Competing at home for the first time this indoor season, the Vandals capitalized with nine individual victories and a nationally ranked time in the 800-meter despite holding out several of their athletes for the second consecutive meet. The Idaho indoor track and field teams competed against nine Northwest universities in the Idaho Collegiate I on Saturday.
“It’s nice to compete at home,” Idaho coach Wayne Phipps said. “It’s always stressful getting the first one organized and everything, but I thought everything went really well.”
The highlight of the meet came in the women’s 800-meter when Idaho senior Liga Velvere won the race in 2:10.07 posting a NCAA top-10 time in the process. Her time is also currently the best in the WAC. Velvere ran the race with little competition as the second-place finisher crossed more than 15 seconds behind her.
Junior Karlene Hurrel also had an impressive performance for the Vandals returning to the track after missing last year with a foot injury. She won the women’s 60-meter (7.83 seconds) and 200-meter (24.90) in her return.
“It was hard to accept that she couldn’t run last year,” Phipps said of Hurrel. “She’s just worked really, really hard throughout this year and over Christmas break. I was really happy with her today. It’s been almost two years since she’s put on a uniform for us, so for her to put that on, be as excited as she was today and to compete as well as she did was awesome.”
The women’s team also had success in the field events. Freshman Jerrica Hauck set a career-best of 11-3.75 feet to win the women’s pole vault. Sophomore Johanna Hocketstaller leapt 17-6.25 to win the long jump before adding a second-place finish in the shot put at 46-2.5.
“Our young people continue to improve, continue to perform really well for us,” Phipps said.
Back on the men’s side, freshman Drew Thompson ran 8.55 to win the men’s 60-meter hurdles, while sophomore Matt Sullivan cleared 15-11 (4.85m) to win the pole vault. Senior Jason Lorentz looks to defend his WAC indoor long jump title this season opening with a winning leap of 22-7.25.
In the throws, junior Kyle Rothwell tossed 59-1.5 in the men’s weight throw to win the event. He had a throw of more than 60 feet on the night as well but crossed the foul line in the process.
“We had some great marks, people improved their times,” coach Julie Taylor said. “We had some great performances on the field. Kids are continuing to get better and that’s what we’re all about right now.”
Stephan Wiebe can be reached at [email protected]