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SEATTLE, Wash.­ — The Portland State track & field team's three returning Big Sky champions proved up to the challenge of leading a young Viking team Saturday, as the majority of the Vikings opened their 2017 indoor seasons at the UW Indoor Preview at the Dempsey Indoor facility.
 
Junior Spenser Schmidt had the busiest day of the three, as the 2016 Big Sky indoor champion in the long jump competed in the 60 meters, 200 meters and long jump Saturday.
 
Schmidt's best showing came in the 60 meters, where he finished the prelims of the event in a personal-best 7.00 seconds. Schmidt's time beat his old best of 7.02 by two-hundredths of a second, moving him up to sixth all-time in the event at Portland State.
 
Schmidt also opened with a strong mark in the long jump, as he finished third overall with a mark of 22-08.00 (6.91m). That mark beats the 22-07.25 (6.89m) Schmidt opened last season with, when he finished the season as the Big Sky champion.
 
Schmidt nearly matched his personal best in the 200 meters, as well, as he finished 10th in 22.41 seconds, sixth-hundredths of a second behind his all-time best of 22.35, set last season.
 
Like Schmidt, senior Genna Settle – 2016 Big Sky champion in the outdoor 100 meters – also opened her 2017 season stronger than she started 2016 in both the 60 and 200 meters.
 
Settle finished the qualifying round of the 60 meters in 7.64 seconds, and then followed it up with a time of 7.66 seconds in the prelims of the event. Both those times beat Settle's first six times in the 60 meters last season, a season in which she would eventually place second in the 60 meters at the Big Sky Championships.
 
Settle also cracked 25 seconds in the 200 meters with her time of 24.91 seconds, more than half a second faster than her opening time in 2016 of 25.43 seconds. Settle's time in the 200 moved her into the Big Sky lead in the event, as she's the lone Big Sky runner to crack 25 seconds so far this season.
 
Fellow senior Akayla Anderson – 2016 Big Sky champion in the 100-meter hurdles – also opened her season on a strong note Saturday, as she finished the prelims and finals of the 60-meter hurdles in 8.60 and 8.66 seconds, respectively. Anderson only ran faster than that twice in 2016, and not until the Big Sky indoor meet, where she placed second in the finals of the event.
 
Anderson moved into second within the Big Sky in the 60-meter hurdles with her time Saturday, just six-hundredths of a second behind Montana's Nicole Stroot.
 
Outside of the returning Big Sky champions, sophomore Jean-Luc Toku got his season off to a strong note in the triple jump, placing second with a personal-best mark of 47-03.50 (14.41m). Toku finished behind only Stanford's Jack Uudmae in the triple jump, as he beat his old PR in the event by nearly three inches. Toku's mark also moved him up to second in the Big Sky in the triple jump this season, behind only Eastern Washington's Keshun McGee, who jumped 49-07 (15.11m) at the Candy Cane Invitational at the beginning of December.
 
Senior Ben Richardson, coming off All-Big Sky honors in the indoor and outdoor 800 meters in 2016, bested Toku for the largest personal best on the day, however, as he competed in a rare 600-meter race Saturday. Richardson won his section of the 600 in 1:22.27, more than six seconds better than his time of 1:28.41 three years ago at the 2014 UW Indoor Preview. Richardson's improvement moved him four spots up into third all-time in the 600 meters at Portland State, his highest ranking in any individual event.
 
Saturday also featured the debuts of several Viking freshmen, who now have a meet under their belts going into the Bronco Invitational next Saturday. The Vikings will head up to the Jacksons Indoor Track in Nampa, Idaho, for the meet, hosted by Boise State University.
 
UW Indoor Preview
Seattle, Wash.
Dempsey Indoor
Jan. 14, 2017
 
Women's Results:
60m (Qualification): 7. Genna Settle, 7.64; 12. Nia Powdrell, 7.80; 13. Rachel Vinjamuri, 7.85. 60m (Prelims): 14. Genna Settle, 7.66; 19. Nia Powdrell, 7.84; 20. Rachel Vinjamuri, 7.87. 200m: 5. Genna Settle, 24.91; 17. Rachel Vinjamuri, 25.61; 26. Nia Powdrell, 25.96. 400m: 28. Maya Jackson, 1:00.43. 60H (Prelims): 6. Akayla Anderson, 8.60. 60H (Finals): 7. Akayla Anderson, 8.66. 4x400m Relay: 9. Portland State 'A' (Jackson, Powdrell, Settle, Vinjamuri), 4:02.09. Long Jump: 11. Brandi Williams, 17-02.75 (5.25m).
 
Men's Results:
60m (Qualification): 7. Spenser Schmidt, 7.06; 12. Se Min Park, 7.17; 22. Tanner Tropio, 7.38; 32. Justin Simpson, 7.53. 60m (Prelims): 11. Spenser Schmidt, 7.00. 200m: 10. Spenser Schmidt, 22.41; 20. Mitchell Gable, 22.73; 30. Se Min Park, 23.05; 33. Christian Wood, 23.23; 34. Tanner Tropio, 23.33; 40. Justin Simpson, 24.02. 400m: 7. Mitchell Gable, 49.23; 28. Antoine Wilder, 51.21. 600m: 10. Ben Richardson, 1:22.27. 60H (Prelims): 9. Kamal-Craig Golaube, 8.62; 15. Antoine Wilder, 8.91. 4x400m Relay: 10. Portland State 'A' (Tropio, Richardson, Wilder, Wood), 3:26.67. Long Jump: 3. Spenser Schmidt, 22-08.00 (6.91m); 8. Jean-Luc Toku, 21-04.25 (6.51m); 16. Justin Simpson, 20-05.25 (6.23m). Triple Jump: 2. Jean-Luc Toku, 47-03.50 (14.41m).