Oregon State
Oregon Twilight
Almen Wins HJ At Oregon Twilight; Secures NCAA Regional Berth
May 03, 2013 | Women's Track & Field
May 3, 2013
EUGENE, Ore. - Freshman Sara Almen won the high jump with a leap of 5' 10" at the Oregon Twilight on Friday evening, defeating one of last season's NCAA Championships participants and another 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials qualifier, and in the process earned a berth at the NCAA West Regional Preliminaries in Austin, Texas at the end of May.
Almen, who had only competed once this outdoor season, cleared 5' 4¼", 5' 6" and 5' 8" on her first attempts. She missed her first try at 5' 10", but was successful on her second to claim victory. She was way over on her last attempt at 6' 0", but just barely knocked the bar, which was enough to send it tumbling to the ground.
Oregon sophomores Chancey Summers and Lauren Crockett also reached the 5' 10" mark, but finished second and third due to number of misses. Summers, a U.S. Olympic Trials qualifier last year was unsuccessful on her first attempts at both 5' 8" and 5' 10", while Crockett, who advanced to the NCAA Championships in 2012, took two tries to get over at 5' 8" and three at 5' 10".
"She was pretty nervous going in," Oregon State head coach Kelly Sullivan said of Almen. "You draw confidence from competing and we've had to keep holding her out [due to injury]. To wait one week before the conference championships, that's a lot of pressure to put on a true freshman, but she's an incredible competitor."
With the jump, the Beaver freshman catapulted herself into a tie for 12th in the West Region, which earns her a regional spot alongside teammate Kinsey Gomez, who qualified in the 5K earlier this season. She also moved into seventh on OSU's all-time outdoor list and is close behind a pair of 5' 11" standouts from the early 1980's, Cindy Greiner and Sue Blake.
Almen had only competed once thus far during the outdoor season at the Willamette Invite on April 6 when she jumped 5' 5¾". A two-sport standout, she has been with Oregon State's volleyball team for its spring workouts, but has also had to deal with nicks and ailments that have limited her appearances.
"The whole spring has been recovery," Sullivan said. "She was held out of both track and volleyball for a period of time, so I want to commend our medical staff, which has done a really good job in not rushing her back. Sara has also done a great job with her treatments. We've tried to limit her time on her legs to give her a legitimate chance to compete. It's been a group effort on the medical side with our athletic trainers and both coaching staffs."
Fellow freshman field event competitor Kayla Fleskes also put up an impressive number in the discus, finishing fourth with a heave of 145' 1". That mark is the best for the Beavers in 2013 and nearly nine feet farther than Fleskes' previous PR of 136' 3¾". The Glencoe High School product's throw on Friday puts her sixth on Oregon State's all-time list, between Kristi Wreath's 146' 10" from 1987 and Terry Georgeson's 143' ½" from the Northwest Regional Championships on May 8, 1981.
"Her high school PR was just 121 feet so you're talking about a 24-foot improvement," Sullivan said of Fleskes. "She literally walked into our office the last part of November asking to join the team. We gave her a two to three week tryout and are all pretty darn happy we did. Throwing 145 feet is fantastic, especially with no summer training and no fall training with us. [Throws coach] Jill Hoxmeier has done an absolutely phenomenal job with her."
On the track, former Oregon State All-American and current assistant coach Laura Carlyle, running for Bowerman Athletic Club, won the 800 with a PR of 2:07.26.
In the 1,500, freshman Morgan Anderson, running unattached, PR'd in 4:36.33. She bested her time in that event from the Oregon Relays by more than three seconds and posted the sixth-best time by a Beaver this season.
Other efforts on the track included Carly Januzzi posting a two-second PR in the 800 with a time of 2:18.32. Her other four tries in that event this season had yielded times between 2:20.05 and 2:20.61. Teammate Ashley Mayfield ran her second 800 of the season in 2:20.94, three seconds faster than her other attempt from mid-April.
Maureen Tremblay ran a five-second PR in the 1,500, finishing fourth in the early-evening section with a time of 4:39.36, and earned a trip to next weekend's Pac-12 Championships in Los Angeles.
"Maureen has battled and had some injury issues coming out of high school," Sullivan said. "[Assistant coach] Travis [Floeck] has really overseen her from day one, so congratulations to both of them for all they've done. It's always exciting to see someone who has had an uphill climb succeed. Tonight qualified her to go to Pac-12's, which two weeks ago didn't seem likely, but we believed in her and are really pleased with how it turned out."
Michele Turney came in fourth in the triple jump (37' 1") and Kaitlyn Mason was fifth in the long jump (17' 6¾"). Mary Claire Brenner was sixth in the shot put (41' 6½"), while Kristin Oenning was fifth in the high jump, clearing 5' 4¼".
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