Bronco Twilight

The 2008 version of the BSU Twilight saw some strong performances by EOU Track and Field athletes in both the throws and running events. Competing against 6 NCAA Div 1 schools (BSU, BYU, Eastern Washington, Idaho Sate, Idaho and Utah State) and two Community Colleges (Spokane and Treasure Valley) the EOU team posted a number of life time and season personal records in this final tune up for the Cascade Conference meet next week. Most of the EOU athletes competed in fewer events than normal as part of the build up to Conference.

Field Events: Baxter Leads the Way
Junior transfer Quinten Baxter continues to lead the way in the throws for EOU, this time with a stellar performance in the shot put. Baxter threw a lifetime PR by almost three feet to hit an NAIA B standard of 50' 2.75". He also led the way in the Hammer an event that also saw Sophomore Andy Munsey improve his life time PR by close to three feet and also close the gap on the NAIA "A" standard, an event Munsey is now within three feet of hitting the "A" standard. Jason Dunten threw his season best as well in the hammer.

The women's throws were led by Trisha Harshberger's 4th place overall finish in the hammer and Grace Deboodt's 7th place overall finish in the Javelin. In other field event action, Shauna Dahlin jumped well in the High Jump and Cayla Weissert continues to iron some wrinkles out in the Pole Vault as does Lucas Ohmes.

Harmon and Windle Shine on the Track
Among a host of strong performances, Chelsee Harmon's big life time PR in the 400 meter hurdles stands out as one of the best performances of the day as she shaved 1.4 seconds off her life time best and 2.3 off her seasonal best with a fine 1:06.51 mark to win her heat going away. Harmon also anchored the women's 4 x 100 (C. Beach, M. Abesa, D. Murphy and Harmon) that ran a season best of 50.48.

In the 1500, Stephanie Windle took charge of the slower of two heats at 300 meters and never looked back to streak to a win and a big life time PR with a fine time of 4:49.47. Windle was followed in 4th place in the "B" heat by Christy Pletan who lowered her PR by a huge margin of 15 seconds to dip under 5 minutes in 4:48.70. In the fast heat, Marcella Bosch ran a strong, but rough seasonal best of 4:49.48.

Elsewhere on the track, several athletes burned up the track in the 200 with LaGrande native Melisa Abesa leading the way with a massive PR (one second) of 26.62. Andrew Wise led the men with a fine time of 22.87.

In the 400 Kasie Gillespie ran the first open 400 of her life with a solid performance and Adam Goulet dropped close to a full second off his open 400 time to run a strong 50.46 to win his heat by a wide margin.

In the men's 800, Jeff Roy came from behind to set a lifetime PR and win the "B" heat by a narrow margin. Roy also lead a charge across the line of EOU athletes that saw three others (C. Starner, T. Blackburn and C. Quintana) all set life time PR's and one other (F. Morales) set a season best. Doug Benson was leading the "A" heat when the eventual winner clipped him from behind a little over mid race to send Doug tumbling to the track with a rather nasty puncture wound to his heel.

The evening was punctuated with EOU season best marks for both genders in the 4 x 400 relay. Running for the women (4th overall in 4:11.08) were Deboodt, Bosch, Pletan and Windle and for the men Benson, Goulet, Roy and Morales, with Goulet dipping under 50.0 with a fine 49.8 split and Fernando Morales just missing the coveted sub 50 mark with a 50.0 split. Morales came from behind to out lean a BSU athlete for second place in a time of 4:24.28, slightly faster than the EOU season best of 4:24.51 set last week.

Up Next:
Next up is the Cascade Collegiate Conference Championships in Gresham, Ore. hosted by rival Concordia University. Action gets under way on Thursday, May 8th with the first day of the Multis and the 10,000 meter run and continues on Friday and Saturday. The men will seek to win their third conference title in the last 6 years and the women should be a in a battle for second with Oregon Tech.