The men’s and women’s track and field teams entered the NWAACC championship tournament Thursday with home advantage on their side, 10 qualifiers and are focusing on doing their best and possibly place in the top five today.

Head track coach Tony Baracco thinks that the teams have both met their season goal of improvement thus far, though. “They have really improved from last year,” he said.
The teams have been preparing for the NWAACCs all year, training for nearly 40 weeks. The practice eventually paid off when the team scored more points at the Southern Region championships last weekend in Delta Park then they have the entire season. They finished in fourth place behind Lane, Clark and Southwest Oregon.

Some of the top MHCC female athletes going into the NWAACCs are sophomore Brittany Grizzard in the 100-meter, 200-meter, and 400-meter races; sophomore Michel Wilson in the 800-meters, 1500-meters, 300-meters, and 500-meters; freshman Ashley Mulvaney in the 10,000-meters; sophomore Christa Attleberger in the high jump; and sophomore defending pole vault champion Jessie Gallaher in the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, and pole vault., The top men are freshman Jordan Hamblen in the 400-meter hurdles, sophomore Vase Georgiev in the long jump, sophomore Tim Bertram in the discus, freshman Jayce Giddens in the pole vault, and defending champion shot-putter Tyler Hartsteen.

Baracco expects all the athletes to do well, but has high hopes for Grizzard, Attleberger, Wilson, Gallaher and Hartsteen.

He thinks of the Southern Region schools MHCC is hosting, Lane and Spokane will be the biggest competition for the Saints.

“Spokane and Lane are excellent. They can compete with any four-year college,” he said. “They can beat many schools.”

Baracco said it was hard work getting the track and field ready for the NWAACCs. “It was a lot of work to do. Really a chore, but there was good organization involved,” he said.
The NWAACCs were run Thursday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and were scheduled to begin today at 11 a.m. and run through 3:30 p.m.

Mt. Hood is hosting seven NWAACC schools including Clackamas, Clark, Highline, Lane, Southwest Oregon, Spokane and Treasure Valley.

“It’s going to be challenging for everyone,” said Baracco. “It will be interesting to see what we can do.”

Baracco said that he thinks the ladies have a chance to score in the top five, but he is unsure of where the men will stand at the end of the competition.

“I’m not sure where they will stack up,” he said. “We’ll just have to wait and see how they do.”

He also thinks both Gallaher and Hartsteen have major chances of repeating their NWAACC championship titles, but that it will be a tough challenge for both of them.

At press time, results for the first events, were that the women had not placed in the high jump competition.