TACOMA, Wash. -- Thanks to dominating performances in the field events, the Whitworth track and field teams opened the 2025 outdoor season with strong finishes at the Ed Boitano Invitational on Friday and Saturday at the University of Puget Sound.

The Pirate women won three of the four throwing events and both horizontal jumps on the way to a first-place team finish.  Whitworth scored 214 points to defeat the NCAA Div. II Western Washington women (109.83) by nearly 105 points.  Host Puget Sound was third with 88.5.

Amblessed Okemgbo won the women's discus with a distance of 137'-8" and took second to teammate Madison Carr in the shot put.  Carr won the shot put in 41'-3.75" while Okemgbo was second in 40'-3.25".  Izzy Boyd (38'-9.75") gave the Pirates the top three finishers in the women's shot put.   

Devyn Chelin won the women's javelin with a mark of 122'-3".  Finally, Carr was third in the hammer throw with a mark of 148'-8", while Izzy Carpenter was sixth (140'-7").

Isabella Pereira won the triple jump with a distance of 37'-9.25" and finished as runner-up to teammate Brianna Tira in the long jump.  Tira went 17'-5.25" and Pereira jumped 17'-0.75".  Tira finished as runner-up in the high jump by clearing 5'-2.25" with Cadence Lorenz (5'-0.25") third.

Evie Bradbury took third in the pole vault, topping 10'-7.5".

The Whitworth women also had big events on the track, including the 400-meter hurdles where the Pirates had five of the top six finishers.  Emily Brown won in 1:06.61 with Marlee Paget second in 1:09.78.

Jordyn Lungo was runner-up in both the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes.  She went 12.46 in the 100 with Pereira third in 12.69.  Lungo posted a 26.05 in the 200 dash.

Lungo, Tira, and Pereira were joined by Margaret Byle on the 4x100 relay to finish second in 48.88.  Byle went on to take third in the 400-meter dash (1:01.35).

Whitworth's men finished in second place as a team behind NCAA Division II Western Washington.  The Vikings scored 182.5 while the Pirates posted 151.5.  Again, Puget Sound was third (94). 

All four of the men's victories also came in field events.  Eddie Vu led the way with a win in the discus (159'-11") and a runner-up finish to teammate Luke Davis in the shot put.  Davis hit 48'-1.25" while Vu's distance was 46'-0.75".  Davis was also fourth in the discus (144'-9").

Defending NCAA Division III javelin champion Cody Wheeler finished fourth in the event with a mark of 183'-4" in his first competition of the year.

Andrew Strawn won the men's pole vault in his first outdoor competition for the Pirates.  He cleared 15'-0".  Jared McCrory was fourth (13'-6.25").

Richard Alsept won the high jump with a height of 6'-3.25" while Jayce Palm was runner-up (6'-1.25").

Zaanan Bane had a busy day.  He finished third in the triple jump (40'-11"), sixth in the long jump (21'-1.25") and third in the 110 high hurdles (15.36).

Other high finishes on the track included Jack Ireton's third-place finish in the 3,000 steeplechase (9:31.28), Tyler Eakin's third place in the 5,000-meter run (15:45.09) and Connor Hylton's third place in the 400-meter hurdles (58.00).

The Pirate men's 4x400 relay of Grant Cheeseman, Cameron Lantagne, Cam Schmidt and Cooper Rolfs finished third with a time of 3:25.52.