SPOKANE, Wash. – Led by Amblessed Okemgbo's school-record performance in the shot put, the Whitworth track & field teams opened 2025 in impressive fashion while competing primarily against NCAA Division I student-athletes on Friday and Saturday at the Spokane Indoor Challenge in the Podium.
Okemgbo won the women's shot put, while setting a new school record, with a distance on 44'-6.25" on Saturday. She broke the previous record of 43'-7" set by Renee Tiumalu in 2023 and has the sixth-best mark in Division III this season.
Madison Carr was not far behind Okembgo, taking fourth in the shot put with a mark of 40'-1.5", which now ranks fourth on Whitworth's indoor list.
Izzy Carpenter finished 15th in the women's weight throw with a distance of 43'-9.25", which ranks third on Whitworth's all-time indoor list. Evie Bradbury cleared 10'-6.25" in the pole vault to finish 13th in the meet and rank third on the Pirates' indoor list. Both Carpenter and Bradbury are freshmen.
Luke Davis hit 47'-5" to take seventh place in the men's shot put.
Whitworth's distance medley relays posted the team's best performances on the track.
On Friday night the Pirate women's DMR finished in second place with time of 13:08.75. Lulu Brady, Ella Ferichs, Lily Jones and Ashlyn Dary posted a time that now ranks second in Whitworth's indoor history.
The men's DMR finished fourth with a time of 10:41.00. London Haley, Kaiser Martin, Logan Noble and James Dugenet ran the event in a time that ranks third all-time at Whitworth.
The women's 4x400 relay of Ferichs, Emily Brown, Jordan Lungo and Marlee Paget went 4:05.74 to finish sixth in the meet and second all-time for the event at Whitworth.
Zaanan Bane nearly qualified for the finals of the men's 60-meter hurdles, finishing 11th with a time of 8.87, a personal record that now ranks ninth in school history. Brianna Tira finished further down the list in qualifying for the women's 60-meter dash, but her time of 8.10 was a PR and ranks sixth in school history.
Overall the team established 34 new personal-best marks during the meet.
Whitworth will take the coming weekend off before hosting the Inland Northwest Invitational on February 1st at the Podium.
