United Heritage Invite: Day One

NAMPA, Idaho- After last week's opening meet in Nampa, the EOU Track and Field coaching staff decided to take another week to prepare, and the bulk of the team will compete back in Nampa on February 8 & 9.

In the mean time, Combined event standouts Lucas Ohmes and Chris Hoppie made the trip to Nampa for the United Heritage Invite Combined Events Competition.

The men's Heptathlon field is a very loaded field, with a number of high powered individuals competing, including last years NCAA Div. 1 champion and 4th place finisher. All told, there are 22 entries, an unusually high number of entrants for a combined events competition.

At the conclusion of Day one, the two Mounties were holding their own and putting up some personal records. Day one events were the 60 meter dash, Long Jump, Shot Put and High Jump.

Lucas Ohmes: Last years national qualifier (Indoor in the Heptathlon and Outdoor in the Decathlon) and EOU school record holder in the Heptathlon, is 53 points ahead of his pace at this meet last year, when he hit his national qualifying mark for the 2007 NAIA Indoor National Meet.

Ohmes' first day marks are:
60meters: 7.45 seconds, Long Jump: 20' 5 ½", Shot Put: 38' 7 ½" (Indoor PR), High Jump: 5' 4 ¼". His first day points total is 2457

Chris Hoppie: As solid of a day as Ohmes had, Chris is roaring right along. In his first ever Heptathlon (Chris is the EOU School Record Holder in the Decathlon Outdoors), Hoppie is on pace to set a 2008 NAIA national list leading point total.

Hoppie's marks for Day one are:
60m: 7.35 (60 meter PR), Long Jump: 22' 5 ½" (as far as we can discover, this is an EOU Indoor School record in the Long Jump and is an Indoor Pr for Chris), Shot Put: 36' 2 ¼", High Jump: 6' 3 ¼" (Indoor PR). First Day Total is 2809 points.

Day Two: Events kick off at 9 a.m. MST with the 60 meter hurdles, followed by the pole vault and the 1000 meter run.