MEET NOTES (PDF)

PORTLAND, Ore. — Back home in the state of Oregon after two straight weekends of meets in California, the Portland State track & field team heads to Monmouth, Ore., for the John Knight Twilight Friday.
 
The Vikings added or improved 11 Big Sky qualifying marks through their two weekends of meets in California, including 10 last weekend, when the team split its time between the San Francisco State Distance Carnival and Mondo Mid-Major Team Challenge in the Bay Area. The Vikings now have 18 Big Sky qualifying marks in the outdoor season, twice as many as the Vikings had during the entire 2016 indoor season.
 
Friday's meet will give the Vikings a chance to add to their numbers, as several of the Vikings will compete outside of their regular events. Only senior Rockwell Tufty will compete in an event in which he has already met the Big Sky qualifying mark, as he competes in the men's high jump at 4:45 p.m. (PT).
 
Junior Genna Settle, on the other hand, leads the Big Sky in the 100 and ranks third in the 200, but won't compete in either event Friday, and will instead compete in the women's long jump.
 
Sophomore Spenser Schmidt will also not compete in his strongest event – the men's long jump, which he leads the Big Sky in by over a foot – and will isntead run in the 100, 200 and 4x100-meter relay. Schmidt has been close to hitting the Big Sky qualifying mark in the 100 at his first two meets of the season, but still needs to shave a few ticks off his seasonal best of 10.81 to meet the conference standard of 10.75 seconds.
 
The Viking men will also run their first 4x400-meter relay of the season, with Christian Wood, Hunter Pfefferkorn, Sheldon Prince and Mitchell Gable running for the Vikings.
 
Additionally, junior Ben Richardson and senior Spencer Russell – ranked second and sixth, respectively, in the 800 meters – will run their first 400-meter races of the season, along with Wood.
 
Senior Kevin Robinson will run his first 400-meter hurdles of the season as well, and will also compete in the 110-meter hurdles earlier in the day. Robinson, who ranks fourth in the Big Sky in the decathlon, has been close to the Big Sky qualifying standard in the 110-meter hurdles already this season, as his seasonal best of 15.03 seconds stands just a bit off the conference standard of 14.80.
 
Freshman Raquel Pellecer has also been inching up towards the Big Sky qualifying standard in the javelin, and will compete in the event again Friday, along with sophomore Shasta Wilson and freshman Maddie Buss. Pellecer has improved her mark at each meet this season, and set a new personal best with a throw of 135-08 (41.35m) at the Mondo Mid-Major Team Challenge last weekend, just over two feet from the Big Sky qualifying standard of 137-09 (42.00m).
 
It all gets underway at 1 p.m. Friday, with freshman Tyler Dent throwing in the men's hammer. Running events will start at 4 p.m. with the women's 4x100-meter relay, with Rachel Vinjamuri, Settle, Akayla Anderson and Whitney Diggs running for the Vikings.
 
MEET INFORMATION:
April 8 – John Knight Twilight – Monmouth, Ore. (McArthur Field)
 
JOHN KNIGHT TWILIGHT SCHEDULE:
Friday, April 8
Field Events
Start (PT)                  Event (PSU entries)
1 p.m.                          Men's Hammer (Flight 2 – Dent)
3:30 p.m.                    Women's Long Jump (Flight 2 – Settle)
4 p.m.                          Women's Javelin (Flight 1 – Wilson; Flight 2 – Buss, Pellecer)
~4:10 p.m.                 Men's Discus (Flight 1 – Dent)
                                    Women's Discus – Follows the men (Flight 2 – Johnson)
4:45 p.m.                    Men's High Jump (Robinson, D., Stipic, Tufty)
                                    Women's High Jump – Follows the men (Garrity)
 
Running Events
Start (PT)                  Event (PSU entries)
4 p.m.                          Women's 4x100-Meter Relay (Portland State 'A' – Vinjamuri, Settle, Anderson, Diggs)
4:05 p.m.                    Men's 4x100-Meter Relay (Portland State 'A' – Schmidt, Prince, Pfefferkorn, Gable)
4:25 p.m.                    Men's 110-Meter Hurdles (Robinson, K.)
4:35 p.m.                    Women's 400 Meters (Heat 1 – Miller, Tollefson)
4:45 p.m.                    Men's 400 Meters (Heat 1 – Russell, Wood; Heat 2 – Richardson)
5 p.m.                          Women's 100 Meters (Heat 1 – Toliver)
5:20 p.m.                    Men's 100 Meters (Heat 1 – Schmidt; Heat 2 – Pfefferkorn)
6:10 p.m.                    Men's 400-Meter Hurdles (Robinson, K.)
6:20 p.m.                    Women's 200 Meters (Heat 1 – Anderson, Diggs, Toliver, Vinjamuri)
6:35 p.m.                    Men's 200 Meters (Heat 1 – Schmidt)
6:50 p.m.                    Women's 1,500 Meters (Heat 1 – Beng)
7:10 p.m.                    Men's 1,500 Meters (Heat 1 – Seibert; Heat 2 – Hicks)
7:35 p.m.                    Men's 4x400-Meter Relay (Portland State 'A' – Wood, Pfefferkorn, Prince, Gable)
8 p.m.                          Women's 3,000-Meter Steeplechase (De Luca)
8:20 p.m.                    Women's 5,000 Meters (Reynolds)
8:40 p.m.                    Men's 5,000 Meters (Cotton, Wikler)
 
COMING UP:
The Vikings stay in the state for the Oregon Relays, April 15-16, in Eugene, Ore., next weekend. Senior Amanda Boman will also compete at the Mt. SAC Relays in Cerritos, Calif., April 14-16.
 
MONDO MID-MAJOR TEAM CHALLENGE RECAP:
The Portland State women's 4x400-meter relay team broke the school record in the event to highlight a competitive Mondo Mid-Major Team Challenge, a rare team-scored meet hosted by Sacramento State University at Hornet Stadium on April 2. The Vikings finished the 4x400 in 3:46.38, beating the previous school record of 3:46.96 that the Vikings set at the Big Sky Outdoor Championships last season. Roazena Miller, Dejuanae Toliver, Genna Settle and Rachel Vinjamuri set the record for the Vikings, and the foursome also moved up to third in the Big Sky this season in the event. As a team, the Viking women finished fourth out of four teams with 96 points at the meet, while the Viking men placed third out of three men's teams with 44 points. Additionally, the Vikings picked up four Big Sky qualifying marks at the meet, and improved on two others. Settle improved her qualifying times in both the 100 and 200 meters Saturday, finishing in 11.86 and 24.28 seconds, respectively. Fellow junior Akayla Anderson added another Big Sky qualifying standard for the Viking women, as she took over the Big Sky lead in the 100-meter hurdles with her finish in 13.98 seconds. The rest of the Vikings' new Big Sky qualifying standards came on the men's side, where Mitchell Gable and Sheldon Prince each ducked under the qualifying standard in the men's 400 meters, while Rockwell Tufty cleared the standard in the men's high jump. Gable and Prince picked up their qualifying times in the 400 meters while finishing second and fifth in the event in 48.05 and 48.90 seconds, respectively. Gable's time marked a huge personal best for the junior, as he shaved more than half a second off his old best of 48.65 seconds, and moved him up to third all-time in the event at Portland State. Tufty, meanwhile, cruised to a near-three-inch seasonal best in the high jump, as he cleared his first four heights on his first attempt and finished with a mark of 6-08.75 (2.05m).
 
SAN FRANCISCO STATE DISTANCE CARNIVAL RECAP:
Senior Amanda Boman took over the Big Sky lead in the 10,000 meters for a brief moment, as she finished the 10,000 in 35:14.14 at the San Francisco State Distance Carnival at Cox Stadium on April 1. Boman placed second in the 10,000 meters at the meet, narrowly missing out on the win as Kristen Rohde of High Performance West finished just over a second ahead of Boman in 35:13.12. Boman still finished as the top collegiate runner by over seven seconds, however, and moved up to fourth all-time in the 10,000 meters at Portland State with her time at the meet. Boman's time also gave her the Big Sky qualifying standard in the 10,000 meters, and redshirt freshman Sarah Medved and junior Cheryn Trapp joined Boman with qualifying times of their own. Medved and Trapp finished in 36:13.69 and 37:08.87, respectively, and moved up to seventh and 10th all-time in the 10,000 meters at Portland State as well. Senior Spencer Russell also lowered his Big Sky qualifying time in the 800 meters, finishing in 1:52.88, his best finish ever as a Viking. Sophomore Nyalual Beng and senior Kris Tollefson also debuted in the 800 meters in 2:14.02 and 2:16.10, respectively, while junior Ben Richardson debuted in the 1,500 meters in 3:54.63.
 
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.
 
VIKINGS IN NCAA WEST TOP 50:
The Vikings have 10 athletes ranked in the top 50 in the NCAA west region, putting each of them in contention for qualifying for the NCAA West Preliminary at the end of May. The top 48 declared student-athletes in each event qualify for the NCAA West Preliminary, except in the combined events where the top 24 nationally qualify for the meet. Sophomore Spenser Schmidt represents the Vikings' highest-ranked athlete in the NCAA west rankings, as he stands tied for 21st in the long jump with his season-opening mark of 24-03.50 (7.40m) at the Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open.
 
BIG SKY QUALIFYING STANDARDS:
The Vikings have hit 18 Big Sky qualifying standards so far in the 2016 outdoor season, double the number 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.
 
PSU BIG SKY QUALIFYING MARKS (18):
Women (10):
Akayla Anderson – 100m Hurdles – 13.98 – Mondo Mid-Major Team Challenge (4/2/16)
Amanda Boman – 5,000m – 17:08.25 – Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open (3/19/16)*
Amanda Boman – 10,000m – 35:14.14 – San Francisco State Distance Carnival (4/1/16)*
ChaQuinn Cook – Triple Jump – 40-03.25 (12.27m) – Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open (3/19/16)
Whitney Diggs – 400m – 55.17 – Aztec Invitational (3/26/16)
Sarah Medved – 10,000m – 36:13.69 – San Francisco State Distance Carnival (4/1/16)*
Ta'mara Richey – Long Jump – 19-02.50 (5.85m) – Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open (3/19/16)
Genna Settle – 100m – 11.86 – Mondo Mid-Major Team Challenge (4/2/16)
Genna Settle – 200m – 24.28 – Mondo Mid-Major Team Challenge (4/2/16)
Cheryn Trapp – 10,000m – 37:08.87 – San Francisco State Distance Carnival (4/1/16)*
 
Men (8):
Mitchell Gable – 400m – 48.05 – Mondo Mid-Major Team Challenge (4/2/16)
Sheldon Prince – 400m – 48.90 – Mondo Mid-Major Team Challenge (4/2/16)
Ben Richardson – 800m – 1:52.29 – Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open (3/19/16)
Kevin Robinson – Decathlon – 6,274 points – Pacific Combined Events (3/22/16)
Spencer Russell – 800m – 1:52.88 – San Francisco State Distance Carnival (4/1/16)
Spenser Schmidt – Long Jump – 24-03.50 (7.40m) – Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open (3/19/16)
Jean-Luc Toku – Triple Jump – 47-07.25 (14.51m) – Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open (3/19/16)
Rockwell Tufty – High Jump – 6-08.75 (2.05m) – Mondo Mid-Major Team Challenge (4/2/16)
 
*Time cross-qualifies athlete for the 5,000 and 10,000 meters