Bronco Invite: Day One

Women: Competing against the likes of Arizona State, Nevada, BSU and
several California NCAA Div 1 and 2 schools, the EOU Track team had a
good showing over here tonight.

LaGrande High product, FR, Melisa Abesa brook her own school record in
the 60 meters tonight when she ran a very competitive time of 8.23
seconds to finish 4th in her heat. Two weeks ago she ran 8.30 to set the
EOU record.

Other highlights were some fish stories of "the one that got away".
In the 20 pound weight throw, Trisha Harshberger had a "times two near
miss", when she threw a roughly 4 foot Personal best (PR) to just miss
the NAIA Provisional standard of 47' 9" with a toss of 47' 7 3/4" and
then had a monster throw on her last throw in finals get away from her
with a foot foul in the ring.

On the track the foursome of Marcella Bosch (1200 meters), Chelsee
Harmon (400 meters), Christy Pletan (800 meters) and Sara Bates (1600
meters) teamed up in the Distance Medley Relay and missed the NAIA
Provisional mark by .4 of a second.

Men:
One more school record and one more "fish story", both by Chris Hoppie,
highlighted the day.

Back in the venue that he set an NAIA list leading mark int he
Heptathlon less than a week ago, Chris ran rough race in the prelims
of the 60 meter high Hurdles, then came back in the finals and jumped
out to an early lead until he hit the 2nd hurdle and things went down
hill....the top two individuals ended up running well under the NAIA
auto mark and it is doubtful, had he stayed clean, that Chris would
not have beaten at least one of those two...so that is his fish got
away for the day.

However, just a few minutes later, in the Long Jump,
in the final jump of the finals, Chris put together a big jump to post
a mark that at this time should rank him second in the NAIA when he
nailed a jump of 23' 6 3/4" of an inch...just a bit over a foot
further than the EOU indoor school record he set last week.

Other highlights included Mitch Wheelhouse making finals in the shot put
and Andrew wise (Grittman) running his way on to the EOU top 5 list in
the 60 meters.

Action continues at 10 a.m. (Mt. time) on Saturday.
Complete results can be found at Broncosports.com, under the Track and
field link.