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Photo contributed by Matt Hart
Above: Sophomore Zach Young (center) clears the 42-inch hurdle in the 110-meter high hurdles at the 2010 Pioneer Open at Lewis and Clark Saturday. Young finished the event in fourth with a time of 16.06 seconds.
NWAACC honors 3 MHCC track and field athletes
The Advocate
Three MHCC athletes were honored by the NWAACC last week when Jr. Velasquez was nominated as male field athlete of the week, Anaiah Rhodes as female track athlete of the week and Kelsey Strot as female field athlete of the week.
Head coach Matt Hart said, "This is exciting as this recognition is from all NWAACC athletes competing in track and field."
Velasquez had a lifetime PR of 53'7.5" in the shot put at the Pioneer Open last weekend at Lewis & Clark College in Portland and he has a 2' lead over all NWAACC shot putters. MHCC’s record in the shot put was set in 1970 by Don Philpot at 54'6" and, according to Hart, Jr. "has the skills" to break this record before the season is over.
Rhodes finished third in the 100 meter dash with a time of 12.62 and second in the 200 meters with a time of 25.70, right behind MHCC alumnus and Concordia record holder Catherine Sims, who finished first with a time of 25.41.
Hart said, "I am extremely proud of Anaiah. She has been working hard for the last year and a half to improve her athleticism. She is very close to her lifetime PRs in both the 100m and 200m. I am anxious to see how she progresses for the last month of our season.
It was cool to see Catherine and Anaiah interact and compete against each other this last meet. Anaiah really tried to challenge Catherine (Concordia school record holder in the 200 meters and 400 meters) in the 200m. Coming off the turn, I could see a KI (killer instinct) in Anaiah’s eyes as she was even with Catherine."
Strot finished second in shot put with a distance of 39'10.75" and came in sixth place in the discus throw event with a distance of 115'.
Four MHCC athletes competed in the women's 1500-meter race and even though they didn't score at the top of the leaderboard, Hart said it was a successful event.
"Successful distance running, like many other events in track and field, is an accumulative effect. Women from four-year colleges/universities have an advantage as they have more years of experience and training to positively affect their abilities to compete. Though our women did not finish within the top 10, the size of the field was very large and Amanda Faggard ended up setting a great lifetime PR. I would call that a successful day."
The Saints do not have a meet scheduled this week but the training continues and Hart said, "We have been doing a lot of speed-oriented training the last couple weeks. Now that our speed is up a little, we can bring more speed into the conditioning intervals which will allow us to get more quality training in."
The men's 4x100-meter relay team finished in 42.60 seconds and Hart said,
"We are improving at an aggressive pace and I feel our team this year is talented enough to come close to breaking the record. (The school record was set in 1978 at 42.01) We will definitely try."
Zach Young, who ran in the relay, also competed in the 110-meter hurdles where he finished in fourth place with a time of 16.06. In the 400-meter hurdles, he finished second with a time of 55.82. Hart said, "He has a very smooth stride and hurdling technique that aids him in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles. However, we are working on being more explosive and aggressive for the 110-meter high hurdles."
The next meet will be the Oregon Relays, for qualified athletes only, on April 30 and May 1 at Hayward Field in Eugene. The rest of the team will compete May 1 in the Pacific Twilight at Pacific University in Forest Grove.
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