BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Following a pair of team titles at the first home meet of the season last Friday, the Western Washington University track & field program travels south to the Saint Martin’s University Jay Hammer Meet on Saturday at the SMU Track & Field Complex.
Field events begin at 10 am with track events starting at 10:30 am in Lacey, Washington. The last scheduled events of the day are the 4x400m relays at 4:55 pm and 5:10 pm. In addition to host Saint Martin’s, the Vikings will be joined by Seattle Pacific, Central Washington and Concordia as Great Northwest Athletic Conference schools at the meet.
Saturday’s meet is the second of the month for WWU during a busy April that features a pair of home meets at Civic Stadium. Following the trip to Saint Martin’s, the Vikings will travel to California next week for three meets from April 19 to April 21 before hosting the 37th Annual Ralph Vernacchia Track & Field Meet on April 28.
Recapping Last Week
The WWU women took the team title at the WWU Team Invitational last Friday with 180 points, ahead of British Columbia (173 points), Seattle Pacific (152 points) and Saint Martin’s (61 points). The WWU men finished with 223 points, well ahead of British Columbia (160 points), Saint Martin’s (111 points) and Seattle Pacific (81 points). In all, the Vikings claimed 13 events titles with three WWU competitors improving upon NCAA Division II provisional-qualifying marks among the many strong performances.
Junior Alex Barry (Sequim, WA) won the javelin with a throw of 64.77m (212-6), more than 8 feet beyond his previous personal-best mark. The throw ranks No. 3 in WWU outdoor top-10 history, No. 9 in GNAC outdoor top-10 history and No. 8 nationally this season (No. 2 in the GNAC). It improved upon his previous top provisional-qualifying throw this season of 61.90m (203-1) recorded at the Stanford Invitational.
Senior Anna Paradee (Tacoma, WA/Decatur) cleared a season-best height of 3.97m (13-0 ¼) to win the pole vault at the WWU Team Invitational as the No. 4 mark nationally this season and the top GNAC performance. The GNAC and school record holder with a clearance of 4.01m (13-1 ¾) during the outdoor season last year, Paradee came close to her record mark and attempted at 4.04m last Friday. Her previous top mark during 2018 was 3.95m (12-11 ½) at the Stanford Invitational.
Freshman Natalie Vetto (Kirkland, WA/Lake Washington) also improved upon a previous provisional-qualifying mark, placing 2nd in the javelin with a mark of 44.61m (146-4) last Friday, bettering her previous top mark of 43.97m (144-3) recorded at the Stanford Invitational. Sophomore Raquel Pellecer (Sandy, OR/Portland State) took top honors in the javelin with a throw of 47.13m (154-7), her 2nd-best mark of the season behind her throw of 47.91m (157-2) at Stanford. Pellecer and Vetto own the top two javelin marks in the conference with Pellecer’s top mark ranking No. 4 nationally and Vetto’s top mark ranking No. 7.
As a whole the Vikings posted 69 marks setting new season-best performances with three marks tying season-best performances at the WWU Team Invitational, and among the efforts were marks ranking on the program top-10 lists.
In addition to Barry, freshman Bryce Bryant-Leat (Spokane, WA/Lewis and Clark) recorded the No. 7 shot put mark on the WWU top-10 list with a mark of 15.78m (51-9 ¼), the No. 3 mark in the GNAC this year.
Sophomore Chanelle Eddy (Bellingham, WA/Sehome/Whitworth), a two event winner at the meet in the shot put and discus, recorded a discus throw of 43.87m (143-11) as the No. 5 mark on the WWU top-10 list and No. 3 mark in the GNAC during the season.
Junior Maddie Taylor (Seattle, WA/Auburn Mountainview/Montana) posted a GNAC-leading high jump mark of 1.66m (5-5 ¼) to place 2nd with the No. 9 mark on the WWU top-10 list.
On the track, sophomore Peyton Shinnick (Maple Valley, WA/Tahoma) added a program top-10 time in the 3,000m steeplechase during her first-ever race in the event, finishing in 11:26.83 to place 2nd as the No. 7 time on the WWU top-10 list. Junior Savannah Smith (Renton, WA) tied her personal-best in the 200m with a 2nd-place finish in a time of 25.39, a time ranking No. 5 on the WWU top-10 list.
The 4x100m relay team of sophomore Kelsey McLean (Kirkland, WA/Juanita), sophomore Hannah Bradley (Bellingham, WA), freshman Emily Greene (Spokane, WA/Lewis and Clark) and junior Emily Sytsma (Lynden, WA/Lynden Christian/Concordia) also posted a program top-10 time, placing 3rd with a time of 48.08 as the No. 9 time on the WWU top-10 list.
