A meet to remember

This past weekend, the Portland State track team traveled down to Sacramento State University to compete in the Mondo Invitational.

“The meet was awesome! There wasn’t a single athlete who had a really bad meet,” Assistant coach Cassie Stilley said. “Two school records in the women’s 4×100-meter relay and the 4×400-meter relay were broken, as well as various athletes making new personal records.”

Starting off with the school records, the 4×100 relay team almost broke the school record at the Oregon Preview earlier in the season, but they blew their previous record (45.92 seconds) out of the water with a new time of 45.24. The team is made up of senior Karene King, juniors Joenisha Vinson and Anaiah Rhodes and sophomore Geronne Black.

Also, the 4×400 relay team ran a 3:47.81, which was about four seconds short of Fresno’s winning time. This relay team has King, Black and Vinson as  well as junior Dominique Maloney. According to head coach Ronnye Harrison, Maloney ran her leg at an impressive 55-second time.   

As for the new personal records, sophomore Sean Mackelvie threw his javelin an incredible 221 feet and four inches, smashing his old record by over 21 feet. It was Mackelvie’s first time competing on the collegiate level in javelin. He is now first in the conference with his new distance, and is also ranked in the triple jump.

King was not only involved with both of the relay teams, but also ran in the 100-meter and the 200-meter. She finished second, by only .03 in the 100-m, and took first with a new PR of 24.18 in the 200-m. 

Someone who is beginning to sneak her way into the limelight is sophomore Brittany Long. She competes in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, and has been improving her personal record weekly. Last weekend at the Stanford Invitational, she shaved her time down by 23 seconds, and at this meet she took off an additional 14 seconds. She is only three seconds away from qualifying for the Big Sky Championship and is ranked ninth in the conference.

Also worth noting is Rhodes, who ran a new PR in the 100-m with a time of 12.21. Then sophomore Amber Rozcicha, who ran the 5,000-meter for the first time last weekend, dropped back down to a familiar race, the 800-meter, finishing 13th but still qualifying for the Big Sky Championship. Another athlete who qualified for the Big Sky Championship was sophomore Nate Lightner in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 55.37. Last weekend, he was only short of qualifying by .40 seconds.

One of the tough components of this meet was the competition, and although there was plenty of talent in all of the events, the Vikings seemingly used this fact to help motivate the team and put them at another level.

“The competition was great, and I think that’s one of the things that helped the athletes perform so well,” said Stilley. “Almost every event had a new meet record set. Every school was there to compete hard.”

This next week the Vikings will be taking a break, focusing on keeping up the hard work and improving in some areas.

“We can really address any weaknesses the athletes still have, and it helps keep them from getting burned out,” Stilley said.

Other benefits include giving the athletes a chance to rest both physically and mentally. Stilley recognizes that the team traveling every weekend can take a toll on the players.

“A little down time helps keep people hungry to compete,” Stilley noted.

The only Viking not getting a break is Vinson, as she will be competing in the Mt. Sac Relay Heptathlon on April 13 and 14, in Azusa, Calif. This will be her chance to qualify for the Big Sky Championship, since her last attempt at the Cal Multi was thwarted by a cancelation on the second day. ?