By Brandon Adam, Sports Writer
Pacific Lutheran pulled off impressive feats in the Northwest Conference Track Championships last weekend at Willamette, despite fierce competition.
Head Throwing Coach Dan Haakenson’s throwers did not disappoint in their performance. First-year Marissa Gonzalez placed first in the women’s shot put, throwing 12.63 meters and also placed first in the final heat of javelin, throwing 34.45 meters.
“We had at least as strong of a team as we did last year, but our whole conference is improving rapidly in the throwing events,” Haakenson said. “It is becoming increasingly difficult to do well.”
Pacific Lutheran faced tough competition from Whitworth during the event.
Junior and hammer guru Kyle Peart placed second but still achieved a personal record in hammer, heaving 55.94 meters. He placed second under Whitworth’s Keegan Shea’s heave of 58.49 meters.
Peart also placed second in shot put, throwing 16.36 meters. He was topped by
Whitworth senior Carter Comito.
Peart is still seeded number 13 in nationals in the hammer toss and 12 in shot put.
In the women’s hammer toss, junior Jorgina Moore placed third, heaving 49.99 meters and senior Katheryn Jahnsen placed fourth with her final heave being 48.83 meters. Moore is seeded 21 in the hammer.
Junior Samantha Potter placed second in the women’s shot put, throwing 12.36 meters and placed first in discus, throwing 43.29 meters. Potter is number four in discus in the nation.
“I hope to see those athletes continue to improve in the next two meets and
hopefully go to nationals and do well there,” Haakenson said.
In the men’s high jump, senior Joseph Mungai broke a personal record, reaching 1.84 meters.
“It is something that I have been working for since my freshman year,” Mungai said. Mungai went on to place fourth in the 400-meter hurtles that same day.
Junior Taryn Dee and senior David Fisher both placed second in the 400-meter hurtles.
Dee came in first in the preliminary, beating George Fox junior Olivia Flemming, but placed second behind Flemming in the finals. Dee’s final time was 1:05.34 compared to Flemming’s 1:05.26.
Fisher achieved a time of 55.01 seconds, placing behind Lewis and Clark first-year Kodie Artner’s time of 54.82 seconds.
For more in-depth results of the conference event, be sure to check out http://golutes.com/sports/track/index.
