlights of the meet for the Boxers included
Alexis Lowery's new season-best time in the 100m hurldes, 15.78, and
Zion Booker's new PR in the 200m, 23.22 - just .01 shy of a conference qualifying mark.
Kristi Echiverri also ran a very close 800m race, clocking in at 2:27.93, just one second shy of a conference qualifier.
Dina Altuhovs ran a 10-second PR in the women's 400m hurdles in her time of 1:16.70.
Katrina Brisbois had a season-best 800m race, with her time of 2:49.63.
Will Neal secured the final NWC qualifying mark of the season with his 4:06.33 1500m run.
Romel Moreland ran a great 100m dash time of 11.27, good for 4th place in the meet.
"This was a good tune-up meet for many of our athletes," said head track and field coach
Ryan Hunter-Simms. "I am looking forward to the Northwest Conference Championships next weekend. Our athletes are ready to compete!"
The Boxers will compete in the Northwest Conference Track and Field Outdoor Championships this Friday and Saturday at University of Puget Sound. Friday will be mostly preliminary rounds of competition, with some finals. Most final rounds will take place on Saturday. The meet can be followed with live results at live.tf.
