EUGENE, Ore. — The cathedral awaits. Hayward Field will host its first meet of the 2022 track season this weekend, and the Portland State track & field program will be among the teams in attendance.
 
It'll be a Eugene-centric weekend for the Vikings, who head to the Hayward Premiere Friday and Saturday, and will host their own spillover meet from the Hayward Premiere, called the NW Distance Jamboree, Saturday at Lane Community College's Titan Stadium.
 
The Vikings got their first looks at the newly remodeled Hayward Field last season, but the awe-inspiring stadium will still get a few gawks out of the Vikings this weekend.
 
"It's the UO. They'll go down there and compete at the best venue in America," Portland State head coach David Hepburn said of the meet.
 
But Hepburn was also quick to note the context. This is the first meet of the season at Hayward, and the Vikings are still very much in the early stages of their outdoor training as well.
 
"Get in there and spin the wheels a little bit," Hepburn said of the team's plans. "It's still early as far as the outdoor season is concerned. We're only three weeks into it, we're not trying to do something crazy." 
 
That said, the grandeur of Hayward Field seemed to inspire a few Vikings last season. Competing at the very first meet in the new Hayward Field at last season's Hayward Premiere, six of the nine Vikings in attendance set new all-time top 10 marks at Portland State. Josh Snyder and Kaila Gibson headlined that crew. Snyder broke a 39-year-old school record in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase, while Gibson came within five seconds of breaking a 34-year-old record in the women's 10k.
 
Snyder would go on to break the steeplechase record again three weeks later when the Vikings returned to Hayward Field for the Oregon Relays.
 
Keynan Abdi also had a standout performance at the Oregon Relays, running the fastest men's 5k since 2001. Abdi set his personal best at 14:14.00 at the Oregon Relays, giving him the fifth-best mark in school history. Three of the four marks ahead of Abdi came before 1985, meaning Abdi ranks second among all Vikings who have competed this century.
 
"We'll see if he can have some magic. Everybody loves running there. Everybody gets hyped for it just because it is what it is," Hepburn said of Abdi.
 
Abdi will run in the invitational section of the 5k Friday, while a bevy of teammates run in the open section of the 5k. Zach Grams, Abdi Ibrahim, Sam Lingwall, Cam McChesney, Dom Morganti and Evan Peters are all entered in the open section. Ibrahim set his personal best in the 5k at last year's Oregon Twilight while he was competing for Lane Community College, finishing in 14:31.74. Everybody else in the men's 5k crew will be making their Hayward Field debuts as collegiate runners.
 
One debut that will take on extra meaning will be the one for Cam McChesney, grandson of the late Eugene track & field legend Bill McChesney, who will run his first collegiate race at Hayward Field. Cam's grandfather, Bill, competed for Oregon while also serving as a President of the Oregon Track Club, a meet official at Hayward Field, and a record-setting master's runner. Cam's uncles Tom, Bill Jr. and Steve also ran for Oregon, while his father, Ken, ran collegiately at the University of Montana.
 
Peters comes in off of a strong 5k performance two weeks ago at the L&C Spring Break Open. He finished just behind Abdi in 14:29.31, moving him up to 10th all-time in the event at Portland State.
 
Outside of the men's 5k, Luke Ramirez will run the 1,500 meters Friday, while James Bottrill and Chase Lovercheck will run the men's 800 meters Saturday. Jordan Gloden will also run the men's 110-meter hurdles Saturday. Gloden will be making his Hayward Field debut; Bottrill, Lovercheck and Ramirez all competed at the venue last year.
 
Someone totally new to the Hayward Field hype will be Maya Irving, a freshman New Zealander, who earned her way into the meet after setting the freshman record in the 5k at the L&C Spring Break Open two weeks ago.
 
Irving, a native of New Plymouth, New Zealand, won't have the same context around the history of Hayward Field as McChesney and the others, though Hepburn says it'll probably hit her once she sees the stadium.
 
"Maybe when she gets there and sees [Hayward], it might be a little bit of 'whoa.' A little bit of shock, like 'oh, this is this. Whoa. This is not Lewis & Clark.' Yeah, I would imagine that there will be some of that for anyone who walks in there," Hepburn said.
 
Irving set the freshman record in the women's 5k at 17:21.63 two weeks ago, but Hepburn said she should be able to run faster with a more competitive field around her.
 
"It'll be cool to see her get into a race that's a little bit hotter. Could be fun. See if she could dip under [her time last time] with some more girls around her," Hepburn said.
 
Most of the Vikings head to the Hayward Premiere will run Friday. Bottrill Gloden and Lovercheck will run at the meet on Saturday, the same day that the rest of the Vikings' teams compete at the NW Distance Jamboree out at Lane CC.
 
It's the second year of the NW Distance Jamboree, as the Vikings also hosted the meet last season. In both cases, it served as a spillover meet for those teams and individuals who didn't get into the Hayward Premiere, and in both cases, the Vikings co-hosted the meet alongside Lane Community College.
 
"It's nice to partner with Lane. We reached out to them and they were excited about doing it again and partnering with us. It's nice of them to let us use their facility," Hepburn said of the partnership.
 
Saturday's field at the NW Distance Jamboree will see the first steeplechase races for any Viking this season. Brandon Hippe will run in the men's steeplechase, while Phoebe Brown, Tatum Miller and Abi Swain are entered in the women's steeplechase. 
 
Brown and Swain are also two of eight Viking women entered in the 1,500 meters alongside Olivia Brooks, Abby Donde, Sophia Hackett, Natalia Martino, Dyllan Newville and Madison Tafoya.
 
Two runners are also poised to make their outdoor track debuts at Portland State at Saturday's NW Distance Jamboree. Aiden Carlson will make his debut alongside Drew Seidel in the men's 1,500 meters if all goes well Saturday. Additionally, Sammy Burke, another New Zealander, will make her first appearance for the Vikings since she ran as a true freshman during the 2018 cross country season. Burke is entered in the women's 5,000 meters alongside Campbell Faust and Emma Owen.
 
The Solano brothers – Andy Solano and Erik Solano – will close out the NW Distance Jamboree Saturday night in the men's 10k, the first outdoor 10k of either brother's Viking career.
 
The early outdoor season is a perfect time for athletes to try out new events. As Hepburn noted, it's early. The big races where the Vikings will chase NCAA West Prelim-qualifying times will most likely come a little bit later at the Bryan Clay Invitational and Mt. SAC Relays.
 
For now, it's time to go to the cathedral. The bells are ringing.
 
 
MEET INFO
April 1-2 – Hayward Premiere – Eugene, Ore. (Hayward Field)
April 2 – NW Distance Jamboree – Eugene, Ore. (Lane CC/Titan Stadium)
 
HAYWARD PREMIERE SCHEDULE
Friday, April 1
Time                Event (PSU Entries)
5:45 p.m.         Men's 1,500 Meters – Open (Section 1 of 2 – Ramirez)
6:15 p.m.         Men's 5,000 Meters – Open (Section 1 of 1 – Grams, Ibrahim, Lingwall, McChesney, Morganti, Peters)
6:35 p.m.         Women's 5,000 Meters – Open (Section 1 of 1 – Irving)
8:40 p.m.         Men's 5,000 Meters – Invitational (Section 1 of 1 – Abdi)
 
Saturday, April 2
Time                Event (PSU Entries)
12:45 p.m.       Men's 110-Meter Hurdles (Section 2 of 3 – Gloden)
4:10 p.m.         Men's 800 Meters – Open (Section 2 of 4 – Lovercheck; Section 3 of 4 – Bottrill)

 
NW DISTANCE JAMBOREE SCHEDULE
Saturday, April 2
Time                Event (PSU Entries)
5:15 p.m.         Men's 100 Meters
5:20 p.m.         Women's 200 Meters
5:25 p.m.         Men's 200 Meters
5:35 p.m.         Women's 400 Meters
5:40 p.m.         Men's 400 Meters
5:45 p.m.         Women's 800 Meters (Section 1 of 1 – Jones, Marcil)
5:50 p.m.         Men's 800 Meters (Section 1 of 2 – Muse, Salcido)
5:55 p.m.         Women's 1,500 Meters (Section 2 of 2 – Brooks, Brown, Donde, Hackett, Martino, Newville, Swain, Tafoya)
6:10 p.m.         Men's 1,500 Meters (Section 1 of 2 – Ramirez, Seidel; Section 2 of 2 - Carlson)
6:30 p.m.         Women's 3,000-Meter Steeplechase (Section 1 of 1 – Brown, Miller, Swain)
6:45 p.m.         Men's 3,000-Meter Steeplechase (Section 1 of 1 – Hippe)
7 p.m.              Women's 5,000 Meters (Section 1 of 1 – Burke, Faust, Owen)
7:25 p.m.         Men's 5,000 Meters (Section 1 of 1 – Schulte)
7:45 p.m.         Men's 10,000 Meters (Section 1 of 1 – Grams, Hippe, McChesney, Solano, A., Solano, E.)