SACRAMENTO,
Calif. - The Vikings were singing
"PR's a plenty" Saturday at the Mondo Invitational as several athletes
surpassed their previous performances. To cap the meet, the women's 100-meter
hurdles and 4x100-meter relay school-records were broken.
Sophomore Joenisha Vinson was the super hero of the week in Portland State track as she qualified for
conference for four different events in the Big Sky Championships. After
running a 13.94 Wednesday, Vinson responded Saturday with a 13.84 to shatter
the school record by .04.
She also dubbed as the second leg for the 4x100 relay team
that ran a 45.91, the fastest-time in school-history and in the conference this
season. Vinson has qualified for conference in the long jump (18-5.75), high
jump (5-3.25), 200-meters (25.07), 100-meter hurdles (13.84) and the heptathlon
(4,723 points).
In the 100-meters, juniors Malissa Anthony and Karene King
and sophomore Geronne Black beat their previous-bests in the race and Anthony
qualified for the Big Sky Championships with her 12.41. King posted a 11.91 to
win the race and Black surpassed the 12 second barrier with a 11.96 to finish
third.
King and Anthony also improved their times in the 200-meters
with their respective times 24.22 and 25.35.
In the men's sprints, seniors Daniel Wolverton and Lavonte Kirven both qualified for the outdoor championships in the 100-meters.
Wolverton has flirted with sub 11 seconds all year and finally
broke through with a 10.90. Kirven made a huge jump in his PR, dropping his time
from 11.27 to 10.98.
Junior Katie Blue posted her fastest time this outdoor
season with her 18:16.04, just 16.04 shy of the conference's qualification
time.
Breaking through in the men's 400-meters, newcomer Nate Lightner qualified for the conference meet with his 48.87, making the cut by
.03.
Improving her time in the 400-meter hurdles, Alyssa Rife ran
a 1:02.57, finishing second overall and .13 behind Washington's Syreeta Martin.
Sophomore Tony Crisofulli improved his conference qualifying
time in the 800-meters with a 1:51.87, surpassing his outdoor best by .39.
Crisofulli finished fifth in the race, behind conference leader David
Rabinowitz of Sac
State. In the women's
race, Alexis Kitzman improved her time in the 800-meters in Sacramento as she ran a 2:27.77.
Also improving their times in the distance races were Mark Bozarth-Dreher (1,500-meters), Andrew Salg (5,000-meters) and John Lawrence
(3,000-meter steeplechase). Bozarth-Dreher ran a 4:07.97 in his race, Salg won
his race and posted a PR of 14:54.29 and Lawrence
rounded out the group with a 9:16.93 to win his race.
Teammate Nate Endicott finished right behind Lawrence in the
steeplechase to take third and improve his conference qualifying time, 9:25.04.
Senior decathlete Nick Trubachik competed in the 110-meter
hurdles and qualified individually for the conference championship with his
15.17 in the event.
The team will have next weekend off follow up April 30 and
May 1 at the Oregon Relays in Eugene.