After splitting up for the second consecutive week, the Vandal track and field team produced impressive times and marks in both the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif., and the War V Regional Dual in Spokane during the weekend.
Philip Vukelich | Argonaut Senior jumper Rendel Jones lands a triple jump at practice Monday at the Dan O'Brien Track and Field Complex. Jones won the men's triple jump Saturday at the Northwest Scoring Clash WAR V meet with a 13.95 meter leap.
Most of the team competed at the War V hosted by the Community Colleges of Spokane at Spokane Falls Community Colleges. Idaho senior Andrew Blaser won the 110-meter hurdles by nearly half a second with a time of 14.48 seconds.
In the 400-meter race, freshman Ben Ayesu-Attah and sophomore Andrew Bloom finished at the top for the second consecutive meet. The teammates tied for first, finishing in 48.39 seconds. Bloom also finished third in the 200-meter race with 22.17.
The Vandals also took the top two spots in men’s pole vault as freshman Matt Sullivan won the event with a vault of 15-11 feet. Sophomore Dylan Watts finished with the same height but took second based on number of total attempts.
In the pits, junior Jason Lorentz won the long jump with a 23-00.50 mark while senior Rendel Jones took first in the triple jump with a leap of 47-07.
Sophomore Andrey Levkiv won the shot put for Idaho with a toss of 54-01.75. Fellow sophomore Kyle Rothwell won the hammer throw with a 186-06, nearly 15 feet farther than the next competitor. Sophomore Mike Marshall won the javelin with a 207-05 toss to round out three throwing victories for the Idaho sophomores.
On the women’s side, junior Anna Kalbrener took second in the 1,500-meter race finishing in 4:35.51. Kalbrener was the top Vandal distance runner to compete in Spokane and placed third in the 800-meter race with a time of 2:17.07.
Sophomore Cait Rowland finished second in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 65.08, just .04 seconds ahead of the third-place finisher.
Senior Morgan Dunning claimed her second consecutive top-two finish in the pole vault with a second-place vault of 10-11.75.
Back in the pits, junior Alyssa Covington’s leap of 17-04.00 earned her second place on a day every competitor jumped below their season best.
Idaho rounded out the meet with a strong showing in the women’s throwing events. Freshman Johanna Hocketstaller took first in the shot put (45-05.25) and second in the discus (151-06), junior Kristine Leonard took first in the discus (153-04) while senior Gabby Midles and junior Sarah Nutsch dominated the hammer throw with tosses of 180-10 and 167-07. The next best competitor hit a 158-02.
The few Vandals that competed in the prestigious Stanford Invitational faced some of the nation’s best athletes.
Senior Erica Digby ran a 4:22.18 in the third section of the women’s 1,500-meter race to place third — a 13-second personal best for the fifth-year senior.
“I wasn’t surprised by 4:22, based off the indoor season, but to do that in the very first race of the season with no specific 1,500 work yet is amazing,” Idaho Director of Track and Field Wayne Phipps said. “It shows how fit she is and shows what kind of potential she has for later on when we get more work in.”
Sophomore Hannah Kiser finished in 4:27.46 in Section 2 of the event to put her No. 2 in the WAC, only behind Digby. Phipps said that the two girls had great times despite battling illness leading up to the meet.
Junior Liga Velvere, Idaho’s highest individual finisher at Stanford, took seventh in the women’s 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:01.21.
On the men’s side, senior distance runners Stephane Colle and Markus Geiger also made their outdoor season debuts at Stanford. Colle finished the 1500-meter race with a time of 3:53.19 while Geiger wrapped up the meet with a 14:45.96 in the men’s 5000-meter race.
“I think this entire group has a lot of high expectations for themselves after the indoor seasons that each of them had,” Phipps said. “This is a great meet to open at with a lot of great competition and very good weather. I think this is great preparation to set us up for Sacramento and Mt. SAC in the next two weeks.”
Stephan Wiebe can be reached at [email protected]