MIAA Championship Track Meet Feb. 27

Derek Blanchard

Born to Run: Washburn’s Sierra Mortensen running in the women’s 5K. Mortensen crossed the finish line in second place with a time of 17:42.22. Mortensen said, “I anticipated the race starting slow, and I let the other girls do most of the work until the end, and I tried to conserve energy until the final laps.”

On Saturday, Feb. 27, Michael Pearl was the top athlete in the 60-meter dash and was second place in the shot put. Michael Pearl had a tough time with the high jump with no height, but Logan Stock rose above the pack of athletes in the high jump with a score of 6.60 feet and was 2nd place in the heptathlon all afternoon on Saturday.

Shae Ware was in fifth place out of 20 athletes in the entire Pentathlon. Shae Ware told me that this “was her best jump on Saturday” and she has been working on her high jump, even though she scored her record with 5.02 feet. Shae Ware had the second-largest long-distance jump with 18.05 feet.

Michael Pearl ran the fastest time out of 11 athletes in the 60- meter hurdle dash with a time of 8.45 s. The next event is pole vaulting in the heptathlon. Logan Stock and Michael Pearl had a challenging time with low scores under 13.12 feet. The last event of the heptathlon is the 3000-foot run. Only Stock ran in the 3000-foot run and was in sixth place in the event.

At the end of the heptathlon, Logan stock was the fifth place out of 11 athletes in the heptathlon. Michael Pearl was 2nd to last.

The final day of the MIAA conference track and field meet began with the Washburn Men in seventh place and the Washburn Women in fifth. So, while the first day featured many personal best performances from athletes there was still work to do in order to move up the team leaderboards.

The first events of the day would be the men’s 60-meter hurdles along with the high jump and hurdle portions of the men’s heptathlon. A standout performer in the individual hurdles event was junior Michael Pearl who, after setting a personal best of 8.37 seconds the day before, followed it up with an 8.38 performance, good for a fourth-place finish.

“I think my start got a lot better. That’s what helped me out, just going through the hurdles instead of backing off,” said Pearl.

Soon after the throwing events and triple jump both began. Both of the events featured personal bests for the men’s team, with freshman Nasjon Porter going 13.82 meters in the triple jump and junior Sam Stranthan throwing 14.72 meters in the shot put. While Stranthan’s throw did not result in points, senior Michael Majors was able to secure two points with a throw of 16.08 meters.

“Felt good getting seventh (place), I mean it’s not what I wanted but it’s still points for the team so that’s good, I wish I threw a little farther but it happens,” said Majors.

After those events wrapped up distance running and sprints, along with the rest of the jumping events began, which was where Washburn had most of their athletes. Among the standout results were junior Sierra Mortensen and sophomore Lilly Johnson who finished second and eight respectively in the 3000 meter run. On the men’s side in the event both runners, freshman Coleen McClain and freshman Ethan Thompson recorded personal bests in the event, with McClain finishing in eight place.

There were also some positive strides in some of the sprinting events as junior Lyndsay Stinson recorded a PR in the 400 meter dash, finishing sixth, and freshman Isabella Hohl finished seventh in the 60 meter dash, giving the team two more points.

At this stage the men’s heptathlon, which had begun the day before, was finishing its last event and ended as a success for junior Logan Stock who finished in fourth place with a score of 4986. At the same time the mile run was taking place which netted runners on both the men’s and women’s sides their fastest runs. Junior Luz Lopez-Gonzales finished with a time of 5:49.64, and freshman Kael Ecord ran a personal best 4:27.18.

“I think the biggest thing was just focusing on running a competitive race from start to finish, I was a little tired after the DMR yesterday but just sticking with it and competing at the end,” said Ecord.

In the high jump, which was the final event of the meet, Washburn had success all around. For the men Logan Stock and junior Tom Haug finished tied for sixth, giving them each 2.5 points. On the women’s side sophomore Skyler Saunders landed in fourth with a jump of 1.64 meters to give her team five points.

Unfortunately even with several career best days it was not enough for either team. The men finished the day in ninth place with 30 points, and the women had 43 points, which was good for eighth place in the meets entirety.

Women’s Results

Pentathlon
Shae Ware – 5th – 3478 – PR
60m dash – Prelims
Isabella Hohl – 6th – 7.76q – PR
Mandana Vouillemin – 15th – 7.88 – PR
400m dash – Prelims
Lyndsay Stinson – 8th – 59.07q
600 Yard run – Prelims
Chia Okoro – 11th – 1:27.54
Antina Junge – 16th – 1:30.92 – PR
200m dash – Prelims
Isabella Hohl – 16th – 25.78 – PR
Mandana Vouillemin – 17th – 25.87 – PR
Darian Hillebert – 18th – 25.97
Women 5000 meter run
Sierra Mortensen – 2nd – 17:42.22
Kelsie Dent – 19th – 19:14.76 – PR
Avery Hoffpauir – 21st – 19:24.49
Pole Vault
Virgi Scardanzan – 3rd – 4.12m – 13-06.25 (DII Auto) – PR
Rachael Mayberry – 4th – 4.02m – 13-02.25 (DII Provisional)
Josie Hickerson – Tied 11th – 3.47m – 11-04.50
Natalie Lanman – NH
Tassilyn Bolin – NH
Long Jump
Shae Ware – 12th – 5.32m – 17-05.50
Men’s Results
60m Hurdles – Prelims
Romain Henry – 1st – 8.08Q – PR
Michael Pearl – 6th – 8.37q – PR
Mason Engelken – 9th – 8.424 – PR
Logan Stock – 10th – 8.429 – PR
60m Dash – Prelims
Wyatt Heiman – 12th – 6.99 – PR
Eric Patterson Jr. – 15th – 7.03 – PR
400m Dash – Prelims
Romain Henry – 6th – 48.75q – PR
200m Dash – Prelims
Wyatt Heiman – 16th – 22.35 – PR
Distance Medley
Kael Ecord, Mason Engelken, Justin Gnuechtel, Gabriel Chinya – 8th – 10:31.43
Weight Throw
Sam Stranathan – 10th – 17.18m – 56-04.50 – PR
Mitch Miller – 12th – 16.46m – 54-00.00 – PR
Braden Rose – 13th – 16.34m – 53-07.50
Michael Majors – 14th – 16.03m – 52-07.25
Pole Vault
Peyton Lane – 4th – 4.91m – 16-01.25 – PR
Zac Chandler – 13th – 4.51m – 14-09.50
Cody Ratterman – NH
Long Jump
Connor Last – 5th – 7.14m – 23-05.25
Josh Hopkins – 13th – 6.72m – 22-00.75
Nasjon Porter – 14th – 6.69m – 21-11.50
Sunday
Women’s Results
60m Dash – Finals
Isabella Hohl – 7th – 7.77
One Mile Run
Luz Lopez-Gonzalez – 22nd – 5:49.64 – PR
Stacy Briggs – 23rd – 5:52.05
400m Dash – Finals
Lyndsay Stinson – 6th – 58.67 – PR
3000m Run
Sierra Mortensen – 2nd – 10:11.06
Lily Johnson – 8th – 10:19.90
Verena Vesely – 25th – 11:06.76
4×400 Meter Relay
Chia Okoro, Darian Hillebert, Nikki Kraaijeveld, Lyndsay Stinson – 8th – 3:57.36
High Jump
Skyler Saunders – 4th – 1.64m – 5-04.50
Men’s Results
Heptathlon
Logan Stock – 4th – 4986
Michael Pearl – 10th (DNF) – 3593
Pau Borillo-Feber – DNF
60m Hurdles – Finals
Michael Pearl – 4th – 8.38 –
Romain Henry – 8th – 18.57
1 Mile Run
Gabriel Chinya – 10th – 4:20.89
Kael Ecord – 17th – 4:27.18 – PR
400m Dash – Finals
Romain Henry – 8th – 49.92
3000m Run
Collen Mclain – 8th – 8:31.25 – PR
Ethan Thompson – 20th – 8:48.47 – PR
4×400 Meter Relay
Mason Engelken, Romain Henry, Pau Borillo-Febrer, Michael Pearl – DNS
Shot Put
Michael Majors – 7th – 16.08m – 52-09.25
Sam Stranthan – 13th – 14.72m – 48-03.50 – PR
Braden Rose – 14th – 14.69m – 48-02.50
Mitch Miller – FOUL
Triple Jump
Nasjon Porter – 9th – 13.82m – 45-04.25 – PR
High Jump
Tom Haug – T6th – J1.95m – 6-04.75
Logan Stock – T6th – J1.95m – 6-04.75
Edited by: Crystal Hendrix, Katrina Johnson, Matthew L. Self, Jason Long