RESULTS (PDF)

MISSOULA, Mont. — Freshman Chase Lovercheck snuck into the men's 800 meters final Friday by four-hundredths of a second. Saturday, on the final day of the Big Sky Outdoor Championships at Dornblaser Field, Lovercheck showed he belonged, placing third in 1:50.92, the best time by a Viking freshman in the past 16 years by more than a second.
 
Lovercheck showed no signs of being bothered by the big stage Saturday, running with the older favorites throughout the race and even pushing for the lead with 200 meters to go. Lovercheck's aggression backfired initially as he fell to fourth down the home stretch, but the Viking freshman kept pushing and passed Idaho State's Daniel Garz – a senior, no less – for third.
 
Lovercheck earned All-Big Sky honors with his third-place finish in the 800 meters, the third time in the past four years that the Vikings have had an All-Big Sky runner in the men's outdoor 800 meters. Lovercheck took the mantle from former Viking Ben Richardson, who placed third in both 2016 and 2017.
 
Richardson was another unlikely All-Big Sky runner when he first broke through at the 2016 indoor meet. Richardson was ranked 14th in the 800 meters going into the 2016 indoor meet, but surprised everyone by placing third. Lovercheck came into this year's outdoor meet ranked 18th in the men's 800 meters – even lower than Richardson – but pulled off the same feat by placing third.
 
Lovercheck snuck into Saturday's final by the skin of his teeth, as he was fourth down the home stretch of his preliminary heat Friday. Just like he did in the final, however, Lovercheck kept pushing for the line and ended up passing two runners to place second. Lovercheck still had to sweat out the final two heats of the 800 to find out of if he'd qualify for the finals on time. He did, but by only four-hundredths of a second.
 
Lovercheck's time in the prelims – 1:52.98 – was a second and a half better than the personal best he set at the OSU High Performance meet, which was only two weeks ago. Lovercheck shaved even more time off his personal best in the final, however, beating his time from the prelims by two full seconds with his finish in 1:50.92. In two days, Lovercheck had shaved more than three and a half seconds off his 800-meter personal best.
 
The previous fastest time by a Viking freshman in the 800 meters was 1:52.38 by Tony Crisofulli, another former All-Big Sky 800-meter runner, though he wasn't as a freshman. Lovercheck beat that by close to a second and a half, and moved up to fifth in the overall 800-meter ranks at Portland State.
 
Sophomore Kristen O'Handley came close to earning All-Big Sky honors in the 100 meters, as she finished only one-hundredth of a second behind Southern Utah's Rakayla Tyler for the final all-conference spot while placing fourth in 12.21 seconds. O'Handley still scored five more points for the Viking women, two days after she scored four points for the Vikings with a fifth-place finish in the heptathlon.
 
A few other Vikings narrowly missed adding points to either the men's or women's team totals Saturday.
 
Redshirt junior Kaila Gibson placed ninth in the women's 5,000 meters with a time of 17:29.63. The top three runners in the women's 5k separated themselves from the pack, but Gibson led the chase group at various times in the race before falling to ninth.
 
Sophomore Braden Masanga placed 10th in the men's pole vault with a top clearance at 15-01.75 (4.62m). That was Masanga's second-best mark in the pole vault this season, behind only his clearance at 15-05.00 (4.70m) four weeks ago at the Jay Hammer Invitational.
 
Sophomore Jean Rwandika also set his second-best mark of the season Saturday while placing 12th in the men's javelin. Rwandika cracked 180 feet for only the second time as a Viking while topping out with a mark of 180-08 (55.07m). 
 
The Vikings have a week off following the Big Sky Outdoor Championships, before next competing at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds, May 23-25, in Sacramento, Calif.
 
Big Sky Outdoor Championships
Dornblaser Field
Missoula, Mont.
May 8-11, 2019
 
Women's Results:
100m (Prelims): 7. Kristen O'Handley, 12.04. 100m (Finals): 4. Kristen O'Handley, 12.21. 200m (Prelims): 4. Kristen O'Handley, 24.24. 200m (Finals): Kristen O'Handley, DNS. 1,500m (Prelims): 15. Linnaea Kavulich, 4:44.10. 5,000m: 9. Kaila Gibson, 17:29.63. 10,000m: 7. Phoebe Jacques, 36:56.54. 3,000m Steeplechase: 1. Sarah Medved, 10:36.36. High Jump: T-16. Kristen O'Handley, 5-03.00 (1.60m); Ceil Dunleavy, NH; Taylor Elliott, NH. Shot Put: 11. Angela Mumford, 43-01.00 (13.13m). Javelin: 19. Megan Cornett, 125-10 (38.36m). Heptathlon: 5. Kristen O'Handley, 5,029 points (100H: 4. 14.82, 866 points; High Jump: T-4. 5-05.00 (1.65m), 795 points; Shot Put: 11. 32-05.50 (9.89m), 522 points; 200m: 1. 24.23, 959 points; Long Jump: 9. 17-08.00 (5.38m), 665 points; Javelin: 11. 90-08 (27.65m), 432 points; 800m: 4. 2:22.51, 790 points).
 
Men's Results:
800m (Prelims): 8. Chase Lovercheck, 1:52.98. 800m (Finals): 3. Chase Lovercheck, 1:50.92. 1,500m (Prelims): 20. Luke Ramirez, 3:56.26; 25. Andrew Stafford, 4:04.00. 5,000m: 18. Drew Seidel, 15:32.83; 33. Alex Cisneros, 16:00.63. 10,000m:13. Jason Rae, 31:55.30. 3,000m Steeplechase: 7. Drew Seidel, 9:26.85; 13. Josh Snyder, 9:53.15. High Jump: T-8. Donté Robinson, 6-04.00 (1.93m). Pole Vault: 10. Braden Masanga, 15-01.75 (4.62m). Javelin: 12. Jean Rwandika, 180-08 (55.07m). Decathlon:DNF. Donté Robinson, 5,266 points through seven events (100m: 2. 11.14, 830 points; Long Jump: 2. 23-02.50 (7.07m), 830 points; Shot Put: 2. 38-09.75 (11.83m), 596 points; High Jump: 1. 6-07.00 (2.01m), 813 points; 400m: 4. 51.08, 765 points; 110H: 1. 15.06, 842 points; Discus: 3. 119-02 (36.32m), 590 points; Pole Vault: NH, 0 points; Javelin: Foul, 0 points; 1,500m: DNS, 0 points).