Season nearing finish line

Nathan Romans | Argonaut
Sophomore jumper Faith Eruwa competes in the triple jump during the Cougar Invitational Saturday in Pullman.

Track and field heads to Boise for one of the final chances to qualify for Big Sky Championships

The lone Vandal varsity team still competing in the regular season will head down to rival territory in Boise this weekend.

The Idaho track and field team is set to face Utah State, Utah, in-state rival Boise State and conference foes Weber State and Idaho State Friday for the Border Clash in Boise. Two other Vandals, senior steeplechasers Holly Stanton and Alycia Butterworth, head to Stanford, California, to compete in the Payton Jordan Invitational.

Nathan Romans | Argonaut  Sophomore jumper Faith Eruwa competes in the triple jump during the Cougar Invitational Saturday in Pullman.

Nathan Romans | Argonaut
Sophomore jumper Faith Eruwa competes in the triple jump during the Cougar Invitational Saturday in Pullman.

The pair of meets are the final chances for Vandal runners, jumpers and throwers to qualify for the Big Sky Championships in two weeks, aside from possible competition Wednesday at the Sasquatch Carnival in Spokane.

“This meet, it’s your last few chances to solidify that conference spot,” Idaho coach Tim Cawley said. “We’re kind of in a nice peaked mode where it’s a good chance to even go and get a personal best or try to get a season best and keep competing.”

Currently, 10 Idaho athletes have reached automatic qualifying times for the Big Sky Tournament.

On the women’s side, Stanton qualified in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Butterworth and junior Halie Raudenbush qualified in the 5,000, junior Alex Sciocchetti qualified in the 10,000, sophomore Faith Eruwa qualified in the triple jump, sophomore Adara Winder qualified in the shot put and sophomore Kolcie Bates qualified in the discus.

Nathan Romans | Argonaut Sophomore distance runner Kayla Ockerse competes in the 1500 during the Cougar Invitational Saturday in Pullman.

Nathan Romans | Argonaut
Sophomore distance runner Kayla Ockerse competes in the 1500 during the Cougar Invitational Saturday in Pullman.

On the men’s side, senior Emmanuel Panchol qualified in the triple jump, senior Zach Trumbauer qualified in the hammer throw and freshman Taylor Wilson qualified in the javelin.

If athletes don’t meet automatic qualifying times and marks, they can still qualify for the championship meet by ranking in the top 20 in the conference by the end of the season.

“There’s a lot just sitting right on the bubble of making the team, not making the team,” Cawley said. “I would say we probably have 10 or 12 athletes sitting right on that verge of if they hit that big day (they get in), or they’re just on or inside, to where we have two weeks left so people could knock them down.”

Cawley said the meet in Boise offers a good chance for Idaho to see how it scores against other teams right before the conference championships in addition to the individual focus of qualifying for conference or the NCAAs.

Nathan Romans | Argonaut Freshman thrower Taylor Wilson competes in the javelin during the Cougar Invitational Saturday in Pullman. Wilson took fifth in the event with a throw of 57.07 meters.

Nathan Romans | Argonaut
Freshman thrower Taylor Wilson competes in the javelin during the Cougar Invitational Saturday in Pullman. Wilson took fifth in the event with a throw of 57.07 meters.

“I think there’s a good dynamic to this weekend that I’m excited about to kind of fine tune us in multiple levels for the conference meet,” Cawley said. “It should be not too huge of a meet, but it should be a good enough sized meet where we get some good solid competition.”

Originally, Idaho was scheduled to compete in Oregon this weekend, but Cawley said he switched to the meet in Boise because it was a better fit. Among other reasons, the Vandals won’t have to miss as much class time as they would be traveling to Oregon for a meet earlier in the week.

Idaho was also supposed to close the season with a second home meet, but it had to be canceled due to a lack of officials.

“Before the season started, I didn’t realize I needed that (home) meet,” Cawley said. “Now I do, now I’ll work in the future to try to get that meet built back in and see what we can do.”

Stephan Wiebe can be reached at [email protected]

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Stephan Wiebe Sports reporter Sophomore in journalism Can be reached at [email protected]

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