Complete Meet Notes (PDF)

THE STARTING BLOCK
After distance and multi-events ruled last week, the Portland State track & field team goes for speed this week as they head to the OSU High Performance meet in Corvallis this Friday and Saturday.
 
The middle distances will dominate for the Vikings' longer runners, as seven athletes compete between the men's and women's 1,500 meters, while another four are entered in the men's 800 meters.
 
Sarah Medved and Kaila Gibson, the Vikings' two athletes likely to qualify for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds in May, will each compete in the women's 1,500 meters along with Delaney White. The pair haven't run an official 1,500 meters since last season's OSU High Performance meet, where Gibson set a new personal best of 4:31.96.
 
Medved will be coming off her best performance of the season after she ran a likely qualifying time in the steeplechase at the Mt. SAC Relays last Friday. Medved finished in 10:23.36, less than two seconds behind the school record she set at 10:21.56 at last season's Mt. SAC Relays.
 
Medved moved up to 22nd in the NCAA west region with her time at the Mt. SAC Relays, putting her well within the top 48 that will qualify for the NCAA West Prelims at the end of May. Medved's time Friday also stands nine seconds faster than last year's final qualifying time of 10:32.47, and close to six seconds faster than 2017's final qualifying time of 10:29.13.
 
Gibson already had her NCAA West Prelims qualifier in the women's 10,000 meters going into last week after she shaved 80 seconds off her personal best with a finish in 34:12.51 at the Stanford Invitational on March 29. Gibson's time ranks her 32nd in the NCAA west region, and stands more than 30 seconds faster than last season's final qualifying time of 34:47.00.
 
Gibson likely won't run another 10,000 meters until the NCAA West Prelims, but competed in the 5,000 meters last week at the Bryan Clay Invitational. Gibson shaved six seconds off her seasonal best with a finish in 16:52.79, the second time she's cracked 17 minutes in the 5,000 during the outdoor season.
 
The Vikings' youth will dominate the other distance events, including in the steeplechase where freshmen Phoebe Brown and Linnaea Kavulich run in the women's race while freshman Drew Seidel runs in the men's race. None of the three first-year runners have competed in the steeplechase since the Mike Fanelli Track Classic on March 28, when Kavulich and Seidel each moved into the all-time top 10s in the women's and men's steeplechase, respectively. Kavulich moved up third all time in the women's steeplechase with a time of 11:14.99 at the meet, while Seidel moved up to 10th all time in the men's steeplechase with a time of 9:29.98.
 
Outside of the distance events, sophomore Kristen O'Handley should lead the Vikings' field-event athletes and sprinters after setting a 300-point personal best in the heptathlon at last season's Bryan Clay Invitational. O'Handley scored 4,871 points at the Bryan Clay Invite, 293 points better than her previous best of 4,578 points. O'Handley set heptathlon bests in five of the seven events at the meet, including all three of the events on the second day of the competition. O'Handley posted a 33-foot improvement to her heptathlon best in the javelin, and shaved a full nine seconds off her overall best in the 800 meters while finishing in 2:20.49.
 
O'Handley will compete in three different events Saturday, as she's entered in the high jump, javelin and 100 meters at the OSU High Performance meet. Griffin Johnson, Braden Masanga and Donté Robinson will open the meet for the Vikings as they compete in the men's pole vault at 3:30 p.m. (PT). 
                                                                                                           
MEET INFO
April 26-27 – OSU High Performance – Corvallis, Ore. (Whyte Track & Field Center)
 
OSU HIGH PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
Friday, April 26
Field Events
Start (PT)                    Events (PSU entries)
3:30 p.m.                     Men's Pole Vault (Flight 1 of 1 – Johnson, Masanga, Robinson)
 
Running Events
Start (PT)                    Events (PSU entries)
5:45 p.m.                     Men's 3,000-Meter Steeplechase – Section 1 (Seidel)
6:10 p.m.                     Women's 3,000-Meter Steeplechase – Section 1 (Kavulich)
6:25 p.m.                     Women's 3,000-Meter Steeplechase – Section 2 (Brown)
7:15 p.m.                     Women's 1,500 Meters – Section 1 (Gibson)
7:21 p.m.                     Women's 1,500 Meters – Section 2 (Medved)
7:28 p.m.                     Women's 1,500 Meters – Section 3 (White)
7:45 p.m.                     Men's 1,500 Meters – Section 2 (Ramirez, Stafford)
7:55 p.m.                     Men's 1,500 Meters – Section 4 (Jemison, Snyder)
8:25 p.m.                     Men's 5,000 Meters – Section 2 (Rae)
8:42 p.m.                     Women's 5,000 Meters – Section 2 (Baldwin-Joiner)
 
Saturday, April 27
Field Events
Start (PT)                    Events (PSU entries)
11:30 a.m.                   Women's Shot Put (Flight 2 of 2 – Mumford)
12 p.m.                        Women's High Jump (Flight 1 of 1 – Dunleavy, Elliott, O'Handley)
12:45 p.m.                   Women's Javelin (Flight 1 of 2 – Cornett, Matsuzaki, Milroy, O'Handley)
1 p.m.                          Women's Long Jump (Flight 1 of 2 – Terry)
After W-Jav at 12:45   Men's Javelin (Flight 1 of 2 – Rwandika)
 
Running Events
Start (PT)                    Events (PSU entries)
1:16 p.m.                     Men's 800 Meters – Section 2 (Hvidsten, Lovercheck)
1:25 p.m.                     Women's 100-Meter Hurdles (Section 1 of 3 – Buckhaults)
2:05 p.m.                     Women's 100 Meters (Section 1 of 3 – O'Handley; Section 2 of 3 – Smith)
3:25 p.m.                     Women's 200 Meters (Section 3 of 4 – Smith)
3:50 p.m.                     Men's 800 Meters – Section 5 (Payton)
3:55 p.m.                     Men's 800 Meters – Section 6 (Lawrence)

UPCOMING
The Vikings compete across two meets in the Portland area next weekend, the week before they head to the Big Sky Outdoor Championships in Missoula, Mont. The Vikings compete at the Portland Twilight on May 3, and the Linfield Open on May 4.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Vikings went down to the Los Angeles area for a quartet of meets last week, where they chased marks that would qualify them for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds, NCAA Outdoor Championships or USATF U20 Outdoor Championships.
 
Sarah Medved ran a likely NCAA West Prelims qualifying time in the women's steeplechase last Friday at the Mt. SAC Relays, finishing the race in 10:23.36. Medved's time was less than two seconds behind the school record she set at 10:21.56, which came at the same meet last season. Medved's time was a full nine seconds better than last year's final qualifying time of 10:32.47, and close to six seconds better than 2017's final qualifying time of 10:29.13.
 
Besides the likely NCAA West Prelims qualification, Medved also reasserted herself atop the Big Sky rankings in the steeplechase with her time last Friday. Medved, who became the Vikings' first Big Sky champion in the steeplechase last season, beat two different runners from Montana State in Anna French and Patricia Carlson. Medved out-kicked Carlson for the Big Sky title last season, but it was French who challenged Medved more at the Mt. SAC Relays as she finished in 10:25.96, two and a half seconds behind Medved.
 
Freshman Ian Vickstrom also qualified for the USATF U20 Outdoor Championships with a time of 32:02.14 in the 10,000 meters at the Bryan Clay Invitational last Wednesday. Vickstrom's time was just under the qualifying standard of 32:05, and stands as the second-best 10,000-meter time by a Viking freshman since freshman records date back through the 2003 season. Jose Macias holds the best time ever by a Viking freshman with his finish in 31:57.31 in 2015, when he also qualified for the USATF junior outdoor meet.
 
Freshman Phoebe Jacques nearly matched Vickstrom with her own qualifying mark, but still shaved 30 seconds off her personal best in the 5,000 meters while finishing in 17:31.48. Jacques' time was just behind the 17:30 needed to qualify in the 5k, but Jacques should be the first alternate should not enough runners meet the standard.
 
Sophomore Kristen O'Handley did not get a qualifying mark at the Bryan Clay Invitational, but posted a 300-point improvement to her heptathlon score at the meet. O'Handley scored 4,871 points, 293 points better than her previous best of 4,578 points. O'Handley's score moves her up to fifth all time in the heptathlon at Portland State, and gave her the best heptathlon score by a Viking since Joenisha Vinson set the school record with a score of 5,563 points in 2013.
 
O'Handley set heptathlon bests in five of the seven events at the Bryan Clay Invitational, including all three of the events on the second day of the competition. O'Handley posted a 33-foot improvement to her heptathlon best in the javelin, and shaved a full nine seconds off her overall best in the 800 meters while finishing in 2:20.49.
 
NCAA WEST RANKINGS WATCH
Kaila Gibson's performance in the 10,000 meters at the Stanford Invitational on March 29 put her in good standing to qualify for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds at the end of May. Gibson ranks 32nd in the NCAA west regional rankings after her 10k at the Stanford Invite, well within the qualifying zone for the NCAA West Prelims. Sarah Medved also stands in qualifying position in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase, after moving up to 22nd in the west with her time of 10:23.36 at the Mt. SAC Relays on April 19.
 
The top 48 in the NCAA West rankings in each of the individual events qualify for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds. The only group that skips the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds are the multi-eventers, as the top 24 athletes nationally in the heptathlon and decathlon by the end of the second weekend of May advance straight to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June. 
 
ROBINSON GOES FOR FOURTH STRAIGHT MULTI-EVENT TITLE DURING OUTDOOR SEASON
Redshirt senior Donté Robinson defended his Big Sky heptathlon title at the Big Sky Indoor Championships earlier this season, and will be looking to become the first men's athletes in the history of the Big Sky Conference to win four straight multi-event titles when he defends his decathlon title at the Big Sky Outdoor Championships, May 8-11, in Missoula, Mont.
 
Robinson already joined elite company when he swept the multi-event titles at last year's Big Sky meets. Robinson became just the second Viking ever to sweep both the heptathlon and decathlon titles in a single year, joining PSU hall-of-famer Nick Trubachik, who swept the titles in 2010 – the season he went on to become the Vikings' first NCAA first-team All-American.
 
Robinson and Trubachik are also the only athletes to repeat as Big Sky champion in the heptathlon. No athlete has repeated as the Big Sky decathlon champion since Idaho State's Nathan Capps won back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007.
 
Robinson missed breaking Trubachik's school record in the heptathlon by only 36 points at the UW Invitational, but could be chasing Trubachik's record in the decathlon during the outdoor season. Trubachik set the school record with a score of 7,510 points at the 2010 NCAA Outdoor Championships, where he earned his All-American honors with a seventh-place finish in the event. Robinson set his best in the decathlon at 7,307 points while winning the event at the Big Sky Outdoor Championships last season.
 
CISNEROS COMING OFF HISTORIC 2018 SEASON
Redshirt senior Alex Cisneros will be more excited than anyone to get outdoors. Cisneros did not compete until the Big Sky Indoor Championships during the indoor season, and had to sit out the cross country season in the fall due to exhausting his eligibility. Cisneros became the first Viking to qualify for the NCAA West Prelims in the men's 10,000 meters after breaking a 34-year-old school record in the event last outdoor season. Cisneros broke the 10,000-meter record with his finish in 29:25.74 at the Mt. SAC Relays, making him the first Viking to crack 29:30 in the 10k.
 
Cisneros also broke the school records in the indoor 3,000 and 5,000 meters earlier in 2018, and became the first Viking since 2005 to crack the top 10 all time in the outdoor 5,000 meters despite running through a steady downpour at his first outdoor meet of the season last year.
 
GIBSON, MEDVED READY TO PUSH EACH OTHER IN FINAL SEASON TOGETHER
Training partners Kaila Gibson and Sarah Medved have been reliable headliners for the Portland State distance runners so far this season, and should be again during the outdoor season.
 
During the indoor season, Gibson scored for the Vikings with a sixth-place finish at the Big Sky meet in the women's indoor 5,000 meters – just the third time a Viking has scored in the event, though the second time for Gibson. Medved, meanwhile, anchored the Vikings' distance medley relay team that scored with an eighth-place finish.
 
Gibson also shaved 20 seconds off her own record in the indoor 5,000 meters at the UW Invitational on Jan. 25 this season. Gibson also moved up to third all time in the 3,000 meters with her time of 9:52.40 at the UW Indoor Open last season.
 
The two really pushed each other to greater heights during the fall cross country season, however. Gibson and Medved became the first pair of Viking teammates to earn All-Big Sky honors in the same race at the Big Sky Cross Country Championships. Gibson placed ninth for her highest finish ever at a Big Sky cross country meet, while Medved placed 10th after also placing 10th in 2016. Medved then took the lead at the NCAA West Regional while the pair placed 39th and 40th overall, respectively, making them the first Viking teammates to place together in the top 50 – let alone the top 40 – at the regional meet.Medved broke the school record in the cross country 6k with her finish in 20:48.1 at the NCAA West Regional, while Gibson's time of 20:48.4 would have also broken the previous record.
 
Medved's strong cross country season came on the heels of a breakout 2018 outdoor track & field season in which she became the Vikings' first-ever Big Sky champion in the steeplechase. Medved also became the Vikings' first-ever NCAA West Prelims qualifier in the steeplechase, and broke the school record in the event twice – the last time coming with a finish in 10:21.56 at the Mt. SAC Relays.
 
Gibson attempted to join Medved at the NCAA West Prelims last season, but a heroic effort in the 10,000 meters at the Big Sky Outdoor Championships came up short. Gibson still placed fifth in the 10,000 meters in a personal-best 35:24.64 despite having to hold the lead for most of the race.