Eagles claim victory at first home meet

Five Eagles qualified for the Big Sky Conference Championship (BSCC) meet and three more qualified for NCAA West Regionals as Eastern's men's and women's track teams swept Gonzaga and Seattle University at the Pelluer Invitatonal.

The Pelluer Invitatonal, Eastern's 38th annual, was held Friday evening, May 1, in Cheney, Wash., and was the Eagles' lone home meet this season. EWU's men's team defeated Gonzaga 131-19 and Seattle 118-62, while the women beat Gonzaga 122-19 and Seattle 120-52.

"It's a twilight meet, and there aren't many twilight meets throughout the country," said men's Head Coach Stan Kerr. "Even the pesky mosquitos weren't enough to deter a number of great performances. It was a great day to be out there."

A season in which 48 qualifying marks were made by a number of Eastern athletes for the BSCC has left women's Head Coach Marcia Mecklenberg impressed. "I'm really pleased with how the crew is doing," she said. "It's good to see."

This year, 25 men and 23 women will represent Eastern at the championships to be held in Missoula, Mont., May 13 to 16.

In addition to qualifying for the conference champsionship, the Eagles have seven athletes who have qualified to compete in the NCAA West Regional meet May 29 and 30 in Eugene, Ore. Of his athletes who have qualified for regionals, Kerr said, "That's a cool thing, that's obviously something that's not achieved by a high percentage of the athletes in the conference, so it's kind of a nice rite of passage."

On her way to qualifying for regionals Friday, Eastern's own Krystal Deyo set a new school record in the long jump with a mark of 19-8 1/4, crushing the previous record of 19-1 1/2.

"It has been one of my goals for outdoor season to break that, but I wasn't expecting to break it by so much," said Deyo. "It was a surprise to me when they told me my distance, just realizing that was a regional qualifying mark. That was very exciting."

In addition to her exceptional long jump, Deyo set a meet record by winning the 100 meters with a time of 11.9 seconds, and ran the anchor leg for the women's 4x100-meter relay team. Along with teammates Shene Davis, Brianna Okoro and Shannon Long, Deyo helped her team win the meet with a time of 46.76. The mark is second in the conference this year and fourth in school history.

Along with Deyo, Aaron Mettler (javelin) and Chelsi Friese (pole vault) also qualified for Regionals. Friese's 12-7 1/2 mark Friday was her personal best, and now ranks as the third-best in school history, while Mettler's 213-2 throw ranks sixth.

Qualifying for the conference championship on Friday were Davis in the long jump, as well as freshman Okoro in the high hump (5-3 1/4) and Olivia Johnston in the 400-meter hurdles (1:04.85). Davis's 18-8 jump put her sixth on EWU's all-time list. "We have a good freshmen class," said Mecklenberg of freshmen conference championship qualifiers Johnston, Okoro, Michelle Coombs (javelin) and Ashley Stabl (400-meter hurdles). "Our expectation is that if you're turning out for Eastern, your first goal is to qualify for the conference championship. They're doing what they need to do. They're getting the job done."

Nick Mundell, the only member of the Eastern men's team to qualify for the conference championships Friday, did so with a time of 54:69 in the 400-meter hurdles. "Nick trains his rear end off and it's really nice to see him put a race together and produce that kind of an automatic mark," said Kerr. "He's just going to get better."

The Eagles' final meet before the BSCC will be Saturday, May 9, at the Vandal Jamboree in Moscow, Idaho.