RESULTS

PORTLAND, Ore. — It's a wonder what a little Vitamin D can do for you. With picture-perfect weather at Eldon Fix Track Saturday for the Electric Forest Collegiate Open, the Portland State track & field program picked up five event wins and a top 10 mark in their de facto outdoor season opener.
 
The program's actual outdoor opener came two weeks ago amid a wintry mix of snow and rain at the Erik Anderson Memorial Icebreaker. The temperature was in the 40s for that meet. Saturday, it hit 74 degrees within Portland.
 
So, with respect to that meet two weeks ago, Saturday was the real outdoor opener for the Vikings.
 
Just comparing the marks from meet to meet show the difference that the weather made. Out of the 21 athletes who competed in the same events as two weeks ago, 18 bettered their marks Saturday. Among those were two of the Vikings' five event winners between Noah Meucci in the men's shot put and Ashley Peterson in the women's 400 meters.
 
Meucci won the shot put with a best throw of 43-03.75 (13.20m). The mark came on his sixth and final attempt of the day, as he passed Multnomah's Matea Efeso for the win. Meucci added more than 32 inches to his mark from the Erik Anderson Memorial Icebreaker while setting a new outdoor best by 10.5 inches.
 
Karch Kipp and Mikey LaGris also bettered their shot put marks from two weeks ago, while finishing fourth and 16th, respectively, behind Meucci with best throws of 41-10.00 (12.75m) and 29-02.50 (8.90m).
 
Peterson, meanwhile, won the women's 400 meters in 1:00.35, beating the No. 2 finisher – University of Portland's Isabella Dreiling – by three-quarters of a second. Peterson's time shaved more than a second and a half off her time two weeks ago while setting an overall best in the 400 meters by .21 seconds.
 
Twins Elle and Liv Frazier also bettered their time from two weeks ago while finishing seventh and eighth, respectively, behind Peterson in times of 1:05.08 and 1:06.72.
 
Out of the other three event wins for the Vikings, Dieumerci Migani provided two of them as a double winner between the men's long jump and triple jump. Migani didn't compete in either event two weeks ago, so couldn't improve on his marks like the others, but showed himself ready for big marks with his double win.
 
Migani started the day with his win in the long jump, matching his best mark during the indoor season with a mark of 22-11.75 (7.00m). The mark came on Migani's first attempt of the day and put him just three-quarters of an inch from matching the current No. 10 mark all-time at Portland State.
 
Migani set a top 10 mark in winning the triple jump, which featured a bit more drama than his wire-to-wire victory in the long jump. Like Meucci in the shot put, Migani won the event on his final attempt of the day, adding more than 15 inches to his previous best mark during the competition.
 
The winning jump saw Migani soar to 48-00.75 (14.65m), moving him up to fourth all-time in the event at Portland State.
 
The fifth event win came from Laura Beghin in the women's 800 meters. Beghin won the event in 2:18.27, putting her close to a full second ahead of the No. 2 finisher, Lewis & Clark's Malia Heien, who finished in 2:19.14.
 
Arguably, Beghin's better showing came in the 1,500 meters where she finished third in a new personal best of 4:37.28. That was a four-second improvement over her previous best, which came at last season's OSU High Performance Meet. It continues a strong indoor and outdoor season for Beghin, who has set five personal bests since the beginning of the year. Beghin nearly added a sixth in the 800 meters, but finished .15 seconds behind her current best in the event.
 
The other Vikings competing in the 800 meters saw their own improvements, either over previous personal bests or their times from two weeks ago at the Erik Anderson Memorial Icebreaker. Ahmeah Brown shaved seven seconds off her prep personal best, finishing in 2:20.22. Ania Kapustka and Campbell Faust, meanwhile, bettered their times from two weeks ago while finishing in 2:24.45 and 2:30.33, respectively.
 
Other improvements included three of five Vikings bettering their time from two weeks ago in the men's 100 and 200 meters. GG Nitunga led the group in the 100 meters with a time of 11.23 seconds, three-tenths of a second better than his time from the Erik Anderson Memorial Icebreaker. Eman Kargbo followed with a time of 11.33 seconds, bettering his prep personal best by a quarter of a second. Aleks Braich and Hunter Leeder followed with improvements from two weeks ago while finishing in 11.46 and 11.68 seconds, respectively.
 
Nitunga, Braich and Leeder were also the three to better their times in the 200 meters, finishing in 22.98, 23.68 and 24.35 seconds, respectively. Kargbo led a group of five Vikings overall in the event, finishing in 22.96 seconds, just two-hundredths of a second off his personal best.
 
Alison Calvin-Stupfel went two bars farther than she did two weeks ago, clearing 5-01.00 (1.55m). Calvin-Stupfel cleared on her second attempt at 1.45 meters, then went over on her first attempts at 1.50 and 1.55 meters before missing on all three attempts at 1.60 meters.
 
Dyllan Newville ran her first 5k of the season Saturday, so couldn't better her time from two weeks ago. Even still, she posted the biggest personal best of the day, as she shaved 72 seconds off her previous best in the outdoor 5k, finishing in 19:52.72.
 
The personal bests and betterments could go on and on Saturday. It's what nice weather can do for any track & field athlete. You never know what the weather will be like in Portland, after all, so you've got to take advantage of the sunny days when you can get them.
 
Electric Forest Collegiate Open
Eldon Fix Track
Portland, Ore.
March 16, 2024
 
Women's Results:
100: 21. Kiara Van Deusen, 14.66. 200m: 15. Ashley Peterson, 27.56; 17. Wendy Hare, 27.88; 24. Kiara Van Deusen, 29.98; 28. Finley Crabtree, 31.58. 400m: 1. Ashley Peterson, 1:00.35; 7. Elle Frazier, 1:05.08; 8. Liv Frazier, 1:06.72. 800m: 1. Laura Beghin, 2:18.27; 3. Ahmeah Brown, 2:20.22; 4. Ania Kapustka, 2:24.45; 8. Campbell Faust, 2:30.33. 1,500m: 3. Laura Beghin, 4:37.28; 11. Campbell Faust, 5:06.85; 12. Ania Kapustka, 5:08.04; 17. Taylor Nichols, 5:15.59. 5,000m: 6. Dyllan Newville, 19:52.72. 400m Hurdles: 2. Wendy Hare, 1:07.07. 4x400m Relay: 3. Portland State 'A' (Peterson, Brown, Kapustka, Hare), 4:12.01; 4. Portland State 'B' (Frazier, L., Frazier, E., Beghin, Faust), 4:19.31. High Jump: 2. Alison Calvin-Stupfel, 5-01.00 (1.55m). Pole Vault: Carley Strand, NH. Long Jump: 9. Alison Calvin-Stupfel, 15-11.00 (4.85m). Triple Jump: 3. Alison Calvin-Stupfel, 33-10.00 (10.31m).
 
Men's Results:
100m: 10. GG Nitunga, 11.23; 11. Eman Kargbo, 11.33; 13. Travis West, 11.41; 17. Aleks Braich, 11.46; 21. Hunter Leeder, 11.68. 200m: 10. Eman Kargbo, 22.96; 11. GG Nitunga, 22.98; 19. Khari Dawson, 23.66; 20. Aleks Braich, 23.68; 27. Hunter Leeder, 24.35. 800m: 13. Ian Parks, 2:06.19; 18. Tom Thake, 2:13.14; 19. Lyness Ota, 2:15.58. 1,500m: 9. Abdinajib Abade, 3:58.73; 18. Ian Parks, 4:14.54; 24. Tom Thake, 4:25.83; 27. Lyness Ota, 4:30.07; Amir Ahmed, DNF. Long Jump: 1. Dieumerci Migani, 22-11.75 (7.00m); 11. GG Nitunga, 19-06.00 (5.94m); 17. Aleks Braich, 16-08.75 (5.10m). Triple Jump: 1. Dieumerci Migani, 48-00.75 (14.65m). Shot Put: 1. Noah Meucci, 43-03.75 (13.20m); 4. Karch Kipp, 41-10.00 (12.75m); 16. Mikey LaGris, 29-02.50 (8.90m). Discus: 4. Noah Meucci, 127-11 (39.00m); 12. Mikey LaGris, 87-11 (26.81m).