Zodrow wins heptathlon at MHCC Multi Meet

The men’s team took another hit, and the women’s sprints and jumps once again took the spotlight as the MHCC track and field team competed at the John Knight Twilight Friday and then played host to the Mt. Hood Multi Meet this past week.

At Sunday and Monday’s Mt. Hood Multi Meet, the Saint’s only had one participant this year, sophomore Terra Zodrow. One was enough as Zodrow took first place in the women’s heptathlon with 4046 points, a personal record and more than 200 points ahead of second place.

“I was really excited going into this meet compared to last year because I knew what to expect this time around,” said Zodrow of the multi meet.
“It’s a fun meet to participate in. I like doing all of the different events. I still have things to improve on so we’ll see what happens at the NWAACC meet,” she said.

With Zodrow’s win, she qualifies for the NWAACC Multi Meet championships and is ranked second in the league in the heptathlon.
At Friday’s John Knight Twilight meet, in what has become a familiar but unfortunate story, the men’s team was forced to compete without several key athletes due to unspecified eligibility issues, leaving several of the men’s events Saint-less and without MHCC representation.

“We’ve got a lot of issues with the men’s team this year. We’ve got a lot of unfortunate circumstances on the men’s side,” said Hart of the men’s team.
“We’ve got a small group of guys but they’re dedicated and they’re trying to perform to the best of their ability, and it seems like they’re trying to have a good time,” said Hart.

“It’s unfortunate they haven’t gotten a lot of help from the eligibility issues,” he said.

Despite the increasing holes in the men’s roster, several MHCC athletes managed to find their footing, distinguished by notable performances by freshman Jacob Troupe, who placed third in the high jump (1.88 meters), seventh in the long jump (5.96 meters), and sophomore Robert Hanke placed sixth in both the 110-meter hurdles (16.91) and the 400-meter hurdles (56.67).

On the women’s side, sophomore Zodrow was the Saint’s sole first place finisher, bringing home the gold with a 15.17 in the 100-meter hurdles. Both relay teams had a remarkable day on the track, with the 4×100-meter team, consisting of Molly Scoles, Laura Knudson, Zodrow and Mariah Crumpler, placing second at the meet with a time of 49.49 seconds and the 4×400-meter team, consisting of Zodrow, Scoles, Knudson and Christa Collmer, placing third with a time of 4:04, moving from fourth to second in NWAACCs.

In the 400-meter dash, both Knudson and Scoles finished within fractions of a second from one another with both placing in the top five, Knudson finishing fourth (1:00.45) and Scoles placing fifth (1:00.54).

In the jumps, freshman Mariah Delepierre placed fourth in the long jump (4.82 meters) followed closely by sophomore Stephanie Anthony, who placed fifth (4.76 meters).

“The girls team is doing great. We’ve got girls competing in pretty much everything,” said Zodrow about Friday’s meet.

The team’s performances has made Zodrow particularly optimistic of the relay teams’ place in the conference. “We’re going to place well at the Southern Region meet. Our 4×100 relay is ranked first in NWAACCs right now; we’ll see what happens,” she said.

As for the team’s schedule in the next couple of weeks, contrary to the track schedule on the MHCC website, Hart said that the team will not be participating in the Oregon Relay meet at the University of Oregon this Friday and Saturday.

“We’re taking this weekend off. We have some aches and pains and some people trying to come back from some minor soreness,” said Hart.

“We’re just going to take this weekend off and try to recover and regroup and come back for their next meet strong,” he said.

The team’s next meet will be April 27 and 28 at Pacific University in Forest Grove for the Pacific Twilight meet.