Between Wednesday and Saturday Vandal track and field competed in six meets and put up several personal bests and all-time Idaho top 10 performances in California and Washington.
Ricky Scuderi | Argonaut Sophomore Colton Hastings, left, and senior Jeff Osborn participate in the men's 1,500-meter at Washington State's Cougar Invitational.
“Coming into today, (Colle) had two things he really wanted to do,” Idaho Director of Track and Field Wayne Phipps said. “First, he wanted to go under 14 minutes, and second, he wanted to break the school record — he didn’t quite get there, but it’s a 10-second personal best for him and it’s second in school history, so if he’s not happy, I certainly am.”
In the throwing events, sophomore Kyle Rothwell finished fourth in the hammer throw with a toss of 196-9 feet. The mark improves his WAC lead in the event.
“When we started this season, he put a long-term goal — kind of something to shoot for down the road — to throw 200 feet and he’s almost got that with a lot of the season left,” coach Julie Taylor said. “He’s only been throwing the hammer since he’s been in college and he has huge upside.”
Freshman Ben Ayesu-Attah had a personal best in the 400-meter with his time of 47.89 seconds. It is the first sub-48 second 400-meter of his collegiate career and moves him into No. 2 in the WAC.
“It’s a long time coming for him,” Phipps said. “He ran a bunch of races in high school in the low 48s and a bunch indoors in low 48s, so for him to finally break through is great. It’s something that he’s worked really hard for and I’m very happy to see him get it.”
Sophomore Dylan Watts continued his improvement in the pole vault clearing 16-0.75 to move into a tie at No. 5 all-time at Idaho with freshman Matt Sullivan. Sullivan cleared the same height at the Bryan Clay Invitational during the weekend.
Junior Sarah Nutsch improved her hammer throw mark during the same meet with a 187-9 foot toss. Her mark was a 10-foot personal best and gave her a second-place finish behind senior Gabby Midles. Midles won the event with throw of 189 feet.
“Sarah is really starting to be able to build up some speed and be more comfortable with it,” Taylor said. “Gabby has been kind of fighting an injury from indoors, so it’s really nice seeing her getting back into hammer shape and getting a mark that is like the old Gabby.”
Senior Rendel Jones finished eighth in the men’s long jump with a mark of 47-3.75 feet. The jump improved his personal record by more than a foot.
Back on the track, junior Anna Kalbrener finished sixth in the women’s 1,500-meter finishing in 4:30.11 minutes.
“They’re going against kids from all over the country and most of them are doubling or tripling up against some great competition,” Taylor said. “Any time you have great weather and great competition, it’s going to bring out good marks for us.”
The Vandals also had several highlights in the other four meets. In the California Invitational, freshman Johanna Hocketstaller posted the sixth-best women’s heptathlon score in Idaho history. In the Cal State Los Angeles Twilight Open, senior Jeremiah Dubie ran a career-best time of 14:59.90 in a second-place finish in the men’s 5,000-meter. Idaho also had 15 total personal-bests between the Beach Invitational and Cougar Invitational. The Vandals travel to Spokane for the Duane Hartman Invite Saturday.
Stephan Wiebe can be reached at [email protected]