Bronco Invite: Day Two

Day two of the Bronco Invite saw some more exciting events for EOU, highlighted by several NAIA Provisional Marks, one NAIA Auto Qualifying Mark and a "crashing finish" in the men's 800.

Women:
Lead headline for the day on the women's side was Cayla Weissert in the Pole Vault when she jumped a Personal Best and NAIA Provisional Qualifying mark of 3.30 meters, or 10' 10"….just shy of the NAIA Auto Qualifying mark of 3.38 meters, or 11'1". Weissert's previous Indoor PR was 10'2".

In the sprints, the EOU Women had a solid day, finishing with a highly improved 4 x 400 meter relay of Gillespie, Abesa, Murphy and Harmon.

Men:
Mitch Wheelhouse started the day out for the Mountie men with a PR day in the 30 pound weight throw with 3 throws over the personal best he set last week and an NAIA Provisional mark.

On the track, EOU had several races to get excited about, including a thrilling lean for the win and crash by Doug Benson in heat one of the Men's 800. Benson started out controlled, but plenty fast, made a strong move in the second lap of the four lap race to move into the lead and held off a strong challenge by a Utah State runner to hang on for the win despite a stumble and crash at the line.

Benson was followed in third place by Jeff Roy and Benson's time almost stole the show, as the second and supposedly faster heat, started slowly and the first two runners barely ran faster than Benson at the end.

In other action, in the men's Mile, Zach Heath ran a strong, steady race, to dip under the NAIA Auto Qualifier - by just under 2 tenths of a second. What made Heath's run even more impressive were two facts: 1) it was an eight second indoor PR and 2) he is due to go into surgery on February 15th for a sports hernia.

Heath was diagnosed with the sports hernia on Thursday, the 7th, but cleared by the Surgeon who will do the procedure to go ahead and run this weekend. He has been struggling with a "side ache" issue for some time now. Pretty gutsy performance when all is said an done.

Next up is the U of Washington Open on Sunday February 17th with a small group.