PORTLAND, Ore. — The concept of place is open-ended enough that you could host a university-wide symposium on it and get different perspectives from the English department, the sociology department, economics, fine arts, the business school or the hard sciences.
 
The Portland State track & field program has student-athletes in each of those departments. So perhaps the Vikings are well-suited to host their own symposium of sorts as they welcome in their fellow Big Sky Conference schools for the Big Sky Outdoor Championships later this week, May 13-16, at Mt. Hood Community College.
 
It's the first time the Vikings will host a conference meet in 13 years. The Vikings hosted that previous conference meet at Pacific University in 2013. This year, they hit the other side of Portland at Mt. Hood Community College's Earl L. Klapstein Stadium. Two different home locations spanning 43.1 miles of the Portland metro area 13 years apart.
 
You see, now, why we were talking about place at the beginning?
 
Perhaps assistant coach Nick Merillana had that all in mind when he used the term "displace" when describing his message to the team ahead of this week's championships. The Vikings, even as hosts, are the underdogs at the meet. So, they'll be looking to displace athletes ahead of them in the conference rankings.  
 
"Everyone who is entered, I've only entered them because I feel like they can displace someone. They can potentially help us score some points. They can do something that someone wasn't expecting," Merillana said.
 
"It's not a last chance meet. It's not a meet for 'oh, let me see if I can go PR in this event.' It's hey, 'you need to go out there and wear this jersey with some pride.'"
 
Even the Vikings ranked highest in the conference – Jack Macdonald and Emma Stolte – have room to surprise people.
 
Macdonald ranks the highest of any individual Viking thanks to his school record-breaking performance in the men's 200 meters on May 1 at the OSU High Performance Meet. That was Macdonald and the Vikings' last action of the regular season, and Macdonald made sure to go out with a bang. The freshman became the first Viking ever to crack 21 seconds in the 200 meters, breaking a 27-year-old record in the process with his finish in 20.91 seconds. He now ranks third in the conference behind only Montana's Karsten Beitz (20.55) and Idaho's Keenan Kuntz (20.58).
 
"He's been so poised. He's ready to do some big things. He's got a different fire underneath him right now," Merillana said of Macdonald.
 
Macdonald will double in the prelims of the 100 and 200 meters Friday. Should he advance, the finals of both events will be Saturday, when Macdonald also figures to run a leg of the Vikings' 4x100-meter relay.
 
Stolte, meanwhile, had a choice of three events between the women's 800, 1,500 and 5,000 meters. She opted for the latter two, which are where she ranks the highest between a sixth-place rank in the 1,500 and eighth-place rank in the 5k. Stolte set the record in both events twice this outdoor season. She set the latest marks within a day of each other, running the 1,500 in 4:20.17 and 5k in 15:59.87 at the Bryan Clay Invitational.
 
In a regular year, those marks would have meant the Big Sky Outdoor Championships was the first stop in a postseason swing for Stolte. But extraordinarily fast times across the NCAA West region mean Stolte heads into conference week ranked 86th in the 1,500 and 63rd in the 5k within the region. Only the top 48 are guaranteed a spot at the NCAA West First Round, though lower-ranked runners always get in due to injuries or scratches.
 
Even still, Stolte will likely have more than just a place on her mind at the conference meet.
 
"If you would have said even two years ago that there would be 60 girls who could break 16 minutes in the 5k, people would go, 'yeah, no. I don't think so.' But it's the reality right now," Merillana said.
 
"Emma has never doubted herself. With her and every single person, we take it one race at a time, one day at a time. She's started to do that a little more this week. I think she's going to be very poised, very relaxed, and I'm going to be excited to watch her in those events."
 
Stolte got some championship race seasoning already at the Big Sky Indoor Championships in February. She became the first Viking since 2007 to score in both the women's 800 meters and mile at a single championship. By any measure that would be an accomplishment, but both Stolte and Merillana went into the meet with higher goals than that. This week's outdoor meet gives her another shot to hit those.
 
"She learned from the indoor [conference meet]. She had a good meet, she scored points in both of her events. But I think she is going to clean up tactically what she can and put herself in a position to strike," Merillana said.
 
Someone else looking to strike will be Isaiah Cadengo. In between some nagging injuries, Cadengo has shown flashes this season. He broke the freshman records in the indoor and outdoor 400 meters, and did so by at least three-quarters of a second in both. He set his latest record at the Vikings' regular-season finale, the OSU High Performance Meet. There, he shaved close to eight-tenths of a second off his seasonal best while finishing in 47.60 seconds. That moved him up to third overall at Portland State, just 0.22 seconds behind Anthony Robinson's current school record of 47.38 seconds from 2003.
 
"He's got a cool head on his shoulders. He's ready to get out there and push one of those guys who thinks they're safe. Cadengo has never let anyone in front of him be safe," Merillana said of the freshman.
 
Ocean Rideout will share in the upstart mindset as she opens the meet for the Vikings while competing in her first heptathlon Wednesday and Thursday. Rideout competed in five of the seven events of the heptathlon throughout the outdoor season, just missing the shot put and javelin. She's gotten steadily better across the board. Five of her six personal bests have come in her last two meets of the season, and the sixth came the week before.
 
"It's a new event for her, but she's so excited," Merillana said of Rideout's first attempt in the heptathlon. "I was with her today at javelin practice and she was like, 'coach, I can do this.' She was listening to rock & roll music and she's like, 'I'm ready. It's going to be so awesome. I can't wait to get out there.'"
 
That's the attitude Merillana hopes the rest of his athletes take with them into the meet. A home conference meet can carry a lot of pressure with it – let alone the first in 13 years – but that pressure is a privilege.
 
"One of the big things I told the athletes today and over the last couple of days is, 'you need to make this your own experience and your own opportunity.'  If you're stressing yourself out and you're not just super excited that we have a conference meet basically 20 minutes away – in our backyard – and you get to compete in that championship, you're going to get lost in it," Merillana said.
 
"You have one shot to compete at a home conference meet. So it's not going to be presented as pressure, but an opportunity. And I think if we take it as an opportunity, then I think we're going to be very, very successful."
 
It starts with displacing those ranked ahead of you. Beat someone they say you shouldn't and take their spot in Saturday's final.
 
And then write up the experience and present it as your dissertation on the concept of place.
 
MEET INFO
May 13-16 – Big Sky Outdoor Championships – Greshma, Ore. (Earl L. Klapstein Stadium)
 
FOLLOW ALONG
Live Results | Live Video
 
MEET SCHEDULE
Wednesday, May 13
Time (PT) – Events (PSU Entries)
10 a.m. – Decathlon 100 Meters
10:30 a.m. – Heptathlon 100-Meter Hurdles (Rideout)
~10:45 a.m. – Decathlon Long Jump
~11:15 a.m. – Heptathlon High Jump (Rideout)
~11:55 a.m. – Decathlon Shot Put
~1:15 p.m. – Decathlon High Jump
~1:25 p.m. – Heptathlon Shot Put (Rideout)
~2:30 p.m. – Heptathlon 200 Meters (Rideout)
~2:45 p.m. – Decathlon 400 Meters
 
Thursday, May 14
Time (PT) – Events (PSU Entries)
10 a.m. – Decathlon 110-Meter Hurdles
~11 a.m. – Heptathlon Long Jump (Rideout)
~11 a.m. – Decathlon Discus
~12:15 p.m. – Heptathlon Javelin (Rideout)
~12:30 p.m. – Decathlon Pole Vault
~1:45 p.m. – Heptathlon 800 Meters (Rideout)
~3 p.m. – Decathlon Javelin
~4:30 p.m. – Decathlon 1,500 Meters
 
Friday, May 15
Time (PT) – Events (PSU Entries)
10 a.m. – Men's Javelin (Glad, Green)
10 a.m. – Women's High Jump
12 p.m. – Men's Long Jump (Mathers, Niyongere, Parrow)
12 p.m. – Women's Javelin
1 p.m. – Men's Pole Vault
1 p.m. – Women's 3,000-Meter Steeplechase
1:25 p.m. – Men's 3,000-Meter Steeplechase
1:45 p.m. – Women's 1,500 Meters – Prelims (Nichols, Stolte)
1:55 p.m. – Men's 1,500 Meters – Prelims (Abade)
2 p.m. – Men's Hammer
2:20 p.m. – Women's 100-Meter Hurdles – Prelims (Beasley)
2:40 p.m. – Men's 110-Meter Hurdles – Prelims (Schall, Sweeney)
2:55 p.m. – Women's 400 Meters – Prelims (Abdel Halim)
3 p.m. – Women's Long Jump (Latu-Alves, Rideout)
3:15 p.m. – Men's 400 Meters – Prelims (Cadengo, Payne)
3:30 p.m. – Women's 100 Meters – Prelims (Jolivette, Rideout, Rosario)
3:45 p.m. – Men's 100 Meters – Prelims (Macdonald)
4 p.m. – Women's 800 Meters – Prelims (Butterfield, López)
4:20 p.m. – Men's 800 Meters – Prelims (Abade, Ahmed, Arthur, Smith)
4:30 p.m. – Women's Hammer (Edwards, Fisher)
4:50 p.m. – Women's 400-Meter Hurdles – Prelims (Beasley, Peterson)
5:10 p.m. – Men's 400-Meter Hurdles – Prelims (Timmins)
5:25 p.m. – Women's 200 Meters – Prelims (Rosario)
5:35 p.m. – Men's 200 Meters – Prelims (Cadengo, Macdonald)
5:55 p.m. – Women's 10,000 Meters
6:35 p.m. – Men's 10,000 Meters (Gillingham)
 
Saturday, May 16
Time (PT) – Events (PSU Entries)
10 a.m. – Men's Discus
10 a.m. – Men's High Jump (Mathers)
10 a.m. – Women's Triple Jump
10 a.m. – Women's Shot Put (Fisher, Sayler)
11:30 a.m. – Women's 4x100-Meter Relay (Portland State 'A' – Rosario, Rideout, Jolivette, Peterson, Abdel Halim)
11:40 a.m. – Men's 4x100-Meter Relay (Portland State 'A' – Brost, Macdonald, Stolp, Payne, Cadengo)
11:50 a.m. – Women's 1,500 Meters
12 p.m. – Men's 1,500 Meters
12:15 p.m. – Women's 100-Meter Hurdles
12:25 p.m. – Men's 110-Meter Hurdles
12:35 p.m. – Women's 400 Meters
12:45 p.m. – Men's 400 Meters
12:55 p.m. – Women's 100 Meters
1 p.m. – Women's Discus (Edwards, Fletcher)
1 p.m. – Men's Shot Put
1 p.m. – Men's Triple Jump (Mathers, Niyongere, Parrow)
1 p.m. – Women's Pole Vault
1:05 p.m. – Men's 100 Meters
1:15 p.m. – Women's 800 Meters
1:25 p.m. – Men's 800 Meters
1:40 p.m. – Women's 400-Meter Hurdles
1:50 p.m. – Men's 400-Meter Hurdles
2 p.m. – Women's 200 Meters
2:10 p.m. – Men's 200 Meters
2:20 p.m. – Women's 5,000 Meters (Nichols, Stolte)
2:40 p.m. – Men's 5,000 Meters (Ibrahim)
~3:10 p.m. – Women's 4x400-Meter Relay (Portland State 'A' – López, Butterfield, Beasley, Peterson, Abdel Halim)
~3:15 p.m. – Men's 4x400-Meter Relay (Portland State 'A' – Payne, Cadengo, Ahmed, Smith, Brost, Arthur)
~3:30 p.m. – Awards Ceremony