Portland State indoor track and field team kicks off season at Jackson’s Open this weekend
The Portland State men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams will travel to Nampa, Idaho, to compete in the Jackson’s Open at the Jackson’s indoor track on Friday and Saturday. With this event, the Vikings will begin their 2011–12 season campaign.
Idaho State is hosting the two-day event, which will bring together track and field athletes from 15 colleges including Stanford, Portland State, Nevada, Central Washington and Lewis & Clark. The various events over the meet include the indoor pentathlon, heptathlon, weight throw, pole vault, high jump, shot put and long jump.
On Friday, the Jackson’s Open will begin at 4 p.m. with the pentathlon 60-meter hurdles. The women’s pentathlon and the men’s heptathlon will also be held on Friday, followed by the men’s and women’s throw and the men’s pole vault.
Saturday’s events will begin at 9 a.m. with the heptathlon 60-m hurdles. In the afternoon, open races and field events will be held and the meet is scheduled to finish with the men’s 4×400-meter relay.
In 2010, the Vikings started their season with the Jackson’s Open and went on to score six wins at the event. Senior Joenisha Vinson finished the women’s 60-m hurdles in 8.70 seconds, beating her school record by 0.1 seconds. She also won the women’s long jump with 18-4.25, surpassing her personal best by 3.5 inches.
Senior Karene King also won two events including the women’s 60-m and 200-meter dash. In the 200-m event, she finished in 24.54 seconds, 0.30 seconds faster than her personal record.
The other two winners in the 2010 Jackson’s Open were senior Adrienne Davis in women’s shot put and senior Sean Mackelvie in the men’s high jump.
This year, the top returners in the women’s section include King, Vinson and junior Geronne Black. On the men’s front, senior Tony Crisofulli and senior John Lawrence will return for the Vikings.
King, who competes for British Virgin Islands’ track program, was a regional championship qualifier in the 200-m dash last year. In 2010, she won four Big Sky medals and is considered one of the conference’s top sprinters along with Black. She is currently third all-time in the 200-m race for Portland State’s program history.
Black won the 55-meter and the 100-meter Big Sky events as a freshman last season. She has been training with her teammates over the summer and is the fastest freshman in program history.
Vinson won silver in the 60-m hurdles and bronze in the women’s pentathlon at the 2010 Big Sky Indoor Championship. She is in the all-time top ten in ten different track and field events in Portland State’s program history and has five school records to her name.
Crisofulli was a NCAA West Regional qualifier in the 800-meter last year. He is a key member of the men’s 4×400 relay team and is one of the two Vikings ever to do a sub–1-minute-and-50-second run in the 800-m.
Lawrence is the returning captain of the men’s distance running team. He is the first Portland State runner since 2004 to run the 8,000-meter race in under 25 minutes. He is number two in the program’s all-time 3,000-meter steeplechase event and a top ten in the indoor 1,000, 3,000 and 5,000 meters events.
The men’s and the women’s track and field teams are coached by Ronnye Harrison, who is in his third year as Portland State’s head coach. Under his watch, two athletes have qualified for the NCAA Championships and nine athletes have won events at the Big Sky Championships.
