MEET NOTES (PDF)

PORTLAND, Ore. — Already with more Big Sky qualifying standards through the first two weekends of the outdoor season than they had during the entire 2016 indoor season, the Portland State Vikings will look to keep things rolling this weekend, as they head to the Bay Area for two meets Friday and Saturday.
 
The Vikings' distance crew will compete at the San Francisco State Distance Carnival Friday, while the rest of the team competes at the Mondo Mid-Major Team Challenge, hosted by Sacramento State University, Saturday.
 
The distance carnival will run all day Friday, starting with the first section of the women's 10,000 meters at 8:30 a.m. (PT), before the Vikings finish with the sixth section of the men's 5,000 meters at 6:43 p.m. (PT).
 
The meet will give the Vikings their first crack at a 10,000-meter race this season, with five female athletes competing between two women's sections, while two male athletes compete across two men's sections. Senior Amanda Boman will headline the Vikings' 10,000-meter runners, as she enters the meet with the Big Sky lead and qualifying standard in the 5,000 meters.
 
Boman won the 5,000 in 17:08.25 at the Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open, beating teammate Sarah Medved by over 20 seconds.
 
Redshirt freshman Alex Cisneros will also run in the men's 10,000 meters, after posting the second-best 5,000-meter time within the Big Sky with his finish in 14:53.46 at the Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open.
 
Junior Ben Richardson also enters the meet with the Big Sky lead in the 800 meters, but will compete in the 1,500 meters for the Vikings at the meet. Richardson has been on a roll of late, as he was a surprise third-place finisher in the 800 meters at the Big Sky Indoor meet after entering the meet ranked 14th in the Big Sky, and then hit the Big Sky qualifying standard in the 800 while finishing in 1:52.29 at the season-opening Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open.
 
Saturday's meet, meanwhile, will be a small, four-team meet between Portland State, Sacramento State, UC Davis and UNLV.
 
The Vikings will compete in several of their strongest events at the team-scored meet, as seven of the Vikings that rank first or second in the Big Sky will compete in those respective events Saturday.
 
Junior Genna Settle took over the Big Sky lead in the 100 meters after debuting with a time of 11.87 seconds last weekend, and also ranks second in the conference in the 200 meters off her time of 24.45 seconds at the Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open.
 
Settle will compete in both the 100 and 200 Saturday, while fellow junior Whitney Diggs will also compete in the 400 meters, after moving up to second in the Big Sky in the event with her time of 55.17 seconds at the Aztec Invitational last weekend.
 
Sophomore Ta'mara Richey will also compete in the long jump and triple jump at the meet Saturday, while freshman ChaQuinn Cook will compete in the triple jump. Richey leads the Big Sky in the long jump after jumping 19-02.50 (5.85m) at the Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open, and also ranks fourth in the conference in the triple jump after jumping 37-05.00 (11.40m) at the Aztec Invitational.
 
Cook, meanwhile, originally took the Big Sky lead in the triple jump with an overall personal best of 40-03.25 (12.27m) at the Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open, but has since been pushed to No. 2 in the conference after Montana's Samantha Evans jumped 40-09.75 (12.44m) last weekend.
 
Men's jumpers Spenser Schmidt and Jean-Luc Toku will also compete as the Big Sky leaders in the long jump and triple jump, respectively, Saturday. Schmidt leads the Big Sky in the long jump by over 16 inches after winning the event with a personal best of 24-03.50 (7.40m) at the Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open two weekends ago, and will be competing in the long jump for the first time since then. Schmidt also ranks fifth in the Big Sky in the 100 meters, and will run both the 100 and 200 meters at the meet Saturday.
 
Toku, meanwhile, takes a foot lead within the Big Sky in the triple jump into Saturday's meet, after jumping 47-07.25 (14.51m) at the Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open.
 
Saturday's meet gets underway with a series of field events that start at 10 a.m. (PT), while track events get started with the women's 4x100-meter relay at 11:45 a.m. (PT).
 
MEET INFORMATION:
April 1 – San Francisco State Distance Carnival – San Francisco, Calif. (Cox Stadium)
April 2 – Mondo Mid-Major Team Challenge – Sacramento, Calif. (Hornet Stadium)
 
LIVE RESULTS:
Live results will be available for both meets this weekend. Fans can find the link to live results on the track & field schedule page on GoViks.com.
 
SAN FRANCISCO STATE DISTANCE CARNIVAL SCHEDULE:
Friday, April 1
Track Events
Start (PT)                  Event (PSU entries)
8:30 a.m.                    Women's 10,000 Meters – Section #1 (Boman, Medved)
9:10 a.m.                    Women's 10,000 Meters – Section #2 (Coleman, Martin, Trapp)
10:25 a.m.                  Men's 10,000 Meters – Section #2 (Cisneros)
11 a.m.                        Men's 10,000 Meters – Section #3 (Wikler)
12:51 p.m.                  Men's 1,500 Meters – Section #3 (Richardson)
1:11 p.m.                    Men's 1,500 Meters – Section #7 (Hicks)
2:50 p.m.                    Women's 800 Meters – Section #3 (Beng, Tollefson)
3:21 p.m.                    Men's 800 Meters – Section #2 (Russell)
4:58 p.m.                    Women's 5,000 Meters – Section #3 (Gibson)
6:08 p.m.                    Women's 5,000 Meters – Section #5 (De Luca, Reynolds)
6:43 p.m.                    Men's 5,000 Meters – Section #6 (Seibert)
 
MONDO MID-MAJOR TEAM CHALLENGE SCHEDULE
Saturday, April 2
Field Events
Start (PT)                  Event (PSU entries)
~10 a.m.                     Men's Hammer (Dent)
~30 min after           Women's Discus (Johnson)
 
~10:30 a.m.               Men's Javelin (Robinson, D.)
~30 min after           Women's Javelin (Pellecer, Wilson)
 
10 a.m.                        Men's Long Jump – West Pit (Flight 1 – Robinson, D., Toku; Flight 2 – Schmidt)
~30 min after           Women's Long Jump – East Pit (Richey, Williams)
~30 min after           Men's Triple Jump – West Pit (Toku)
~30 min after           Women's Triple Jump – East Pit (Cook, Richey)
 
10 a.m.                        Men's High Jump (Robinson, D., Robinson, K., Stipic, Tufty)
 
~2 p.m.                       Women's High Jump – 30 min after Women's Javelin (Garrity)
 
Running Events
Start (PT)                  Event (PSU entries)
11:45 a.m.                  Women's 4x100-Meter Relay (Portland State 'A' – Vinjamuri, Settle, Anderson, Diggs)
11:50 a.m.                  Men's 4x100-Meter Relay (Portland State 'A' – Schmidt, Prince, Pfefferkorn, Gable)
12:25 p.m.                  Women's 100-Meter Hurdles (Section 1 – Anderson)
12:40 p.m.                  Men's 110-Meter Hurdles (Robinson, K.)
12:50 p.m.                  Women's 400 Meters (Diggs, Toliver, Vinjamuri)
1 p.m.                          Men's 400 Meters (Section 1 – Gable, Pfefferkorn, Prince; Section 2 – Wood)
1:15 p.m.                    Women's 100 Meters (Section 1 – Settle)
1:25 p.m.                    Men's 100 Meters (Section 1 – Schmidt)
2 p.m.                          Women's 400-Meter Hurdles (Section 1 – Miller)
2:10 p.m.                    Men's 400-Meter Hurdles (Robinson, K.)
2:20 p.m.                    Women's 200 Meters (Section 1 – Diggs, Settle, Toliver, Vinjamuri; Section 2 – Anderson)
2:30 p.m.                    Men's 200 Meters (Section 1 – Prince; Section 2 – Gable, Pfefferkorn, Schmidt, Wood)
3:10 p.m.                    Women's 4x400-Meter Relay (Portland State 'A' – Miller, Toliver, Vinjamuri, Diggs)
 
COMING UP:
The Vikings return to Oregon for the John Knight Twilight meet, hosted by Western Oregon University, April 9, in Monmouth, Ore.
 
AZTEC INVITATIONAL RECAP:
Juniors Whitney Diggs and Genna Settle added two Big Sky qualifying standards for the Portland State track & field team at the Aztec Invitational, March 26, as the pair posted Big Sky qualifying marks in the 400 and 100 meters, respectively. Diggs posted her qualifying time while winning the event for the second straight week, and did so while making a huge improvement over her time from the season-opening meet a week ago. Diggs finished in 55.17 seconds at the Aztec Invitational, more than a second better than her time of 56.40 seconds at the Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open. Settle, meanwhile, finished the 100 in a Big Sky-qualifying 11.87 seconds, as she made her debut in the event at the meet. Settle's time gave her the early season lead in the Big Sky by .14 seconds. Junior Akayla Anderson, sophomore Ta'mara Richey and freshman Raquel Pellecer also narrowly missed Big Sky qualifying marks in the 100-meter hurdles, triple jump and javelin, respectively. Anderson made her season debut in the 100-meter hurdles in 14.55 seconds, while Richey finished with a mark of 37-05.00 (11.40m) in the triple jump, and Pellecer finished with a mark of 132-06 (40.39m).
 
PACIFIC COMBINED EVENTS RECAP:
Senior Kevin Robinson crushed his personal best while winning the decathlon at the Pacific Combined Events, March 21-22, beating his old PR by 556 points to finish with a score of 6,274 points and meet the Big Sky qualifying standard in the event. Robinson closed the competition with decathlon PRs in the final seven events at Hanson Stadium in Forest Grove, Ore., and beat his previous-best first- and second-day scores in the decathlon at the meet. Additionally, Robinsons' 6,274 points move him up to seventh all-time in the decathlon at Portland State, as well as third in the Big Sky this season. Robinson won the decathlon by 149 points over Corban's Jason Bracken, who had led Robinson by 77 points after the first day of the competition.
 
LEWIS & CLARK SPRING BREAK OPEN RECAP:
The Vikings hit eight Big Sky qualifying standards and won eight events at their first meet of the outdoor season, as they opened their outdoor schedule at the Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open, March 18-19, at Eldon Fix Track at Griswold Stadium in Portland, Ore. Senior Amanda Boman, junior Genna Settle, sophomore Ta'mara Richey and freshman ChaQuinn Cook hit qualifying standards in the women's 5,000 meters, 200 meters, long jump and triple jump, respectively, while sophomore Spenser Schmidt and freshman Jean-Luc Toku hit the standards in the men's long jump and triple jump, and senior Spencer Russell and junior Ben Richardson each ducked under the qualifying time in the men's 800 meters. Cook and Schmidt continued their strong finishes to the indoor season with their auto marks, as they are both coming off Big Sky individual titles during the indoor season. Cook, who won the Big Sky title in the indoor triple jump, won the outdoor triple jump at the meet with a personal-best mark of 40-03.25 (12.27m). Schmidt, meanwhile, followed his Big Sky title in the indoor long jump with a win in the outdoor long jump at the meet, finishing with a personal best of 24-03.50 (7.40) that beat the No. 2 mark at the meet by nearly a foot and a half. Schmidt's mark also put the sophomore in contention to qualify for the NCAA West Preliminary, as it would have been enough to qualify him last year. Additionally, freshman Jean-Luc Toku set the best mark in the men's triple jump by a Viking in 43 years while winning the event with a personal best of 47-07.25 (14.51m). Toku now ranks second only to school record-holder Don Hall, who set the triple jump record at 48-06.00 (14.78m) in 1973.
 
2016 INDOOR RECAP:
The Portland State track & field team's 2016 indoor season ended with a pair of Big Sky titles for the Vikings, as sophomore Spenser Schmidt and freshman ChaQuinn Cook claimed the Big Sky titles in the men's long jump and women's triple jump, respectively. Schmidt won his Big Sky title with a huge personal best of 24-07.00 (7.49m), more than a foot better than his personal best entering the meet. Schmidt's win in the long jump marked the Vikings' first Big Sky indoor title in the event since 2003, and also gave Schmidt the best mark by a Viking since Brown set the school record at 24-08.50 (7.53m) that same year. Cook, meanwhile, became the first Viking female athlete to win a Big Sky title in the indoor triple jump since 2005. Cook beat her nearest competitor by over a foot, cracking 40 feet for a personal best of 40-01.50 (12.23m). The Vikings also got seven more All-Big Sky performances, including two each for sophomore Ta'mara Richey and junior Genna Settle. Richey placed third in both the long jump and triple jump at the meet, while Settle earned All-Big Sky honors with a second-place finish in the 60 meters and a third-place finish in the 200 meters. Settle now has five All-Big Sky honors in her Portland State career, the most of any current Viking athlete. Juniors Akayla Anderson and Whitney Diggs also earned All-Big Sky honors with second-place finishes in the 60-meter hurdles and 400 meters, respectively. Ben Richardson pulled off the biggest surprise at the Big Sky meet, as he finished third in the 800 meters to earn All-Big Sky honors in an event in which he entered the meet ranked 14th in the Big Sky. Senior Rockwell Tufty did not earn All-Big Sky honors as he placed fourth in the high jump, but broke the school record in the event with a clearance of 6-09.50 (2.07m). Tufty's record gives him sole possession of both the indoor and outdoor records at Portland State, making him indisputably the best high jumper in school history.
 
BIG SKY QUALIFYING STANDARDS:
The Vikings have hit 11 Big Sky qualifying standards over the first two weekends of the 2016 outdoor season, two more than the team hit during the entire 2016 indoor season. Qualifying marks assure an athlete of competing in the Big Sky Outdoor Championships, which will take place in Greeley, Colo., from May 12-14. The top 20 declared student-athletes in each event will qualify for the meet, except in the multi-events, where the top 16 declared student-athletes will make the meet.