Six Bearcats Achieve First Place Finishes at Willamette Mini Meet

Five events were won by members of the Willamette women's team.

Salem-News.com SPORTS

SALEM - Six Willamette University track and field athletes claimed first place finishes at the Willamette Mini Meet (Spur of the Moment) on Saturday at the Charles Bowles Track.

The meet featured competitors from Willamette, Clackamas Community College, Western Oregon University, Portland State University, Lane Community College and Mount Hood Community College.

Five events were won by members of the Willamette women's team.

Kaitlin St. John took first place in the 100-meter dash in 12.84 seconds to edge out Stephanie Dittmar of Clackamas, who clocked in at 12.86 seconds.

Andrea May won the 100-meter hurdles with an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 14.99 seconds. She crossed the finish line just over a quarter of a second in front of Jacque Postlewait of Western Oregon (15.25).

Jena Winger led a 1-2-3-4 finish for Willamette in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, as she improved her personal best by 55 seconds with a time of 11:17.72. She just missed the provisional qualifying standard.

Melinda Fahey was the winner in the discus with a throw of 40.75 meters. She also took second place in the hammer throw, with a toss of 40.77 meters.

Kyle Kotaich won the men's 800-meter run with a time of 1:57:03. Lucas May took second in the event at 1:57.97.

The Bearcats received two solid efforts from Drew Lackman in the hurdles.

He took second in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 55.90 seconds and was third in the 110-meter hurdles with a personal-best time of 15.43 seconds.

Grant Piros registered personal bests in three events. He was Willamette's top finisher in the javelin with a throw of 56.87 meters (186'7").

He took seventh place in the 110-meter hurdles after recording a time of 15.95 seconds. He also placed ninth in the 400-meter hurdles at 1:00.13.

Overall, Willamette qualified 19 men's entries and 14 women's entries for the Northwest Conference Championships, set for April 20th-21st in Tacoma, Wash.

During the first two weeks of the season, WU has qualified a total of 41 men's entries and 52 women's entries for the NWC meet.

On Saturday, the Bearcats also had eight athletes recored times or distances on the Willamette all-time Top 10 lists.

Heading the list was Winger, whose time in the steeplechase (11:17.72) was the third best time in WU history.

"These last two meets (March 3rd and March 10th at Willamette) have been very solid -- very good competition in just about every event," said Matt McGuirk, Willamette head track and field coach.

Willamette will compete at two track and field meets next weekend.

The Bearcats will be at the Linfield Open on Friday, March 16th in McMinnville, Ore., and will also enter the Oregon Preview in Eugene, Ore., on Saturday, March 17th.

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