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The University of Idaho track team had seven athletes hit the regional qualifying mark in their events and one broke a UI record as the Vandals traveled to Palo Alto, Calif. for the first outdoor meet of the year.
The seven regional qualifying marks set at the Stanford Invitational almost equal the total number achieved all of last year, and some of UI’s premier athletes such as Matt Wauters, Dee Olson and Melinda Owen have yet to compete.
In 2007, Vandal athletes hit 11 regional qualifying marks.
On the first day of the invitational, four Idaho throwers hit regional qualifying marks.
Russ Winger, after a successful indoor season, continued his reign as one of the nation’s top throwers by winning the men’s discus with a throw of 190 feet, 7 inches. The throw ranks ninth best in the nation this year.
Three other throwers who are not as well known as Winger also had solid outings.
Kyle Hook, a junior, opened the outdoor season by beating his personal best in the javelin by 14 feet. The 206-foot throw puts Hook in sixth place all time among UI throwers.
Gabriella Midles, a true freshman, had an impressive first meet as well throwing a personal best 179-5 in the women’s hammer throw. Midles won the event. She currently holds the United States Young Women’s Division national record in the hammer throw.
“We had a pretty good day,” coach Yogi Teevens said. “It was exciting, but I won’t say that it was surprising. We have a very experienced team and I’m guessing that we’re going to have a lot more regional marks this year.”
UI hurdlers also had a good start to the outdoor season as true freshman Paul Dittmer ran a WAC best time in the 110-high hurdles preliminaries with a 14.36 second time.
On the women’s side Christie Gordon and Heather Bergland earned a spot in the 100-meter hurdle finals with times of 14.12 and 14.37 respectively.
The UI track team was without a key element as coach Wayne Phipps did not make the trip due to illness.
“Those kids are competing without their coach, so I thought that was a pretty big effort for them,” Teevens said. “Them competing so well without him there is just a tribute to how well Wayne has coached those kids.”
On the second day of the meet, Winger continued his record breaking tradition in the discus. Winger competed in the event both days and won both sections of the event. The latter section produced a UI record-breaking throw.
Winger broke Joachim Olsen’s indoor discus record earlier this year by one inch. On Saturday, he took down Olsen’s outdoor discus record as well with a throw of 199-6. Olsen, a ten time NCAA All- American, held the record since 2001 with a throw of 197-6.
Idaho coach Julie Taylor said the broken record is especially surprising considering the amount of time Winger has spent on the event this year.
“He did very well considering what he looked like,” Taylor said. “He’s still got some work to do on it, which is pretty exciting. He hasn’t gotten many throws in with the discus yet because he throws so much in the shot put, then splits his time between the hammer and discus. With a few more repetitions, he’s going to be greatly improved.”
Juniors K.C. Dahlgren and David Holmon became the first non-throwers to earn regional qualifying marks with their efforts in the pole vault and triple jump.
Dahlgren finished the event with a vault of 12-7 to take fifth in the event. Holmon leapt 49-2 inches to take third in the triple jump.
“Last year, David was chasing that regional mark all season long and it got really frustrating,” Teevens said. “For K.C., that was the first time she’s been able to vault outside all year, since we’ve been inside all year because of the weather, so that was pretty impressive.”
The Vandals will travel to Cheney next week for the Pelluer Invitational, which starts Thursday at Eastern Washington.
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