EUGENE, Ore. – Whitworth University track & field athletes continued to post strong performances two weeks after competing at the 2023 Northwest Conference Championships. Nine Pirate men and nine women competed over the weekend at three different competitions: the Oregon Twilight, the Linfield Open and the Portland Twilight.
Luke Davis at the best finish of Whitworth's athletes on Friday night at the Oregon Twilight, hosted by the University of Oregon at Heyward Field. Davis won the men's discus with a distance of 158'-3", a mark only 10 inches shy of his personal record. Other men's competitors on Friday included Ignacio Garcia in the hammer throw (172'-3", 6th place), Cody Wheeler in the javelin throw (195'-1", 6th place) and Solo Hines in the 100-meter dash (10.80, 5th place).
Alison Ball and Amelia Hewson had the best finishes among the Pirate women on Friday night. Ball finished third in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.32, just off her PR of 25.16. Hewson was third in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.67. Her personal record is 14.19. Renee Tiumalu was fifth in the shot put (40'-9"), Lauryn Rawls was fifth in the discus (140'-4") and AbbieJo Carlson was sixth in the hammer throw (163'-7").
Several of the same athletes, plus a few others, competed on Saturday morning and afternoon at the Linfield Open in McMinnville. The Pirates won three events and had six other runner-up finishes.
The women's 4x100 relay won with a time of 48.08, just off the season-best mark of 47.87. Ball anchored that relay and was the runner-up in the 200-meter dash in 25.75. Jordyn Lungo led off the 4x100 and also finished third in the 100-meter dash in 12.78.
Rawls won the discus with a toss of 143'-9", while Amblessed Okemgbo was second in the same event with her personal record of 136'-5". Carlson also hit a PR, clearing 50 meters for the first time ever in the hammer with a final mark of 165'-10". She was the runner up. Tiumalu also finished second in the shot put with a distance of 42'-4".
Hines won the men's 100-meter dash in 10.65, only three one-hundredths off his PR of 10.62 set two weeks ago. Davis finished second in the discus (156'-3"), while Eddie Vu was fourth (137'-2"). Garcia was runner-up in the hammer in 173'-11", only one inch shy of his personal record.
Whitworth had five distance runners on Saturday night at the Portland Twilight, hosted by Lewis & Clark College, and the Pirates had two PRs. Adam Callahan went 1:53.63 in the men's 800-meters to break his personal record by 2.3 seconds and finish in 17th place. Kainoa Figueira was 33rd in the same race (1:57.34). Isaac Akiyama had an eight-second PR in the men's 1,500 with a time of 3:59.99. James Dugenet went 9:54.37 to finish 14th in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase.
Madelyn Buckley took 19th in the women's 1,500-meters in 4:42.74.
Several Pirates will be back in action on Wednesday, May 10th when Whitworth hosts its own Last Chance meet on Boppell Track.
