LA GRANDE, Ore. - Northwest Nazarene track and field delivered stellar performances all across the board at the Eastern Oregon Open on Friday. Despite the unfavorable weather conditions, the athletes collected another 27 personal records — finally achieving a cumulative 200 personal records in a single track and field season.
"Wow! These student-athletes have shown what it means to trust a system and also become a family!" said head coach Danny Bowman.
"This meet demonstrated that. I am so proud of them all. The weather wasn't ideal by any means, but that didn't stop them from racking up another 27 PRs!"
On the men's side, stand-out freshman Hunter Braseth won the 200m dash with 22 seconds, barely missing first place in the 400m at 50.95 seconds. Tyler Shea won the 1500m in 3:56.90 and broke into the NNU top 10 list with his 1:56.61 performance in the 800m.
Gerohm Rihari won the high jump in 1.97m, while Laurenz Waldbauer snagged first in the javelin with a throw of 58.41, 7th in NNU history.
Senior Cody Robbins also won the discus throw with 44.60m.
"The event went very well considering I've been fighting a hamstring injury. I wasn't expecting to win the discus at this meet," said Robbins.
"However, once I started warming up for the event, everything was going right and I knew it was going to be a great day. I'm very excited for the discus at future meets because I know that I can produce bigger throws."
"I want to thank Coach Peterson for all his help in getting me to the state where I can produce these big throws," Robbins mentioned.
On the women's side, sophomore Laine DeJong won the 400m in 59.92 seconds while senior Kalen Belton got second in the 800 with 2:26.44 and second in the 1500 with 4:56.05. Nizhoni Buckway threw 38.48m in the javelin event, taking home the gold.
The ladies jump squad collected a lot of hardware in La Grande as well. Freshman Miya Koch won the high jump event with 1.62m while Julie Cheney won the pole vault with 3.75m, good enough for 2nd in NNU history. Just coming off her NNU basketball season, Emma Clark snagged two wins in the triple jump with 11.20m and in the long jump with 5.49m.
Freshman Madelyn Martin took home two huge PRs in the 200m (27.52 seconds) and 400m (1:02.45) races.
"Honestly, I did not expect the results from this last meet. I have been working super hard to get these PRs for almost three years now and it all finally came together. I was really disappointed with my performances the last two seasons of track with COVID completely messing them up and I was starting to feel a little unmotivated," said Martin.
She also managed to get COVID three times in the past three years.
"However, with these times, I am beyond happy. I really didn't know if I would ever beat my high school PR, but I know now that it IS possible and I am very excited for the rest of the season and what I will accomplish. My all-time goal is to be under 60 seconds in the 400."
Martin competed on Friday in remembrance of her high school track coach, Harold Jensen, who recently passed away.
"I wanted to make him proud," she said.
On a mission to add to the 200 PR count, the Nighthawks will be taking on the Bengal Invitational this coming weekend, April 29-30, in Pocatello, Idaho.
