PORTLAND, Ore. — Superhero movie references have populated the last two weekend previews for the Portland State track & field team. Well, this is the climactic battle. It's Thor arriving with Stormbreaker in Avengers: Infinity War. It's Batman foiling The Joker in The Dark Knight. It's all three Spider-Men joining forces in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
 
You get the picture, it's big. The Big Sky Outdoor Championships in Bozeman, Mont., which the Vikings will compete at Friday and Saturday, is what the Vikings train for all year. There's the chance one or two Vikings will compete past the conference championships if they put up a strong mark and qualify for the NCAA West Prelims, but that's a secondary goal for the Vikings this weekend. The primary goal is competing well against your conference peers.
 
The Big Sky is a doozy of a conference, of course. Northern Arizona, which men's team ranks 11th in the USTFCCCA national rankings, is an Avengers-level threat by itself. And they aren't alone. The USTFCCCA actually ranks Montana State above NAU on the men's side in their conference rankings. NAU takes the top spot on the women's side, but Montana State is expected to be their closest competition there, too.
 
The Vikings aren't looking to compete with those teams, and it'd be unfair to expect them to do so. Out of all the Vikings headed to the conference meet, only Dieumerci Migani and Travis West are in position to score according to the conference rankings coming into the meet. They rank fifth and eighth, respectively, in the men's triple jump heading into the weekend.
 
But longtime track fans know that form charts never hold up at conference meets, and so the Vikings will look to compete against themselves and surprise some people along the way.
 
The Vikings have done a good job of that in their last few meets coming into conference. At the OSU High Performance Meet on April 26-27, the Vikings bettered 13 personal or seasonal bests. Before that, at the L&C Larry Byerly Invitational on April 13, the Vikings bettered personal or seasonal bests on 14 of their 26 marks at the meet. That's more than half for anyone mathematically challenged.
 
So, the Vikings know they can push themselves past where they might be expected to finish.
 
One Viking who has raced well in that regard this season has been Laura Beghin. She's entered in just about every middle and long distance event. Scratches won't come until later in the week, so she could still pick and choose where she competes, but at the moment she's entered in the prelims of the women's 800 and 1,500 meters Friday and the finals of women's 5,000 meters Saturday. If she were to make the finals of the 800 and 1,500, then she'll race those finals Saturday along with the 5k, potentially.  
 
As chance would have it, Beghin has set her personal bests in all three distances this season. She set her 1,500-meter personal best last weekend at the Oregon Twilight, racing through rainy conditions to shave one second off her previous best with a finish in 4:32.98. Beghin set her 800-meter personal best three weeks earlier at the Bryan Clay Invitational where she finished in 2:14.05. She ran her first outdoor 5k as a Viking two weeks later, finishing in 17:26.54 at the OSU High Performance Meet.
 
Ahmeah Brown, Campbell Faust and Ania Kapustka will join Beghin in the prelims of the women's 800 meters Friday. Kapustka and Faust are both coming off big improvements in the 800 at last Saturday's Portland Twilight. Kapustka shaved nearly a second off her collegiate best while finishing in 2:18.19. Faust, meanwhile, crushed her previous personal best by nearly three and half seconds while winning her heat in 2:23.08.
 
On the men's side, Abdinajib Abade will match Beghin by competing in the prelims of the 800 and 1,500 meters Friday. Amir Ahmed will join him in the 800.
 
The elevation of Bozeman – nearly 5,000 feet – will make it difficult for Beghin and the other distance runners to set personal bests this weekend. But at the same time, the elevation should benefit the team's sprinters and field event athletes.
 
Migani will lead that group with what could shape into a busier meet for him than even Beghin. At the moment, he's entered in the men's long jump and prelims of the 100 meters Friday, while he'll return for the triple jump and 4x400-meter relay Saturday. If he advances to the finals of the 100, then that'll come Saturday as well.
 
Migani has posted top 10 marks at PSU in the long jump (8th) and triple jump (4th) this season, while he's run the fastest 100-meter time by a Viking since Spenser Schmidt ran 10.59 seconds at the 2016 Big Sky Outdoor Championships. Migani's 100-meter best of 10.85 seconds from the OSU High Performance Meet put him just one one-hundredth of a second behind the current No. 10 time. Show that form again this weekend, and he'll likely enter his third top 10 of the outdoor season.
 
Two other Viking field event athletes have set top 10 marks of their own between Noah Meucci in the men's hammer (6th) and Alison Calvin-Stupfel in the women's high jump (9th, tied). Meucci will go beyond just the hammer this weekend as he'll compete in the men's discus Friday before competing in the hammer and shot put Saturday. Calvin-Stupfel will be more singularly focused as she'll compete in the women's high jump Friday.
 
Calvin-Stupfel scored for the Vikings at their last conference meet, as she placed eighth at the Big Sky Indoor Championships back in February. Migani was the star for the Viking men at that meet, as he placed sixth in the triple jump to score individually while also contributing to the team's distance medley relay that placed seventh.
 
Expect those two to push for scoring positions again this weekend. If they do, then don't be surprised if you see them in the next movie within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
 
Kevin Feige loves track & field and the Big Sky Conference, after all.
 
MEET INFO
May 10-11 – Big Sky Outdoor Championships – Bobcat Track and Field Complex
 
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Live Results | Live Video – Friday | Saturday
 
MEET SCHEDULE
Friday, May 10
Start (PT) – Event (PSU Entries)
1:15 p.m. – Men's Long Jump (Flight 1 of 2 – Migani)
1:40 p.m. – Men's 1,500 Meters – Prelims (Heat 2 of 2 – Abade)
1:55 p.m. – Women's 1,500 Meters – Prelims (Heat 1 of 2 – Beghin)
2:55 p.m. – Men's 400 Meters – Prelims (Heat 1 of 3 – Kargbo)
3 p.m. – Women's High Jump (Flight 1 of 1 – Calvin-Stupfel)
3:15 p.m. – Women's 400 Meters – Prelims (Heat 2 of 3 – Peterson)
3:30 p.m. – Men's 100 Meters – Prelims (Heat 1 of 4 – West; Heat 3 of 4 – Migani)
4 p.m. – Men's 800 Meters – Prelims (Heat 1 of 3 – Abade; Heat 3 of 3 – Ahmed)
4:20 p.m. – Women's 800 Meters – Prelims (Heat 1 of 3 – Beghin, Faust; Heat 2 of 3 – Brown; Heat 3 of 3 – Kapustka)
4:30 p.m. – Men's Discus (Flight 1 of 2 – Meucci)
5:10 p.m. – Women's 400-Meter Hurdles – Prelims (Heat 3 of 3 – Hare)
5:25 p.m. – Men's 200 Meters – Prelims (Heat 3 of 4 – Kargbo)
5:35 p.m. – Women's 200 Meters – Prelims (Heat 3 of 3 – Peterson)
 
Saturday, May 11
Start (PT) – Event (PSU Entries)
9:05 a.m. – Men's Hammer (Flight 1 of 2 – Meucci)
9:10 a.m. – Men's Triple Jump (Flight 1 of 1 – Migani, West)
12 p.m. – Men's 100 Meters – Final (Migani)
12:05 p.m. – Men's Shot Put (Flight 1 of 2 – Meucci)
1:45 p.m. – Women's 5,000 Meters – Final (Section 1 of 1 – Beghin)
2:10 p.m. – Women's 4x400-Meter Relay (Section 1 of 2 – Portland State 'A' – Peterson, Brown, Kapustka, Hare)
2:20 p.m. – Men's 4x400-Meter Relay (Section 1 of 2 – Portland State 'A' – Kargbo, Ahmed, Abade, Migani)