Idaho track and field coach Tim Cawley told reporters at the WSU Open that the indoor meet last week was more of a preparation tool for the University of Washington Invitational in Seattle.
After three days of competition, the Vandals left the Emerald City with several Vandals recording personal bests.
The Idaho track and field program continued to find its stride with the Big Sky Conference Indoor Championships several weeks away.
Senior Ben Ayesu-Attah, who already earned a place at the conference meet in February, continued to pull off several strong races this week highlighted by his performance in the 400m.
Ayesu-Attah and competitor Taylor Ros were the only runners to finish with a time under 48 seconds. Ayesu-Attah claimed the top spot with a time of 47.22 while Ros ended the race at 47.54 seconds.
Vandal teammate and freshman Kaizer Gillispie finished two seconds behind Ayesu-Attah with a time of 49.73, which was good enough to earn the freshman a top-20 standing.
Senior Jesse Villines and freshman Zion Stuffle advanced out of the qualifying preliminaries in the men’s 60m hurdles to compete in the following round of competition.
In preliminaries, Villines proved to be the quickest of the Vandal duo with a time of 8.47. However, the senior fell short on advancing to the finals as unattached hurdler Stephen Delaney claimed the eighth and final spot with a time of 8.34 in the third heat race.
Stuffle also failed to qualify for the final round by placing 17th in the preliminaries.
Junior Drew Thompson went the distance for the Vandals and finished 11th in the heptathlon, which consisted of seven events that began Friday.
Fresh off her win in discus at the WSU Open in Pullman, junior Kolcie Bates continued to put up career performances in other field events.
Bates led the second flight with a personal record of 16.82m in weight throw, which proved to be enough for fifth overall. Eastern Washington’s Kaytlyn Coleman had the furthest throw at 18.50m.
Bates also took fourth in shotput with a mark of 11.97m.
Three Vandal women competed in a stacked 200m dash. Sophomore Meghan Palesch was the fastest out of the trio with a time of 26.41.
Freshman Lauren Curlanis took seventh in long jump with a distance of 4.96m.
Senior Halie Raudenbush finished 36th overall Sunday in a competitive women’s 3000m with a time of 10:04.02, after finishing fourth in her heat race.
The Vandals will travel to Pullman to compete in the Cougar Indoor Feb. 5-6 before returning back to Seattle for the Husky Classic from Feb. 12-14.
Luis Torres can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @TheLTFiles