Beavers Bring Youthful Group To Pac-12 Track & Field Championships
May 8, 2013
Note: Scroll to bottom for video preview with Head Coach Kelly Sullivan
CORVALLIS, Ore. - The Oregon State track and field program will bring a youthful cadre of 12 student-athletes to the Pac-12 Championships in Los Angeles, Calif. this Saturday and Sunday. Beavers will be entered in eight different events, including a number for the first time since 1988, at USC's Cromwell Field at Katherine B. Loker Stadium.
Live results will be posted throughout the meet and can be accessed through www.pac-12.com. Complete results following each day on the championships website here: http://championships.pac-12.com/track-field/. A tape-delayed broadcast of the 2013 Pac-12 Men's & Women's Track and Field Championships will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks on Wednesday, May 15 at 6 p.m. Paul Sunderland, Tom Feuer and Ato Boldon will be calling all the action.
Nine of the 12 Oregon State entries will be making their first appearance at a conference championship. Sara Almen (high jump), Mary Claire Brenner (throws), Kayla Fleskes (throws), Lucinda Howard (high jump), Kira Kelly (5,000), Kelsi Schaer (1,500), Maureen Tremblay (1,500), Michele Turney (triple jump) and Emily Weber (1,500) are all in their first full year of collegiate track and field competition. Brenner is a fifth-year senior who spent the past four seasons on the Oregon State softball team while Schaer and Tremblay are redshirt freshmen who each ran three unattached races a year ago. Almen, Fleskes, Howard, Kelly, Turney and Weber are true freshmen.
Sophomore Kinsey Gomez (1,500), junior Taylor Nowlin (steeple) and senior Kristin Oenning (high jump) will form the experienced trio for Oregon State in Southern California. Gomez and Nowlin will be making their second Pac-12 Championships appearances with Oenning competing for the third time.
"I didn't really realize it until a couple of weeks ago, but this is the youngest team we've had since our very first year," Oregon State head coach Kelly Sullivan, who resurrected a program which had lain dormant since 1988, said. "When we went to the Pac-10 meet at UCLA in 2005 everyone, except for one who was a transfer from Oregon, was going to the conference meet for the first time. This year features another incredibly young and talented group."
OSU's youth is spearheaded by freshman Sara Almen and sophomore Kinsey Gomez, who have both already qualified for the NCAA West Regionals in Austin, Texas in two weeks. Almen, who won the high jump at last Friday's Oregon Twilight with a leap of 5' 10", is currently 12th in the West and is the best freshman in her event in the Pac-12. During the indoor season, she cleared 5' 11¼" at the UW Final Qualifier, which tied for 19th in the country and was the third-best for any freshman. That indoor mark is also the second-best in the Pac-12 this year, regardless of season (indoor or outdoor), behind only Arizona's Brigetta Barrett (6' 4¾"), the 2012 Olympic silver medalist.
Gomez, who earned her regional berth in the 5,000 with a time of 16:24.17 at Mt. SAC in mid-April, will instead run the 1,500 this weekend to be in better shape for her NCAA appearance at the longer distance in Austin. A sophomore, Gomez will be the elder stateswomen of OSU's 1,500 field and is joined in that race by Kelsi Schaer, Maureen Tremblay and Emily Weber.
"It's better going into the regional meet to run a 1,500 than run another 5K, try to recover from it and two weeks later jump on a place and do it again," Sullivan said of Gomez. "But I'm expecting all four in the 1,500 to run very well. I think they're primed and have done everything they could have to prepare themselves."
At the OSU High Performance Meet on April 26, Gomez and Weber battled to a 1-2 finish in the 1,500. Weber went out with 400m to go, but was reined in by Gomez, who eventually won in 4:26.89, while Weber crossed in 4:29.46. Gomez moved into third on OSU's all-time list with the effort, while Weber slid into the seventh spot. Both have PR'd in every race in which they've entered this season.
Another storyline this weekend will be the return of Oregon State throwers and horizontal jumpers to the conference meet. With the opening of the Whyte Track and Field Center, the Beavers have been more capable of training for those events this season and have expanded the program as a result. Mary Claire Brenner will throw the shot in Los Angeles, while Fleskes will do so in the javelin and discus competitions.
Beth Nygren was the last OSU student-athlete to throw the shot put at the conference championships when she did so across town at host UCLA in 1988, finishing 14th with a mark of 42' 9". Dave Dmytrow threw the javelin 204' 1" that weekend to come in ninth and both Nygren (151') and John Thomas (152' 7") competed in the discus. Prior to this season, Oregon State hadn't featured anyone in the throws since the re-establishment of the program in 2005.
In addition to Brenner and Fleskes in the throws, freshman Michele Turney is scheduled to compete in the triple jump. She will be the school's first horizontal jumper at the conference championships since 1988 when Dave Turnbull finished 11th in the long jump with a mark of 21' 7¼". Turney is the Pac-12's leading freshman in her event and broke a 29-year Oregon State record when she leapt 38' 6 ¼" at the Oregon Preview on March 16. One week later, at the first home meet in Corvallis in 25 years, she increased that school record to 39' ¼".
"I've always thought of myself as a track and field coach," Sullivan said of his program's growth. "We worked really hard at getting the facility in place so that we could actually do these events, which are just as important as what we've done since we've been here - the middle distance and distance. I know it's really exciting for those young women to finally be able to represent events that we haven't in the past. But I hope it's as exciting for our alums, who competed in those events when they were in college and have been waiting to see someone throw a javelin, shot or discus and triple jump.
We couldn't have done this without coaches like John Radetich (high jump), John Parks (horizontal jumps), Jill Hoxmeier (shot and discus) and Collin Cram (throws), who have been volunteering. I never thought we would have had entries in the shot, discus, javelin or triple jump at the conference meet this year, especially when we've just started in a lot of these event areas. It has definitely been a group effort."
Sara Almen - High Jump - Fr. - Albany, Ore./Santiam Christian HS
Cleared 5' 11¼" in the indoor high jump at the UW Final Qualifier on March 2, which tied for 19th in the country and was the third-best for any freshman ... Also the fourth-best indoor high jump mark in Oregon State history and the second-best in the Pac-12 this year, regardless of season (indoor or outdoor), behind only Arizona's Brigetta Barrett (6' 4¾"), the 2012 Olympic silver medalist ... In just her second career outdoor competition at the Oregon Twilight on May 3, Almen won the high jump by clearing 5' 10", defeating one of last season's NCAA Championships participants and another 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials qualifier ... With the jump, the Beaver freshman catapulted herself into a tie for 12th in the West Region, which earned her a spot at the NCAA West Regional Preliminaries in Austin, Texas ... She also moved into sixth on OSU's all-time outdoor list
Mary Claire Brenner - Throws - Sr. - Portland, Ore./Jesuit HS
Became Oregon State's first thrower in 25 years when she competed in the indoor shot put at the Husky Classic on Feb. 9 ... Has thrown each implement this season, and is entered in both the shot and discus at the Pac-12 Championships, but will most likely only compete in the former ... Four-year softball letterwinner using her final season of athletics eligibility for OSU track and field ... PR in the shot put is 42' 4" from the Oregon Relays on April 19, which is 11th on Oregon State's all-time list ... Older sister of Oregon thrower Liz Brenner
Kayla Fleskes - Throws - Fr. - Hillsboro, Ore./Glencoe HS
Entered in both the discus and javelin at the Pac-12 Championships ... PR javelin throw from the John Knight Twilight on April 12 is 132' 2", good for 14th on OSU's all-time list ... Threw the discus 145' 1" at the Oregon Twilight last Friday to move into seventh on the school's all-time list ... Discus mark is third-best for a Pac-12 freshman this season ... Ranked 19th in the conference overall in both the discus and javelin
Kinsey Gomez - 1,500 - So. - Coeur d' Alene, Idaho/Coeur d' Alene HS
Moved into second on Oregon State's all-time list in the 5K at Mt. SAC when she 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 ... The effort also earned Gomez a berth in the NCAA West Regional in Austin, Texas at the end of May ... Gomez has PR'd in every event she has entered this season (Indoor 3,000, 1,500 and 5,000) ... Her 1,500 time of 4:26.89 at the inaugural OSU High Performance Meet on April 26 is third on the program's all-time list and her indoor 3,000 time of 9:37.79 at the UW Final Qualifier on March 2 is second on the Beavers' all-time list
Lucinda Howard - High Jump - Fr. - Bend, Ore./Summit HS
Has competed four times in the high jump with a PR of 5' 5¼" at the Willamette Opener on March 2, the fourth-best freshman mark in the conference this season ... Finished second and third in two trips to the state finals in the high jump in high school ... Coached at Summit HS by OSU alumnus Dave Turnbull, the school's last competitor in the horizontal jumps at the conference championships until this year
Kira Kelly - 5,000 - Fr. - Bend, Ore./Summit HS
Competed four times this outdoor season, twice in the 1,500 and twice in the 5,000 ... PR in the 5K of 17:17.45 at the Stanford Invite on March 29
Taylor Nowlin - 3,000 SC - Jr. - West Linn, Ore./West Linn HS
One of three OSU student-athletes making a return appearance to the Pac-12 Championships ... Has raced the steeple three times this year with a season-best time of 10:47.07 coming at the Oregon Relays on April 19, 15th in the Pac-12 this season ... PR in the event is 10:46.47 from last year's Pac-12 Championships at Hayward Field when she finished 15th
Kristin Oenning - High Jump - Sr. - Sherwood, Ore./Sherwood HS
The most-tenured Beaver making the trek to Southern California, this will be her third appearance in the conference championships ... PR'd at the OSU High Performance Meet this April with a jump of 5' 6½", which would have scored at last year's Pac-12 Championships ... Previous best was 5' 4½" from 2012's Oregon Relays ... In 2010, became the first OSU student-athlete to compete in any field event since the program's reinstatement
Kelsi Schaer - 1,500 - Fr. - Tigard, Ore./Tigard HS
Has run four 1,500's this season, with a PR of 4:30.46 coming at the Oregon Relays ... Ran three unattached races in 2012 while redshirting the outdoor season ... 2011 state champion in the 1,500
Maureen Tremblay - 1,500 - Fr. - Gig Harbor, Wash./Gig Harbor HS
Challenged to PR with a sub-4:40 time at last Friday's Oregon Twilight, ran 4:39.36 to earn a trip to the conference championships ... After battling some injuries, made her 2013 outdoor debut at the Willamette Invitational on April 6, and has shaved 11 seconds off that season-opening time ... Ran three unattached races while redshirting in 2012
Michele Turney - Triple Jump - Fr. - Corvallis, Ore./Crescent Valley HS
Has claimed seven victories thus far in 2013 in the 100m hurdles, long jump and triple jump ... Broke a 29-year Oregon State record in the triple jump when she leapt 38' 6¼" at the Oregon Preview on March 16 ... One week later, at the first home meet in Corvallis in 25 years, she increased that school record to 39' ¼" ... Her mark in the triple jump is the best for a Pac-12 freshman this season
Emily Weber - 1,500 - Fr. - Tualatin, Ore./Tualatin HS
PR'd in every race this season, both 1,500 and 5,000 ... Seventh on OSU's all-time list in the 1,500 after running 4:29.46 at the OSU High Performance Meet on April 26 ... Has trimmed 14 seconds off her high school PR in the event
Schedule (Events with Oregon State entries)
Saturday, May 11
1:00 p.m. - High Jump - Final
1:25 p.m. - 1,500m - Trials
1:30 p.m. - Javelin - Trials and Final
4:00 p.m. - 3,000m Steeplechase - Final
4:45 p.m. - Shot Put - Trials and Final
Sunday, May 12
12:00 p.m. - Triple Jump - Trials and Final
12:15 p.m. - Discus - Trials and Final
1:20 p.m. - 1,500m - Final
4:10 p.m. - 5,000m - Final
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