PNW Weather Drenches Pacific Open

Forrest Grove, OR - Track & Field competed in their second straight weekend, this time heading south to Oregon to Pacific University.  The festivities began on Thursday and Friday with the multi events, in which one EvCC athlete entered. Sophomore Jamira Barnes competed against a number of NCAA DII and DIII athletes and scored 2467 points. She PR'd in three events, throwing 28'0.25" in the shot put, 54'7" in the javelin, and bested her 800m time by over two seconds at 3:06:45.  Barnes was 122 points off of her Heptathlon best a year ago at the Buc Scoring Multi event in Spokane, but the three new PR's will be enough to build on for the NWAC multi event championships on May 1st and 2nd.  Currently Jamira has the 7th best Heptathlon score in the NWAC.

For the Open meet on Saturuday, the wind and rain rolled in over Forrest Grove causing difficult conditions for all the athletes.  Still, there were some very strong results for the Trojans. On the women's side, Iayanah Brewer ran six-one hundredths faster than last weekend and just two-onehundredths of a second off of her PR in the 100m. She also shaved off four tenths of a second off of her 200m time from last weekend.  Freshman Siari Rodriguez PR'd in the 400m and placed 9th overall, running 1:05.58.  Another freshman, Emma Arceo ran in her first 800m event of the season finishing 12th overall and posting a time of 2:33.38, a second off of hitting the NWAC auto qualifier.  She now has the 9th fastest time in a competitive NWAC field.  Jamira Barnes was not finished after the multi's and entered into the high jump, going 6.25" higher than the previous day and finishing 7th overall.  Her mark of 4'6.25" is now the 3rd best in the NWAC.  Sierra Flores threw 2.5 feet further in the shot put than last week and established a new PR at 32'5.5".  She keeps her top 16 ranking in the NWAC which she will need to qualify for the Championships. Another thrower Sophia MacKenzie threw a season best 101'6" in the discus which also keeps her within the NWAC top 16.  The highlight of the day for the women came with the 4x400m relay team (Emma Arceo, Jayda Pittman, Siari Rodriguez, Iayanah Brewer) that finished 3rd overall (behind NCAA DI's Portland and Portland State) posting a time of 4:17.91 which hits the auto qualifier and currently ranks as the fastest time in the NWAC by five seconds.  The time ranks as the 11th fastest all time at EvCC.  

For the men, Miguel Hurtado ran another 11.45s 100m, tying his season best and keeping him within the NWAC top 16. His 200m time of 23.16 moved him up to 9th in the NWAC.  Khalil Gilbert set a new PR in the 200m, running 22.56 and placing 9th overall.  He now moves up to 4th in the NWAC, and just a tenth of a second back from the top overall time.  Khalil's 400m time was a touch slower than the previous week, but still placed 2nd overall with a time of 51.28 out of 34 competitors.  Elisha Jackson PR'd in the 200m and the Long Jump. His jump of 19'0.5" is enough to get inside the NWAC top 16. Kaden Chidester PR'd in the 400m and posted a 38' 8.75" mark to rank 7th in the NWAC.  Again the relay team shined, and for the men's 4x400m (Elisha Jackson, Aiden Luhr, Miguel Hurtado, Khalil Gilbert) they finished 3rd overall and now rank 3rd in the NWAC.  

The Trojans will compete in the 3rd consecutive weekend coming up on April 8th at the Jenn Boyman Memorial Invitational hosted by Linfield College in McMinnville, OR.