Portland State Relay Smashes School Record

Portland State came within seconds of placing fifth as Oklahoma Baptist came across in a time of 8:57.43.

Salem-News.com SPORTS

AUSTIN, TX - Portland State’s women’s 4x800-meter relay team placed eighth in a school record time of nine minutes during the Vikings first day of competition at the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays Thursday.

The time edged Kansas, which finished ninth by .45 of a second and topped a Viking previous best of 9:24.96 set in 2004.

Texas won the race in 8:36.49 followed by Baylor (8:41.63), LSU (8:45.76) and UCLA (8:52.10).

Portland State came within seconds of placing fifth as Oklahoma Baptist came across in a time of 8:57.43.

Abilene Christian and Albany followed with times of 8:57.47 and 8:58.50.

The team, made up of graduate student Amanda Kamm, freshman Melissa Owens, sophomore Adriane Wai and senior Staci Bielenberg, ran split times of 2:13.90, 2:13.60, 2:19.50 and 2:13.00.

“It's hard to put into words how outstanding our young women did in the 4x800m today,” Head Coach Kebba Tolbert said. “You've done a super job when you can get a top-10 finish in any event at Texas Relays. This is the best meet in the country this weekend. I think we can have another top-10 finish in the DMR on Saturday.”

Juniors Caressa Sims and Trevor Rollinger also took part in Thursday’s portion of the Relays.

Rollinger ran the men’s 400m Hurdles in 53.21 and Sims threw the women’s hammer 166-2. Both were season bests for the Viking upperclassmen.

Friday’s events begin with the women’s 4x100m relay at 9:30 AM CDT.

Senior Ashley Quay (high jump), senior Brandon Lopez (1,500m), senior Utica Edgecombe (100m), senior Jon Hill (long jump), junior Alyssa Tibbs (100m) and the Vikings’ 4x100m relay team of Edgecombe, Tibbs, sophomore Chantea Watson and freshman Nkeiru Ugwoaba are scheduled to compete.

Adding comments to these stories has been disabled. View the current sports stories Salem-News Sports