A selection of Vandals finished on a high note as the indoor track and field season came to an end in Pocatello, Idaho, at the Big Sky Championships. Freshman Ben Doucette capped off his impressive opening collegiate season with an exciting performance in the 60-meter hurdle race.
Doucette met his season best performance in the qualifying round, running an 8.04. Yet he improved even more in the finals, winning with a time of 7.96 seconds. He is the only athlete in conference to break eight seconds this season and is the first since 2015.
Doucette was not the only Idaho freshman to come out with a strong performance in the championships.
Freshman Rechelle Meade finished third in the high jump, clearing 1.70 meters. She grabbed third in the long jump as well with a leap of 6.01 meters to set a new personal record.
Senior Faith Eruwa and freshman Karina Moreland found success in the triple jump, taking sixth and seventh place, respectively. Eruwa claimed the sixth place spot with a leap of 11.81 meters, followed by Moreland with a jump of 11.78 meters.
Senior Adara Winder found a spot on the podium with a third place finish in the shot put with a toss of 14.57 meters, a new personal best.
Senior Dusan Jevtic took a fifth place title in the high jump, clearing 1.99 meters.
Junior Arphaxad Carrolll had a couple strong performances, claiming two top-10 spots. Carroll earned a sixth place finish in the 60-meter race in 6.91 seconds but his main event was the long jump, where he finished second with a jump of 7.43 meters.
Freshman Grayson Ollar came out strong for the distance team with an eighth place finish in the 3000-meter run, clocking in at 8:36.31.
Senior Drew Thompson finished seventh in the heptathlon with a total of 4896 points. Thompsons top performance came Friday in the 60-meter hurdles where he picked up the first place finish with a time of 8.36 seconds.
The Idaho track and field team looks forward to the outdoor season with the Sam Adams Invitational March 24 in Spokane, Washington.
Meredith Spelbring can be reached at [email protected]