While it was a new season for the Idaho track and field team, it started in familiar territory. The Vandals opened the 2014 indoor track and field season Friday and Saturday at the WSU Indoor Open for the sixth straight year and earned several victories in the process.
Idaho had five individual victories on the men’s side, but the most impressive one might have come from thrower Andrey Levkiv. The senior won the shot put with a career-best mark of 55 feet, 5.75 inches.
“Andrey (Levkiv) returned from an injury and looked like he hadn’t missed a day,” Idaho coach Wayne Phipps said. “That was the highlight of the meet for me.”
The Vandals swept the throwing events with fellow senior Kyle Rothwell winning the hammer throw in the opening event of the meet. The reigning WAC champion won with a heave of 54-07.5.
Idaho also had a solid showing in the jumping events taking two second place finishes and a first place finish. Junior Emmanuel Panchol, a newcomer from Ashford University, won the triple jump with a mark of 46-00.0.
I was very impressed with our jumpers today,” Phipps said. “Panchol led the group and had a great first meet as a Vandal.”
The other two Idaho victories were taken by two Vandals who have been impressing for years. Senior Andrew Bloom took first in the 400-meter dash with a time of 50.11 seconds while junior Matt Sullivan won the pole vault with a height of 16-08.75.
Phipps chose to have several athletes train through the first meet of the season, so not many Vandals competed on the women’s side. A few of the standouts on the women’s side were senior Karlene Hurrel with a second place finish in the 60 (7.95) and 200 (25.53), junior Taylor Hewett with a fourth place finish in the 600 returning from injury with a time of 1:38.9 and freshman Adara Winder with a third-place finish in the shot put with a mark of 41-10.0.
“We didn’t compete very many women,” Phipps said. “But I thought all of our newcomers to the team did a great job in their first collegiate meet.”
Idaho’s next chance at competition will be at Friday in the Kibbie Dome with the Idaho Collegiate and Saturday with the Idaho Open. This will be the third straight season Idaho has hosted an early
season meet.