SAINTS HOST FIRST HOME MEET OF THE SEASON

The Mt. Hood Saints hosted their first track and field home meet of the season on Saturday, March 10.

The Saints Open matched the home team against athletes from Corban University, Southwestern Oregon Community College, Warner Pacific University, and Multnomah University. There also were a wide range of others who competed as unaffiliated athletes, and some from Team IRON.

The Saints fared well across the board, with both the women and men outdoing opponents in various field events and placing at or near the top in sections of the track contests.

First up, the women: The Saints’ Faith Richards won both the 800- and 1500-meter runs with respective times of 2:32.00 and 5:13.19 minutes. Her teammate, Erica Veltkamp, finished second in the 1500 meter with a time of 5:19.94 minutes.

In the sprint events, Mt. Hoods’ Taylor Presley took second in both the women’s 100-meter and 200-meter dashes, finishing in times of 13.23 and 27.93 seconds.

Mt. Hood’s Therese Nahimana came in second in both the women’s long jump and the triple jump with respective marks of 4.87 and 9.67 meters. She came in a close runner-up to Warner Pacific’s Makhai Broussard in both events.

The field event portion of the meet saw Mt. Hood’s Grace Buchanan win the women’s javelin throw with a mark of 38.54 meters.

Men’s action featured a second- and third-place finish from Mt. Hood’s Michael Botchway in the 100- and 200-meters. He crossed the line in 11.16 and 22.93 seconds, respectively.

Pushing his teammates

Actually, finishing ahead of Botchway in the 200-meter for the win was Saints teammate Andre Dorn, who also won the 400-meter run. Dorn clocked times of 22.46 and 49.71 seconds. He was last year’s 2017 NWAC 400-meter champion – but unfortunately, unofficially only, due to grade troubles that cost his eligibility and formal recorded times.

Dorn also is being forced to redshirt this season, and his marks won’t stand for Mt. Hood. But, thanks to the academic recovery program installed by Saints co-coaches Kelly Holding and Fernando Fantroy, he remains enrolled in school and continues to train with, and push, his teammates.

The Saints went one-two in the 800-meter run, with Tayton La Pointe and Christopher Llanos recording times of 2:01.29 and 2:03.54 minutes.

Distance runner Luke Mclean paced to a first-place finish in the 5000 meters, with a time of 16:47.19.

In the hurdles, Mt. Hood’s Austin DeWolfe took third in the men’s 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.93 seconds and won the men’s 400-meter hurdles, crossing in 57.25 seconds.

Continuing the first-place theme was Scout Labhart, who won the men’s long jump and triple jump with leaps of 6.64 and 13.10 meters. Teammate Ramontre’ Williams won the men’s high jump with a leap of 1.98 meters and took second to behind Labhart in the long jump.

The Saints’ Kobie Ham took second in both the men’s discus and shot put, with impressive throws of 44.98 and 14.02 meters.

Former Saints shine 

There also were a couple of notable Mt. Hood alumni athletes competing in Saturday’s meet.

Brian Salgado, who was the NWAC’s 2017 shot put champion with a toss of 16.16 meters and earned All-American honors, competed in the men’s shot put on Saturday, winning the event with a toss of 14.59 meters.

Also out on the field was well-known former Saints star McKenzie Warren, who represented Mt. Hood so proudly back in 2013-14. During her time at Mt. Hood, Warren set new school records in the women’s discus and hammer throw with marks of 44.25 meters and 54.43 meters, respectively.

On Saturday, Warren won all three throwing events: the shot put (17.26 meters), discus (47.59 meters), and the hammer (54.92 meters).

With just two meets so far in their season, an impressive eight athletes for Mt. Hood have qualified for the 2018 NWAC championships.

They include: Veltkamp in the women’s 10,000-meter run, with a time of 42:09.76; Buchanan in the woman’s javelin with a throw of 39.81 meters; Williams in the men’s high jump, with a leap of 1.97 meters; and Kobie Ham in the men’s shot put, discus, and hammer with throws of 13.81 meters, 41.00 meters, and 47.54 meters.

The Saints’ next meet will be at Portland’s Lewis & Clark College on Saturday, where they will compete in the Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open.