Complete Meet Notes (PDF)

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland State track & field team heads south down I-5 for the first of three meets this season in the state of Oregon, as the Vikings compete at the Willamette Invitational Saturday at the Charles Bowles Track in Salem, Ore.
 
The Vikings made their outdoor debut last weekend, and will expand their debuts to several more events at the Willamette Invitational.
 
Among the debuts, freshman Kamal-Craig Golaube is entered in his first 400-meter-hurdle race as a Viking, which he'll compete in at 2:15 p.m. Saturday. Golaube made his 110-meter hurdling debut last week, and tied the school record in the men's 60-meter hurdles during the indoor season.
 
Seniors Akayla Anderson and Brandi Williams, meanwhile, will make their season debuts in the 100 meters at 12:55 p.m. Saturday, while sophomore transfer Austen Hvidsten will run in his first outdoor 800-meter race as a Viking at 1:40 p.m.
 
Anderson and freshman Maya Jackson will also compete in their first 200-meter race of the season at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, joining senior Genna Settle, who comes into her second 200-meter race of the outdoor season with a sizeable lead in the 200 within the Big Sky.
 
Settle opened her outdoor season with a time of 23.97 seconds last Saturday at the Trojan Invitational, not far off her Big Sky-winning time of 23.75 seconds three weeks ago at the Big Sky indoor meet that set the school, conference and championship records in the indoor 200. Settle's time also gave her close to a three-tenth-of-a-second lead over the No. 2 time in the conference of 24.24 seconds, and more than a full-second lead over the No. 3 time in the conference of 25.09 seconds.
 
Fellow senior Mitchell Gable, meanwhile, will make his 200-meter debut on the men's side Saturday, a week after returning to form in the men's 400 meters at the Trojan Invitational. Gable returned from an injury to run the 400 meters in 48.27 seconds last Saturday, a time that ranks him second in the Big Sky this season.
 
Junior Alana Chaplin and freshman Gabe Bader will also make their Portland State debuts in the women's steeplechase and men's 5,000 meters, respectively, while junior Ta'mara Richey will compete in her first outdoor high jump, a week after competing in the long jump and triple jump at the Trojan Invitational.
 
Outside of the debuts, sophomore Troy Bacon returns to the men's discus at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, a week after posting the best mark in the event since 1996 with a throw of 152-09 (46.55m) at the L&C Spring Break Open. Bacon's throw moved him up to sixth all-time in the men's discus at Portland State, after only one meet competing outdoors for the Vikings.
 
Bacon and Williams will open field events for the Vikings at 9:30 a.m. in the men's discus and women's long jump, respectively, while Golaube opens track events in the men's 110-meter hurdles at 12:15 p.m.
 
MEET INFORMATION:
March 25 – Willamette Invitational – Salem, Ore. (Charles Bowles Track)
 
LIVE RESULTS:
Live results will be available for the Willamette Invitational Saturday. Fans can find the link to live results on the track & field schedule page on GoViks.com.
 
WILLAMETTE INVITATIONAL SCHEDULE:
Saturday, March 25
Field Events
Start (PT)                  Event (PSU entries)
9:30 a.m.                    Men's Discus (Bacon)
9:30 a.m.                    Women's Long Jump (Williams)
11:30 a.m.                  Women's Javelin (Liber, Marchment)
11:30 a.m.                  Men's Shot Put (Bacon)
11:30 a.m.                  Men's Triple Jump (Wood)
After M-HJ at 2           Women's High Jump (Richey)
 
Running Events
Start (PT)                  Event (PSU entries)
12:15 p.m.                  Men's 110-Meter Hurdles (Golaube)
12:30 p.m.                  Women's 400 Meters (Jackson)
12:40 p.m.                  Men's 400 Meters (Wood)
12:55 p.m.                  Women's 100 Meters (Anderson, Williams)
1:15 p.m.                    Men's 100 Meters (Gable, Park, Toku)
1:40 p.m.                    Men's 800 Meters (Hvidsten)
2:15 p.m.                    Men's 400-Meter Hurdles (Golaube)
2:30 p.m.                    Women's 200 Meters (Anderson, Jackson, Settle)
2:50 p.m.                    Men's 200 Meters (Gable, Park)
3:50 p.m.                    Women's 3,000-Meter Steeplechase (Chaplin)
4:50 p.m.                    Men's 5,000 Meters – B Section (Bader – Sections TBD)
6:15 p.m.                    Men's 5,000 Meters – A Section (Bader – Sections TBD)
 
COMING UP:
The Vikings head back down to L.A. for a pair of meets at UCLA next weekend. The Vikings will compete at the Bob Larsen Distance Carnival Friday, and will also compete at the Legends of Track & Field Invitational over Friday and Saturday.
 
NO QUALIFYING STANDARDS FOR BIG SKY INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS:
In a major change from previous seasons, the Big Sky no longer employs qualifying standards and instead gives coaches the power to fill out their rosters for the Big Sky Outdoor Championships as they please. Roster sizes will be capped at 28 athletes (men and women), leaving it up to coaches to determine how to maximize their scoring potential with that limit. The Big Sky Outdoor Championships take place, May 10-13, in Sacramento, Calif.
 
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFICATION:
Unlike the NCAA Indoor Championships, the path to the NCAA Outdoor Championships runs through a regional stage, giving the Vikings more of a chance of qualifying for the national meet. Indoors, the Vikings could only qualify for the national meet if they finished in the top 16 in each individual event, but outdoors, the Vikings only need to finish in the top 48 of the NCAA west region to qualify for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds, May 25-27, in Austin, Texas. The top 12 in each event at the NCAA West and East Preliminary Rounds then advance onto the NCAA Outdoor Championships, June 7-10, in Eugene, Ore. The qualification procedure differs a bit for the relay events, as only the top 24 relay teams qualify for the regional stage. Qualifying for the multi-events also differs, as they skip the regional stage and instead advance the top 24 in the nation in the heptathlon and decathlon directly to the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
 
TROJAN INVITATIONAL RECAP:
Senior Genna Settle picked up where she left off from the indoor season while opening her outdoor season in impressive fashion at the Trojan Invitational, March 18, at the Loker Track in Los Angeles, Calif. Settle placed eighth overall in the 200 meters in a time of 23.97 seconds – her best debut ever outdoors as a Viking, and only two-tenths of a second behind her Big Sky-winning time of 23.75 seconds three weeks ago that broke the school, championship and conference records in the indoor 200. By comparison, Settle opened her 2016 outdoor season with a time of 24.45 seconds in the 200, putting her close to a half-second ahead of last season's pace, when she ended the season by placing second in the outdoor 200 by one-hundredth of a second. Settle also finished seventh overall in the 100 meters in 11.92 seconds. Junior Ta'mara Richey followed in Settle's footsteps with her own strong debut in the women's long jump, as she placed second overall with a best jump of 19-00.00 (5.79m). Richey was coming off a fourth-place finish at the Big Sky indoor meet where she set a new personal best of 19-08.25 (6.00m), and cracked 19 feet again in her outdoor debut at the Trojan Invite. Senior Brandi Williams also tied her Portland State personal best while placing third overall in the long jump with a best jump of 18-06.50 (5.65m). Fellow senior Mitchell Gable, meanwhile, rebounded from an injury that limited him at the Big Sky indoor meet to finish fifth overall in the men's 400 meters with his time of 48.27 seconds. Gable's time ranked just two-tenths of a second behind his outdoor personal best of 48.05 seconds, and beat all but two of Gable's time in the outdoor 400 last season.
 
L&C SPRING BREAK OPEN RECAP:
The Portland State track & field team opened its outdoor season at the L&C Spring Break Open, March 17-18, at the Eldon Fix Track in Portland, Ore., with 10 athletes making their career outdoor debuts at Portland State. No athlete impressed more than Troy Bacon, who moved into the top 10 all-time at Portland State in the discus after just one meet competing outdoors for the Vikings. Bacon – who will be a junior offensive lineman for the Portland State football team this fall – placed seventh overall in the discus with a throw of 152-08 (46.55m), moving him up to sixth all-time in the discus at Portland State. Bacon's throw also marked the best throw by a Viking men's athlete in the discus since Ryan Alexander set the school record at 162-04 (49.48m) in 1996. Outside of Bacon, the majority of the other debuts came in the men's distance events, including six newcomers making their debuts in the men's 1,500 meters. Freshman Andrew Stafford led the 1,500-meter group with a 16th-place finish in 4:08.60, while fellow newcomers Liam Jemison (21st, 4:12.75), Gabe Bader (23rd, 4:15.28), Jacob Emeterio (26th, 4:16.52), Austen Hvidsten (27th, 4:16.56) and Cameron Gaskell (33rd, 4:18.00) followed. Freshman Michael Biedebach also led a group of three Vikings in the men's 5,000 meters, and placed third overall in the event in a time of 14:56.23.
 
2017 INDOOR SEASON RECAP:
Senior Genna Settle punctuated the Portland State track & field team's indoor season with a 60-200 title sweep at the Big Sky Indoor Championships, while setting a personal best in each event. Settle became just the second Viking ever to sweep the 60- and 200-meter titles at a single Big Sky Indoor Championships, joining Jernise Saunders, who first did it in 2009. Settle capped the sweep with a record performance in the 200 meters, as she broke the school, championship and conference records with her time of 23.75 seconds. Settle's time edged out the records former Viking and World Outdoor Championship qualifier Karene King set at 23.77 seconds in 2012. Settle also won the finals of the 60 meters in a personal-best 7.44 seconds, tying her for fifth all-time in the Big Sky record book, as well as tying her for third all-time – with Saunders – in the Portland State record book. Besides Settle, senior Akayla Anderson also earned All-Big Sky honors with her third straight second-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles. Anderson finished second to Weber State's Tawnie Moore in a personal-best 8.38 seconds, .06 behind Moore, who finished in 8.32. Freshman Kamal-Craig Golaube tied the school record in the men's 60-meter hurdles, too, as he finished fourth in the finals of the event at the Big Sky meet in 8.22 seconds. Golaube tied Peter Jason Tait's school record from 2008, and became the Viking men's first scorer in the indoor 60-meter hurdles since DeShawn Shead in 2011. Junior Donté Robinson became the first Viking athlete to earn All-Big Sky honors in the heptathlon since Nick Trubachik in 2010. Robinson placed second in the heptathlon with a personal-best score of 5,230 points – a total that ranks him second only to Trubachik, who set the school record at 5,432 points as a senior in 2010. Outside of the Big Sky meet, Alex Cisneros set the school record in the men's 5,000 meters with his time of 14:43.07 at the UW Invitational on Jan. 27. Cisneros broke Andrew Salg's six-year-old school record of 14:50.81 by more than seven seconds, and beat his old personal best of 14:57.77 by more than 14 seconds.