BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Western Washington University track & field program continues the indoor season across the state at the Cougar Indoor on Friday and Saturday, hosted by Washington State University at the WSU Indoor Practice Facility.
The Cougar Indoor marks the third indoor meet of the season for the Vikings, after beginning the season with the UW Preview and UW Invitational at the University of Washington’s Dempsey Indoor facility. The meet at WSU is the lone meet not held at Dempsey Indoor for the Vikings prior to the GNAC Championships. WWU returns to Dempsey Indoor for the UW FloTrack Classic (Feb. 9-10), UW Open (Feb. 11) and SPU Final Qualifier (Feb. 24) before the GNAC Championships hosted by Northwest Nazarene on Feb. 16-17 in Nampa, Idaho.
The Cougar Indoor meet begins on Friday at 12:30 pm and continues through the last scheduled event at 6 pm. On Saturday, action resumes at 10 am and continues through the last scheduled event at 3:55 pm.
Through two indoor meets, the Vikings have recorded one NCAA Division II provisional-qualifying mark and added 19 marks to the WWU program top-10 lists. Senior Jasmine McMullin (Sequim, WA) recorded a jump of 12.00m (39-4 ½) in the triple jump at the season-opening UW Preview to record a provisional-qualifying mark that enters the week as the 8th-best mark nationally.
Last week at the UW Invitational, the Vikings posted five program top-10 marks on Friday and added eight more on Saturday.
During Friday’s competition, sophomore Sophia Galvez (Los Alamos, NM) was 35th in the 5,000m with a time of 17:48.72 to rank 6th in program history. On the men’s side, sophomore Eric Hamel (Enumclaw, WA) and Jadon Olson (Mill Creek, WA/Henry M. Jackson) added program top-10 times in the 5,000m. Hamel placed 27th (14:56.19) and Olson followed closely in 28th (14:57.59) with Hamel’s time ranking 7th in WWU history and Olson’s ranking 8th.
Both distance medley relay teams posted the 10th-fastest time on their respective WWU top-10 lists during last Friday’s races at the UW Invitational as well.
The WWU women’s distance medley team of freshman Jane Barr (Seattle, WA/Roosevelt), senior Deja Svastisalee (Spokane, WA/North Central), freshman Shawnee Konrad (Mead, WA/Mount Spokane) and sophomore Aundrea Koger (Osage City, KS) finished 20th with a time of 12:32.06. The WWU men’s distance medley “A” team of freshman Porter McMichael (Richland, WA/Hanford), freshman Myles Smith (Puyallup, WA), freshman Macauley Franks (Lake Forest Park, WA/Shorecrest) and freshman Ian Fay (Duvall, WA/Cedarcrest) finished 13th in a time of 10:32.99.
On Saturday, junior Tupre Wickliff (Vancouver, WA/Evergreen/Clark college) tied for 14th in the high jump with a leap of 2.00m (6-6 ¾) to post the 4th-best mark in WWU history.
A trio of thrower’s added top-10 marks last Saturday in the weight throw. Freshman Bryce Bryant-Leat (Spokane, WA/Lewis and Clark) led the way with a toss of 14.42m (47-3 ¾) to finish 20th, followed by freshman Avery Lux (Fort Collins, CO/Fossil Ridge) in 22nd (14.02m/46-0) and freshman Ben Malquist (Bellingham, WA/Sehome) in 23rd (13.96m, 45-9 ¾). Bryant-Leat’s effort ranks 7th in WWU history while Lux’s is 9th and Malquist’s is 10th.
Information courtesy of WWU Athletics
