Well-rounded meet for Portland State

This previous weekend at the Oregon Relays, down at Hayward Field, the Vikings ended up having a fairly good meet.

“Hayward Field is always a fabulous place to compete because there’s so much history and the crowd support is amazing. You can get a great mark there because you’re so pumped, and then the confidence from that just carries you into the conference meet,” assistant coach Cassie Stilley said.

Luckily for the Viks, the weather for the meet could not have been better. It was sunny with a slight cool breeze, which feels good after a hard run, especially if that run broke a new school record, as it did for Tony Crisofulli.

On the second day of the meet, Crisofulli, a junior from Vail, Colo., crushed his own school record in the 800-meter, set five years ago, by .36 seconds with a time of 1:49.11. The time is a new career-best for him by .65 as well. Crisofulli had taken a break from running the 800-m, last competing on March 26 at the Stanford Invitational. Last year, he qualified for NCAA West Regional with a time of 1:49.76, and hopefully will qualify again with his recent results.

Rewinding back to the first day of the competition, senior Karene King, a native to Tortola, British Virgin Islands, finished third overall in the 200-meter with 23.86. This created a new personal record for her, and moved her up to number two in the PSU record books. This was also the first time she had run the 200-m in under 24 seconds. In Tortola, King holds the national indoor record, and is planning on competing this summer for her country in hopes to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Trials.

Several other athletes recorded new personal records, or season bests at this meet too. For instance, freshman Allison Burkett had a six-inch improvement in javelin with a throw of 134.1 inches. In the second day of competition, Freshamn Luke Leddige qualified for the Big Sky Outdoor Championship in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.89, which ties him as the eighth fastest in the PSU record books. The freshman shows great promise and should have a long and successful career ahead of him.

Adrienne Davis, a senior from Portland, improved her career best with a mark of 46 ft. 3.5 inches in the shot put, and finished third overall at the meet. She now holds the record for the second longest throw in PSU history, and is precisely one foot short of record holder Caressa Sims from 2005–08. Sophomore Geronne Black finished second in the 100-meter with a time of 11.80, just .20 behind Oregon’s Mandy White, who broke the 17 year old Big Sky all-time record this past weekend.

Another athlete who did well was junior Joenisha Vinson. She finished third in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 13.99, her second consecutive race under 14 seconds. Last week Vinson was named the Big Sky’s athlete of the week for women’s track, and Stilley believes she’s one of the best athletes in the conference.

“The really great thing about her is that she still hasn’t maxed out her potential,” Stilley said. “She’s continuing to make big improvements and she’s got more in the tank. I think she’s starting to scare the competition a little.”

Next weekend, the majority of the team will be taking a break, but a handful of underclassmen, as well as some conference qualifiers who’ll be working on their back-up events, will be competing in the Pacific Twilight this weekend. ?