Despite competing more than 1,000 miles apart, the split Idaho track and field teams yielded impressive results Friday and Saturday in Tempe, Ariz., and Saturday in Spokane.
The highlight of the weekend came from record-breaking sophomore Matt Sullivan in the men’s pole vault. Sullivan won the regular section of the event at the Sun Angel Classic in Tempe with a mark of 17 feet, 5 inches, putting him two inches ahead of the Idaho record by Lucas Pope in 2011. The mark is more than a foot higher than his best from last year.
Sullivan’s record comes as a pleasant surprise as he is usually second on the team to former All-American pole-vaulter Jeremy Klas. Klas also had a solid performance in Tempe, finishing third in the premiere section of the event with a mark of 17-01.
“Both Matt Sullivan and Jeremy Klas vaulted really this weekend,” Idaho coach Julie Taylor said. “It’s great to have those two really pushing with each other. They’re both at such a high-quality level right now.”
Also impressive in the jumps was senior Rendel Jones. He finished eighth in the triple jump but his mark of 48-6.75 is the best of his career and puts him at first in the WAC so far this season.
The jumping crew is already showing the perks of working under new jumping coach Allen Simms with career-best marks early in the season.
“Those guys are really responding to coach Simms,” Taylor said. “It’s been great to see that transformation and how they’ve responded to a new coach.”
On the track, seniors Barry Britt and Jeff Osborn in the men’s 1,500-meter run, senior Liga Velvere in the women’s 800-meter run and freshman Marquita Palmer in the women’s 1,500-meter run all finished with personal records. Palmer also won the regular section of 1,500 with her time of 4 minutes, 34.10 seconds. Overall, the Vandals earned 14 personal-best marks and six season-best marks in Arizona.
Unfortunately, a couple of notable Vandals were not able to participate in the team-debut weekend for Idaho. Junior Hannah Kiser is holding off one more week after having competed deep into the indoor season and being the only Vandal to qualify for the national championships. On the men’s side, senior Mike Marshall, a javelin thrower, is also holding out one more week due to a nagging injury. Taylor expects both of them to compete this weekend.
In addition to the Sun Angel Classic, the Vandals also had a squad competing in the Sam Adams Classic in Whitworth. The Idaho women finished second out of six teams while the men snagged third out of eight. It is quite common to compete in separate meets on the same weekend, but what is not so common is to have great success in both meets.
The Vandals earned eight first-place marks at the meet, led by junior Cait Rowland’s sweep of the hurdle events for the second straight year. She won the 100-meter hurdles in 15.16 while finishing in 1:07.40 in the 400-meter hurdles.
Vandal freshmen dominated the small Spokane meet with the other Vandal victories coming from freshmen Alex Sciocchetti, Halie Raudenbush, Jerrica Hauck, Ian Middleton, Blake Gerling and Santos Vargas.
This weekend, the Vandals are back together on Saturday in Spokane for the Battle of the Pacific Northwest.
Stephan Wiebe can be reached at [email protected]