Sports

Saints hold two big meets at home
By Christina Hammett

Over the weekend and through Tuesday, the men’s and women’s track and field teams held two successful meets on the MHCC track.

With Saturday came the Mt. Hood/Concordia Invite, a meet featuring classic running and field events. Among the top finishers at the invite were sophomore Sheryl Breck who took first place in the women’s 800-meter run with a time of 2:16.60 and first in the women’s 1500-meter run with a time of 4:42.23. Freshman Terra Schumacher took first in the women’s pole vault with a vault of 3.35 meters. Freshman Rebecca Urbany placed seventh out of 20 in the women’s long jump with a length of 4.91 meters and fourth out of 16 competitors in the women’s triple jump with a leap of 11.02 meters.

Other strong finishers were sophomore Adrienne Davis in the women’s shot put with an effort of 13.08 meters and sophomore Anja Crawford, who took fourth in the same event at 11.88 meters.

Among the top men were sophomore Jessy Brown who had a third-place finish out of 22 competitors in the men’s 1500-meter run with a time of 3:57.74, sophomore Jacobsen Valentine, who finished second in the men’s shot put with a throw measuring 15.29 meters and fourth in the men’s discus with a throw of 44.95 meters, an event he also happened to score a PR (personal record).

“I did all right,” said Valentine, “and I PR’d in discus by an inch.”

On Monday and Tuesday, Clark Community College hosted the NWAACC Multi Championships at the Mt. Hood track.

“Clark College hosted the meet on our track facilities because the facilities they use are incomplete,” said head coach Matt Hart. “They do not have a place to contest the pole vault. It worked out better for us though, as we were able to rent our facilities out and compete at home.”

The championships, a heptathlon and decathlon meet, had high finishes for the women’s heptathlon with sophomore Amber Glunt taking second overall with 3,889 points (343 points behind first-place finisher Danica Bates of Lane Community College). On the way to her second-place finish, Glunt took first in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:18.49, fourth in the long jump with a leap of 4.61 meters, first in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.96 seconds, and fourth in the shot put with a throw measuring 9.05 meters.

Other top finishers for the women were freshman Stephany Pitts with a sixth-place finish and 3,400 points, Schumacher with a seventh-place finish and 3,361 points, sophomore Crystal Sims with an eighth-place finish and 3,328 points, and sophomore Susanna Gill with a tenth-place finish and 3,204 points.

In the men’s decathlon, the only Saint that competed was sophomore Brandon Faber who took eighth place with 4,896 points. Faber finished first in the 100-meter dash with 11.46 seconds, second in the 400-meter dash with a time of 50.54 seconds, and fifth in the 1500-meter run in 4:49.25 minutes.

Today the Saints will head to Forest Grove for the Pacific Twilight meet. Valentine said he has mixed feelings about the meet.

“I’m not looking forward to this weekend because I’m so tired,” he said. “We’ve been training so hard in between meets, and I’ve been so tired.”

However, with all of the extra training, Hart feels his athletes are gradually becoming more consistent. “I think our athletes have been more consistent recently. The season is nearing its close and competing is becoming more important.”