The Nighthawks traveled to LaGrande, Oregon this weekend to compete in the Eastern Oregon University Invite. The athletes took home two new school records and fourteen new personal bests at the meet consisting of DII and NAIA teams.
Destany Herbert won the women's indoor shot put and tied a school record with her throw of 13.95m. Her throw ties her for tenth in GNAC history.
"I planned on this meet going well. Last meet, I fouled a really good throw, so all this week we have been working on making sure I stay in the ring," said Herbert.
"I feel really excited for next meet. Even though I tied the school record, I still know I can throw further. I'm going to keep working hard with the hopes of going to Nationals."
Kinsey Yenor won the women's pole vault and set a new NNU school record with 3.92m (12'10.25"). Her vault ties her for second in GNAC history.
"I was really excited for this meet because I came off of two really good weeks of practice. I used a longer pole than I normally do, which gave me the confidence and ability to clear a PR," explained Yenor.
"My coaches encouraging me to try new things and take risks led me to success. I almost cleared 4.00 meters, which has been my goal this season, and I'm excited to get more attempts at the upcoming meets!"
On the men's side, Gerohm Rihari won the men's long jump at 6.91m, third in NNU history. Jacob Steele placed second in the men's high jump, barely edging out teammate Rihari with a jump of 1.91m. Steele tied for seventh in NNU history.
Dylan Hendry placed second in the men's shot put with a throw of 14.85m, a new personal record and sixth in NNU history. Brayden Durfee won the 400m dash with a time of 51.14, and teammate Anderson Kron placed third with 51.81. Durfee also won the 200m dash with a time of 22.90, closely followed by teammate Hunter Braseth (23.08).
On the women's side, Abbey Wood won the 60m dash with a time of 7.69, and freshman Morgan Erler won the mile with a time of 5:25.83. Laine DeJong won the 400m dash with a time of 1:00.34, closely followed by teammates Alejandra Gomez (1:02.30) and Hailey Graham (1:02.37). Keelin Steward won the 800m run with a time of 2:31.43, and Olivia Klein won the 3,000m run with a time of 11:04.59.
Earlier this week, Steven Schmidt made history at the WSU Combined Events meet in Spokane. The decorated sophomore set an NNU school record in the indoor high jump with a height of 2.13m (6'11.75"), third in GNAC history.
As if that weren't enough, Schmidt went on to break the NNU school record in the heptathlon with 5266 points, fifth in GNAC history. He collected three other personal records in the pole vault, 1000m, and long jump at the combined events meet.
"Over break, I did a lot of weight lifting and practiced pole vault quite a bit. It was nice to have three straight weeks of training without meets so I could really make some progress," said Schmidt.
"In the heptathlon, it's kind of funny — if you do badly in one event, it motivates you to do good in the next. That's how I felt with the 1000m — I PR'd by eight seconds because I needed to make up some slack in my other events."
"It was awesome to get the heptathlon school record, but getting the high jump school record meant the most to me," said Schmidt.
"This was the first lifetime PR I've had since high school. Going into the meet, I was pretty confident it was possible this time. To jump the highest I've ever jumped in my life was an incredible feeling, especially since I haven't been able to work on high jump a ton."
"Coach Mahr has been great in training us multi athletes for the right things. He's going the extra mile — like shoveling some of the snow off the track — so we could train," added Schmidt.
The Nighthawks are next headed to Spokane, Wash. this weekend, February 10th and 11th, for the Whitworth Invitational.
