T&F At Oregon Relays; Gomez To Mt. SAC
CORVALLIS, Ore. – With one month until the Pac-12 Championships, the Oregon State track and field team begins its final push to the conference meet this Friday and Saturday at the Oregon Relays in Eugene. In addition to those competing at Hayward Field, Kinsey Gomez will head to the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif. on Thursday looking to secure an NCAA qualifying time in the 10K.
The Oregon Relays will be webcast live for free via goducks.com. Live results will also be available on Oregon’s website. Flotrack will be streaming the Mt. SAC Relays live at this link.
Gomez’s Thursday 10K will kick off the three days of action for Oregon State. The junior, running the first race of her career at that distance, will take to the track at 8:27 p.m. and be gunning for a spot at the NCAA West Regional in Fayetteville, Ark. in late May.
Last season, Gomez took a similar path to solidify her position and obtain a 5K qualifying mark for the NCAA West Prelims held in Austin, Texas. She ran a 5,000 at the Stanford Invite on March 29 (16:38.79), took a few weeks off, then headed to Mt. SAC and posted a 16:24.17, the second-best time in school history, which eventually earned her that coveted postseason berth.
On April 4 of this year, Gomez ran the same 5K at the Stanford Invite in 16:35.07. A 10K time of 35:17.00 would have placed among the top 48 in the west in 2013. Such a mark would break Sandra Martinez’s OSU record by 10 seconds, which she set at the same Mt. SAC Relays in 2010.
A busy Friday and Saturday at Hayward Field will see upwards of 20 OSU entries on each afternoon and evening. A bigger event than in years past, Washington, Washington State, Portland State, Boise State and Wichita State are all among the D-I schools sending competitors along with the Beavers.
In the throws, freshman Melissa Ausman is coming off a strong shot put performance at last Friday’s John Knight Twilight when she moved into sixth on Oregon State’s all-time list with a mark of 43’ 5.75”. In her last appearance in Eugene, she put forth a discus effort of 150’ 10” at the Oregon Preview, a throw which is fifth in Beaver history in that event.
Ausman’s events will be split over the two days this weekend with the shot put beginning at 5:15 p.m. on Friday and the discus taking place on Saturday at 5 p.m. She will be joined in the former by Rachel Picknell and in the latter by Picknell and Kayla Fleskes.
All three are also scheduled to go in the hammer to begin the weekend’s competition at 3:40 p.m. on Friday. At Hayward Field on March 22, Picknell PR’d in that event with a throw of 146’ 3”, an OSU record. Another PR and school record came at that same Oregon Preview a few weeks back when Christina MacDonald threw the javelin (new implement) 133’ 2”. She’ll compete with her signature implement on Saturday at 6:43 p.m.
Helen Ann Haun and Annie Sidor will go in the pole vault at 4:20 p.m. on Friday and jumpers Kaitlyn Mason, Kaylene Rust, Bethany Imperial, Michele Turney, Justine Bird, Allison Jackson, Jessica Lautenbach and Sara Almen (unattached) will round out OSU’s field event entries.
Last weekend, Turney broke her own school record in the triple jump with a leap of 39’ 6.50”, the fourth-best outdoor mark of the season in the Pac-12. Kaylene Rust’s 34’ 7.75” from the Oregon Preview is currently fifth on OSU’s all-time list. She owns a wind-aided PR of 35’ 6.50” from the Willamette Invite on March 29. The women’s triple jump is scheduled for 6:40 p.m. on Saturday evening.
On the track, the Beavers will have entries in the 100, 800, 1500, 5,000, 10,000, 3,000 steeplechase and 4x100 relay. Allie Church, redshirting this season, will race the 200 unattached at 5:36 p.m. on Friday after setting a meet record at the John Knight Twilight of 24.97 last weekend. Ryan Cope will be Oregon State’s lone male entry in the 400 hurdles on Friday at 5:47 p.m. He PR’d in that event by more than a second last time out, running 55.63 in Monmouth on April 11.
Morgan Anderson, Kelsi Schaer and either Haley Hunt or Lacey London will run the 800 on Friday at 6:18 p.m. not long after Taylor Nowlin goes in the steeple at 5:15 p.m. Adrienne Demaree and Sandra Martinez will close out that day’s action in the 10K at 8:20 p.m. It will be the first 10,000 of Demaree’s career. Martinez hasn’t run a 10K since the Pac-10 Championships in 2010.
Schaer is also slated for the 1,500 on Saturday. Her PR at that distance came at last season’s Oregon Relays when she ran 4:30.46 – ninth on the school’s all-time list. Anderson, Holly Cavalluzzo and Kristiane Width (unattached) will also race 1,500s.
Rust and Turney are also in the 100m at 6:23 p.m. on Saturday and Aly Nielson will conclude the Beavers’ busy weekend in the 5K at 7:30 p.m. Nielson’s last 5,000 came at the Stanford Invite on April 4 when she PR’d in 16:50.86 to move into ninth on OSU’s all-time list.
