Complete Meet Notes (PDF)

PORTLAND, Ore. — It's still early in the outdoor season, but the Portland State track & field program has already set two school records. Alana Chaplin and Sarah Medved provided those, as they swept the women's 2,000- and 3,000-meter steeplechase records at the Vikings' first two meets of the season.
 
Add on Alex Cisneros' top 10 finish in the men's 5,000 meters last week – the Viking men's first top 10 finish in the 5,000 meters since 2005 – and the Viking distance crew has had quite the start to the season.
 
They'll step aside this week, however, as the Vikings compete at the Willamette Invitational Saturday at McCulloch Stadium in Salem, Ore.
 
The Vikings' sprinters will take center stage at the meet, as 11 Vikings will compete between the men's and women's 100 meters, while 10 more in the men's and women's 200 meters.
 
The longest distance on the track for the Vikings at the meet will be the 800 meters, which Austen Hvidsten and Will Payton will make their season debuts in on the men's side. Maya Jackson is also entered in the women's 800 meters, which will be the first time she's ever run the 800 meters as a Viking.
 
Katie Baxter will make her Viking debut in the 400-meter hurdles Saturday. Baxter came into PSU with a personal best of 1:01.87 in the 400-meter hurdles, which would rank her fifth all time in the Vikings' record book should she match the mark Saturday.
 
Saturday's meet will also feature several debuts in the field events for the Vikings. Megan Cornett and Taylor Matsuzaki will make their debuts in the women's javelin, while Taylor Elliott will make her outdoor debut in the women's high jump. Elliott is also entered in the women's triple jump, which she competed in as a prep athlete but has yet to compete in as a Viking.
 
Angela Mumford made her outdoor debut last week in the women's shot put and discus, but will also compete in the women's hammer this weekend. Mumford came into PSU with a personal best of 136-05 (41.57m) in the hammer, which would rank her eighth all time in the event should she match the event Saturday.
 
Field events get underway at 9:30 a.m. Saturday for the Vikings, while track events start at 11:30 a.m.
 
MEET INFO:
March 24 – Willamette Invitational – Salem, Ore. (McCulloch Stadium)
 
LIVE RESULTS:
Live results will be available from the Willamette Invitational. Fans can find the link to live results on the track & field schedule page on GoViks.com.
 
WILLAMETTE INVITATIONAL SCHEDULE:
Saturday, March 24
Field Events
Start (PT)              Events (PSU entries)
9:30 a.m.              Men's Discus (Robinson)
                              Women's Pole Vault (Collmer)
                              Women's Shot Put (Mumford)
After W-PV           Men's Pole Vault (Johnson, Masanga, Moen, Robinson)
11:30 a.m.            Women's Discus (Mumford)
                              Women's Javelin (Cornett, Matsuzaki)
                              Men's Long Jump (Barrow, Luyamba, Toku)
                              Women's Long Jump (Terry, Williams)
2 p.m.                   Women's Triple Jump (Elliott)
                              Men's Triple Jump (Barrow, Luyamba, Toku)
After M-HJ            Women's High Jump (Elliott)
After M-HT            Women's Hammer (Mumford)
 
Running Events
Start (PT)              Events (PSU entries)
11:30 a.m.            Women's 4x100-Meter Relay (Portland State 'A')
11:35 a.m.            Men's 4x100-Meter Relay (Portland State 'A')
12:55 p.m.            Women's 100 Meters (Cummings, Powdrell, Richey, Smith, Terry)
1:15 p.m.              Men's 100 Meters (Davis, Desaki, Golaube, Park, Robinson, Sincere)
1:30 p.m.              Women's 800 Meters (Jackson)
1:40 p.m.              Men's 800 Meters (Hvidsten, Payton)
2 p.m.                   Women's 400-Meter Hurdles (Baxter)
2:30 p.m.              Women's 200 Meters (Cummings, Powdrell, Richey)
2:50 p.m.              Men's 200 Meters (Davis, Desaki, Golaube, Kilcup, Park, Sincere, Toku)
3:15 p.m.              Men's 4x400-Meter Relay (Portland State 'A')
 
UPCOMING:
The Vikings step out of the state of Oregon for the first time while competing at two different meets next weekend. Part of the team will compete at the SF State Distance Carnival Friday, March 30, in San Francisco, Calif., while the rest of the team competes at the Al Manuel Northwest Invite, March 30-31, in Missoula, Mont.
 
BIG SKY INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS:
The Big Sky Conference eliminated qualifying standards for the Big Sky Outdoor Championships last season, and will continue in that mold this season. Roster sizes will be capped at 28 athletes (men and women), leaving it up to coaches to determine how to maximize their scoring potential at the meet. The Big Sky Outdoor Championships take place, May 8-11, in Moscow, Idaho.
 
NCAA OUTDOOR CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFICATION:
Unlike the NCAA Indoor Championships, the path to the NCAA Outdoor Championships runs through a regional stage, giving the Vikings a better chance of qualifying for the national meet. Indoors, the Vikings could only qualify for the national meet if they finished in the top 16 in each individual event, but outdoors, the Vikings only need to finish in the top 48 of the NCAA west region to qualify for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds, May 24-26, in Sacramento, Calif. The top 12 in each event at the NCAA West and East Preliminary Rounds then advance onto the NCAA Outdoor Championships, June 6-9, in Eugene, Ore. The qualification procedure differs a bit for the relay events, as only the top 24 relay teams qualify for the regional stage. Qualifying for the multi-events also differs, as they skip the regional stage and instead advance the top 24 in the nation in the heptathlon and decathlon directly to the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
 
L&C SPRING BREAK OPEN RECAP:
The Viking distance crew headlined the team's season-opening meet at the L&C Spring Break Open, March 16-17 in Portland, Ore. Sarah Medved broke the school record in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase on the first day of the meet, Friday. Medved set the record in her debut in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, finishing in 10:58.17 to become the first Viking women to crack 11 minutes in the event. Medved beat the old record of 11:11.60 that Mandy Peterson set 15 years ago in 2003. Alex Cisneros followed Medved with the Viking men's first top 10 mark in the 5,000 meters in 13 years Saturday despite running through rainy conditions. Cisneros won the 5,000 meters in 14:28.96, moving him up to sixth all time in the event. No Viking had entered the top 10 in the outdoor men's 5,000 since Blake Flanders in 2005, who Cisneros ironically knocked out of the top 10 with his time Saturday. Medved and Cisneros were also just two of several event winners for the Vikings at the meet. Jaron Barrow and Ta'mara Richey won the men's and women's long jump, respectively, Friday, while the Vikings won seven events Saturday. Nia Powdrell and Kristen O'Handley swept the women's 100 and 200 meters, while both also joined Richey and Natalie Cummings to win the 4x100-meter relay for the Vikings. Josh Pikes won the men's 200 meters, and was part of the Vikings' winning 4x400-meter relay team along with Zack Davis, Justin Desaki and Will Payton. Viktor Moen and Jean-Luc Toku, meanwhile, added event wins in the field for the Viking men, as they swept the pole vault and triple jump, respectively. The Viking women beat out Oregon State for first place in the team competition, finishing with 122 points to the Beavers' 115. The Viking men placed second with 102 team points, 21 points behind Western Oregon, which won the men's competition with 123.
 
TEDDY TWILIGHT RECAP:
Alana Chaplin broke the school record in the 2,000-meter steeplechase at the Teddy Twilight on March 3. Chaplin finished in 7:36 to break Keikoanne Hollins' old record of 7:43.56 that she set in 2012. McKenna Martin also moved up to fourth all time in the 2,000-meter steeplechase with her finish in 7:52. Jacob Emeterio and Jayson Maule also competed in the men's 2,000-meter steeplechase and moved up to third and fifth all time with their finishes in 6:20 and 6:44, respectively.
 
2018 INDOOR SEASON RECAP:
Donté Robinson out-kicked Sacramento State's Max Jette in the final event of the heptathlon – the 1,000 meters – at the Big Sky Indoor Championships, giving the redshirt junior his first Big Sky title. Robinson and Jette were tied through the first six events of the heptathlon, but Robinson passed Jette with a lap to go in the 1,000 meters and didn't look back, finishing in 2:51.65 to beat Jette by three-and-a-half seconds. Robinson became the Vikings' first Big Sky champion in the heptathlon since former NCAA first-team All-American Nick Trubachik won the event in 2010. Robinson won the event with a personal-best score of 5,248 points, and set personal bests in four of the seven events during the competition. Besides Robinson, the Vikings set five school records during the season, including two for Alex Cisneros. Cisneros broke his own school record in the 5,000 meters at the UW Invitational, finishing in 14:19.95 – 23 seconds faster than the time he ran at the same meet last season. Cisneros also broke the school record in the 3,000 meters at the UW Indoor Open, finishing in 8:16.45 to beat the old record of 8:21.04 by more than four seconds. Kaila Gibson joined Cisneros in a sweep of the men's and women's 5,000-meter records at the UW Invite, as she set the women's record with her finish in 16:53.60. Saraia Collmer, meanwhile, broke the school record in the women's pole vault in back-to-back meets during the season. Collmer first broke the record with a clearance of 11-05.25 (3.49m) at the Idaho Duals, and then broke it again a week later with a clearance of 11-07.25 (3.54m) at the UW Indoor Open. Kamal-Craig Golaube also broke the school record in the men's 60-meter hurdles twice, as he broke the record in the prelims and then the finals of the Big Sky Indoor Championships. Golaube finished the prelims of the 60 hurdles in 8.19 seconds, and then finished the finals in 8.14 seconds.