Complete Meet Notes (PDF)

THE STARTING BLOCK
The appetizer before the main course comes this weekend for the Portland State track & field team, as a select few athletes compete across two meets this weekend before the team heads to the Big Sky Outdoor Championships, May 8-11, in Missoula, Mont.
 
Austen Hvidsten and Ian Vickstrom take the mantle for the Vikings at the Portland Twilight meet Friday, while another 15 athletes compete across seven events for the Vikings at the Linfield Open Saturday.
 
Hvidsten and Vickstrom compete in the men's 800 and 5,000 meters, respectively, Friday night at Lewis & Clark's Eldon Fix Track. Hvidsten is coming off a three-second seasonal best in the 800 meters last week at the OSU High Performance meet, where he finished in 1:57.53. Hvidsten's personal best came at the previous year's OSU meet, where he finished in 1:55.40.
 
Vickstrom, meanwhile, will be competing for the first time since he met the USATF U20 Outdoor Championships qualifying standard in the 10,000 meters at the Bryan Clay Invitational on April 17. Vickstrom finished the 10,000 meters in 32:02.14, just under the qualifying standard of 32:05.
 
Vickstrom hasn't run a 5,000-meter race since the Mike Fanelli Track Classic on March 29, when he finished in 15:11.80. That was a 13-second improvement over his first time in the 5,000 this season, which was 15:24.98 at the L&C Spring Break Open on March 16.
 
Six different Vikings compete in the men's 5,000 meters at the Linfield Open between Cody Jones, Nigel Leonis, Elmer Shelevy, Andy Solano, Erik Solano and Collin Werth. Alana Baldwin-Joiner and Monica Salazar, meanwhile, will run in the women's 5,000 meters Saturday. Baldwin-Joiner set a 10-second personal best in the 5,000 meters just last week at the OSU High Performance meet, where she finished in 18:34.95. Salazar, meanwhile, set her personal best in the 5,000 meters at the Pacific Open on March 30, finishing in 19:34.29.
 
Will Payton and Jordan Lawrence return to the 800 meters at the Linfield Open, a week after winning their sections of the race in 1:59.14 and 1:59.57, respectively, at the OSU High Performance meet
 
Phoebe Brown also posted a win for the Vikings last week at the OSU meet, as she won her section of the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase in a new personal-best 11:28.44. Brown will run the 1,500 meters at the Linfield Open Saturday, alongside Delaney White. Jayson Maule will also run in the men's 1,500 meters Saturday.
 
Alexis Buckhaults and Taylor Matsuzaki will be the two athletes to compete outside of the distance events at the Linfield Open, as they take part in the women's 100-meter hurdles and javelin, respectively.
                                                                                                           
MEET INFO
May 3 – Portland Twilight – Portland, Ore. (Eldon Fix Track)
May 4 – Linfield Open – McMinnville, Ore. (Maxwell Field)
 
PORTLAND TWILIGHT SCHEDULE
Friday, May 3
Running Events
Start (PT)                    Events (PSU entries)
5:15 p.m.                     Men's 800 Meters (Section 3 of 6 – Hvidsten)
8:35 p.m.                     Men's 5,000 Meters (Section 2 of 2 – Vickstrom)

Saturday, May 4
Field Events
Start (PT)                    Events (PSU entries)
After M-Jav at 11        Women's Javelin (Matsuzaki)
 
Running Events
Start (PT)                    Events (PSU entries)
11:50 a.m.                   Women's 1,500 Meters (Brown, White)
12:05 p.m.                   Men's 1,500 Meters (Maule)
Rolling Schedule          Women's 100-Meter Hurdles (Buckhaults)
                                    Men's 800 Meters (Lawrence, Payton)
                                    Women's 5,000 Meters (Baldwin-Joiner, Salazar)
                                    Men's 5,000 Meters (Jones, Leonis, Shelevy, Solano, A., Solano, E., Werth)
 
UPCOMING
The Vikings head to the Big Sky Outdoor Championships, May 8-11, in Missoula, Mont.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Vikings set 11 collegiate or overall personal bests while seven athletes won their sections or flights between the two-day OSU High Performance meet, April 26-27, in Corvallis, Ore.
 
Freshmen Luke Ramirez, Josh Snyder and Phoebe Brown all won their sections of races on the first day of the meet. Ramirez won the second section of the men's 1,500 meters while dipping under four minutes for a second time this season. Ramirez finished in 3:57.12 Friday, just off the personal best of 3:56.34 that he set at the Mike Fanelli Track Classic on March 29. Junior Andrew Stafford ran in the same section as Ramirez, and also cracked four minutes for a second time this season with his time of 3:58.28. Snyder won the fourth section of the men's 1,500 meters, as he set a new personal best with his time of 4:03.86.
 
Brown won the second section of the women's steeplechase while shaving 14 seconds off her previous best in the event. Brown finished in 11:28.44, just two-hundredths of a second behind the current No. 10 time in the steeplechase at Portland State. Freshman Linnaea Kavulich placed 10th in the top section of the women's steeplechase while shaving 1.33 seconds off her previous best in the event with a finish in 11:13.66. Kavulich already ranked third all time in the steeplechase at Portland State, but now ranks only two seconds behind Mandy Peterson's No. 2 time of 11:11.60.
 
Will Payton and Jordan Lawrence won their sections of the men's 800 meters Saturday, while finishing in 1:59.14 and 1:59.57, respectively. Freshman Chase Lovercheck placed second in the second section of the men's 800 meters while shaving four-tenths of a second off his personal best with a time of 1:54.56.
 
Sophomores Jean Rwandika and Megan Cornett each won their flights of the men's and women's javelin while setting PSU and seasonal bests, respectively. Rwandika placed fourth overall in the men's javelin while surpassing his old PSU best by five feet with a mark of 184-08 (56.29m). Cornett, meanwhile, beat her previous seasonal best by nine inches while finishing with a best throw of 130-05 (39.76m).
 
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 33rd 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.