Track & Field At Oregon Relays Friday; Gomez To Mt. SAC

April 18, 2013

CORVALLIS, Ore. - With just under a month to go until the Pac-12 Championships, the Oregon State track and field team begins its final push to the conference meet this Friday at the Oregon Relays in Eugene. In addition to the student-athletes competing at Hayward Field, sophomore Kinsey Gomez will run the 5K at the prestigious Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif.

"This weekend and the next weekend are really the two big competitions before the conference meet," Oregon State assistant coach Travis Floeck said. "Weather and race situations are all big factors on marks so hopefully we can catch some breaks in the weather. But there are good fields [in both meets] so it's going to be a really good opportunity for some to get back into competing as we make our final run up to the Pac-12 Championships."

The Oregon Relays will be webcast live for free via the school's Pac-12 portal with former Duck track coach Tom Heinonen and Jesse Fukawa handling the announcing duties. Live results will be available by visiting goducks.com. Flotrack will be streaming the Mt. SAC Relays live at this link.

This weekend's races will serve as the first since late March for a number of Beavers who have been focusing on training, health and fitness leading into the home stretch of Oregon State's schedule. Lacey London and Sandra Martinez haven't raced since OSU hosted its meet at the Whyte Track and Field Center on March 23, while Gomez, Kelsi Schaer, Kira Kelly, Emily Weber, Taylor Nowlin and Whitney Pitman have not been in competition since the team traveled to the Bay Area for meets at Stanford and San Francisco State on Mach 29.

Gomez will return to the oval in the `A' section of the women's 5,000 meters at the 55th Annual Mt. Sac Relays hosted by Mt. San Antonio College at Historic Hilmer Lodge Stadium in Walnut, Calif. The sophomore last raced when she finished second in the 5K at the Stanford Invitational with a time of 16:38.79. It was only her fourth-ever try at the distance and placed Gomez fourth on Oregon State's all-time list.

A time of 16:38.79 would have put Gomez just outside the automatic qualifiers for last year's NCAA West Regional and currently has the Idaho native ranked 23rd on the 2013 NCAA Div. I West Outdoor Qualifying List. Her race begins at 9:55 p.m.

"Kinsey's workouts have been going really well since Stanford," Floeck commented. "I think it'll be a better opportunity for her because in that Stanford race she was finding herself and running in no-man's land a bit. A lot of times you can have a certain level of fitness, but you need the right type of race situation, the right type of opportunity, to run to that fitness level and that's what we're hoping for with this trip down to Mt. SAC."

"Mt. SAC is a great meet because people are going down there for one reason and one reason only [to qualify for NCAA's]. They just fly," Head Coach Kelly Sullivan added.

In a season of growth and expansion of the program, the Beavers will be represented well in numerous events down at Oregon. On the track, Taylor Hunt will race in the 400 (4:25 p.m.), Carly Januzzi and Lacey London in the 800 (4:45 p.m.), Kelsi Schaer in the 1,500 (7:50 p.m.), Kira Kelly, Sandra Martinez and Emily Weber in the 5,000 (7:30 p.m.), Michele Turney in the 100-meter hurdles (4:08 p.m.) and Taylor Nowlin and Whitney Pitman in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (3:15 p.m.).

Thus far in 2013, Taylor Nowlin has raced the 1,500 at OSU's home meet and the steeple at the Stanford Invitational. Her time of 10:50.70 on The Farm, which she posted despite nearly taking a fall over the first water jump after getting bottled up with a couple of others, is currently 48th in the West Region and was just four seconds off her PR.

"Taylor has such natural ability with the steeple that when she gets in a rhythm, some big things can happen," Floeck said. "We're looking for another rep because we know she'll be running at the conference meet. She's definitely a steeplechaser so it's always exciting for her to get in and do the event she loves."

In the jumps, Sara Almen, Lucinda Howard and Kristin Oenning will be in the high jump at 3:10 p.m., Kaitlyn Mason and Michele Turney in the long jump at 3 p.m. and Turney will also compete in the triple at 4:35 p.m.

Mary Claire Brenner and Kayla Fleskes will be the Beavers' representatives in the throws. Both are entered in the discus (3:30 p.m.) and javelin (5:20 p.m.) and Brenner will also compete in the shot put at 5:15 p.m. The javelin will provide the first opportunity for Brenner to compete against her younger sister, Liz, from Oregon.

On the men's side, Ryan Cope will race in the 400m hurdles at 5:13 p.m.

In the first section of women's 1,500 at 3:50 p.m., Morgan Anderson will run unattached for the second consecutive week after crossing the finish line in 4:46.07 at last Friday's John Knight Twilight. Former all-American and current assistant coach Laura Carlyle will also run for Bowerman Athletic Club in Schaer's section of the 1,500 at 7:50 p.m.

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