Oregon State
Oregon Relays
Track & Field's Friday Highlighted By Gomez's 5K At Mt. SAC
April 19, 2013 | Women's Track & Field
April 19, 2013
Mt. SAC 5K Results 
EUGENE, Ore. - Sophomore Kinsey Gomez moved into second on Oregon State's all-time list in the 5K at Mt. SAC and a number of Beavers PR'd at the Oregon Relays on Friday evening, as the OSU track and field squad posted solid performances to begin the team's final push toward the Pac-12 Championships in early May.
At the 55th Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif., Gomez cut 14 seconds off her previous best in the 5,000 to finish 10th in the event's `A' section with a time of 16:24.17. Her mark is now shy of only former OSU All-American Laura Carlyle, who ran 16:05.04 at the NCAA West Regional in 2011.
"Kinsey ran about as smart as she could have," Oregon State assistant coach Laura Harmon said. "She sat on the shoulder of the person who was in lead and let someone else do the work. As [the race] picked up she responded to every single move."
The race's lead pack went out at about 5:20 though the mile, which is about a 16:40 pace, before increasing its speed as things progressed. With the performance, Gomez has put herself in position to earn a berth at this year's NCAA West Regional in Austin, Texas at the end of May. A 5K of 16:24 would have placed her in the region's top 40 each of the last three seasons.
In Eugene, with a number of OSU's student-athletes back in action for the first time in a couple of weeks, the Beavers had a number of PR's at Hayward Field. In a stacked 5K field that included an Olympian and Oregon's Jordan Hasay, freshman Emily Weber ran her second-ever try at the distance in 16:57.67 to finish ninth.
"Emily Weber's great performance was obvious tonight," Oregon State head coach Kelly Sullivan said. "For a true freshman to run 16:57 is absolutely phenomenal. To give some perspective, she ran 10:11 for a flat 3,000 in high school, but tonight she was 10:00 flat at the 3,000 mark with 2,000 meters to go. That just shows you how far she has come."
Weber, who has run two 1,500's and two 5K's during her freshman campaign, is now ninth on Oregon State's all-time list in the 5,000.
Three weeks after battling an illness to finish the 1,500 at the San Francisco State Distance Carnival in 4:39.60, Kelsi Schaer PR'd in the event to finish sixth in 4:30.46, which places her among OSU's 10 best at that distance in school history.
"Kelsi's field, along with that in the 5K, was absolutely loaded," Sullivan added. "Our young women were kind of getting stretched out here tonight. They could have run in the slower sections, but we threw them in the fast ones tonight and they did an amazing job."
Lacey London finished third overall in the 800, after she won her section in 2:15.71 and ran the majority of the race herself. The sophomore hadn't competed since Oregon State's home meet on March 23, but didn't seem to miss a beat in her return to the track, coming within two seconds of her PR.
"It was really good to see Kelsi and Lacey out there," Sullivan said. "Both of them missed some time, but they looked great. Sometimes you worry if you take too much time off from racing that you will maybe miss your opportunity, but we thought it was going to work and it did. They looked great. We feel good about the plan we had, how it worked and how they looked. Now they'll just keep racing right into the conference meet."
In a smaller field of just six competitors, Taylor Nowlin ran a season-best 10:47.07 in the 3,000m steeplechase, just two tenths of a second off her PR. Two post-collegians paced most of the race out front along with one unattached runner as Nowlin battled two other undergraduates from Gonzaga and Oregon, eventually prevailing to finish fourth.
"The PR's of those other collegians coming into the race were considerably faster than Taylor's," Sullivan said. "It was good to see her beat them heads up."
With her steeple effort, Nowlin currently sits 39th in the NCAA West Region.
In the throws, Mary Claire Brenner PR'd yet again in the shot put with a toss of 42' 4" to finish sixth, her fourth consecutive week of improvement. The senior's effort is 11th on OSU's all-time list. Kayla Fleskes came in sixth in both the discus (132' 4") and the javelin (121' 5").
Freshman Michele Turney had a good afternoon in the jumps, highlighted by a 37' 10½" in the triple (2nd). Lucinda Howard came in third in the high jump after leaping 5' 4½" and had a couple of close attempts at 5' 6".
The Beavers return to action next Friday afternoon when they host their second meet of the season, the inaugural OSU High Performance at the Whyte Track and Field Center. Field events begin at 3 p.m.
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