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Saints' track and field team improves personal records, look ahead
The Advocate
After last weekend’s success in their final home meet, the MHCC track and field teams are preparing for this weekend’s Pacific Twilight Meet at Pacific University in Forest Grove.
“We have started to fine-tune our events and start to bring a lot of heat to the events,” said Head Coach Matt Hart.
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Last weekend the team hosted the Saints and Cavaliers Invitational at Earl Klapstein Stadium where the Saints brought the “heat” to every event, according to Hart.
“Everyone was PRing (personal record) all over the board,” said Hart. “(Jr.) Velasquez PRed and went crazy in his events and it was just a lot of people working really hard to be better in their event in preparation for the Southern Region meet” in two weeks.
Sisters Crystal and Catherine Sims stood out for the women and finished first and second, respectively, in the 100-meter dash. Crystal beat her sister by .16 seconds with a time of 12.77 seconds.
Crystal finished seventh in the high jump but there is more to the high jump behind the scenes, according to Matt Hart.
“When she won the Heptathlon event and she was doing the high jump, she could have gone a foot higher than she was jumping that day if she learns the right technique to jump properly. If she learns it, she will be in a class where most women can’t jump that high and they are professional athletes,” said Hart.
Also for the women, sophomore Terra Schumacher finished fifth in the 100-meter dash and first in the 100-meter hurdles (15.12 seconds), out-legging the Sims sisters who finished in third and fourth place out of 16 runners. Catherine finished with a time of 15.73 seconds and Crystal finished in 15.93 seconds.
“Overall, we really didn’t go as hard as we could of at that meet,” said Hart. “We had to save our women for the heptathlon meet.” The heptathlon meet started two days after the Saints and Cavaliers meet.
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Overall, the men had a strong performance with only two weeks until they compete for a NWAACC Southern Region title.
Freshman Micah Strong and Brandon Faber finished the 100-meter dash in second and third place. Strong finished with a time of 11.24 seconds and Faber clocked in at 11.30 seconds.
The Saints Nathan Hope and Markus Stevens took second and third place in the 400-meter dash behind Eastern Oregon’s Andrew Perri (50.22 seconds). Hope finished in 50.39 seconds and Stevens finished in 50.42 seconds.
The men’s 4x100-meter relay team finished in first place with a time of 43.18 seconds, lead by Strong, Faber, Hope and Travis Lindstrom.
“We sacrifice events with the men but when we sacrifice events, we pick up points in other events because our men are more athletic and stronger than they were at the beginning of the season,” said Hart.
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This weekend, the Saints will travel to the Pacific Twilight Meet at Pacific University in Forest Grove at Lincoln Park Stadium. The Saints will then gear up for the Southern Region Championships at Lane Community College in Eugene on May 8.
“This is when we start polishing up things and the athletes start expressing themselves in their events,” said Hart. “They (the athletes) will start to have fun and start rocking the holy bejeebies out of the meets.”