Day Three Results.
 
The third day of the Big Sky Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships finished today (May 13) in Pocatello, Idaho at the Davis Field. 
 
The Eastern men's team is now in seventh place with a total of 12 points. They are ahead of Southern Utah, Sacramento State, and Northern Colorado. The women's team is in ninth place with 18 points. The Eagles had two athletes earn All-Big Sky honors in Vernice Keyes (2nd, hammer throw) and Brayden Freitag (3rd, pole vault), joining Maggie Nelson who placed third yesterday in the heptathlon, breaking her own school record with 5,173 points.

Vernice Keyes competed in the women's hammer throw and placed second, earning the fourth All-Big Sky honor of her career - the second consecutive outdoor after winning the event in 2021, with a season-best mark of 191-0. 
 
"The women's hammer throw started the meet today. Vernice Keyes came to play and earned the Eastern women's their team second medal of the meet with a second-place finish and a season's best mark. It is an important team thing to do your best at Big Sky Championships, and Vernice Keyes came through with that today," explained head women's coach Marcia Mecklenburg. 

In the men's pole vault Brayden Freitag competed and placed third with a mark of 16-1 3/4, earning the first All-Big Sky honor of his career.
 
"Leading the way for the men's team today and earning him All-Conference honors was Freitag's gritty effort in the pole vault. Coach Allison has excelled in the development of our vault crew.  It was great to see Freitag on the conference podium," explained head men's coach Stan Kerr.

Freitag's father, Todd Freitag ranks sixth all-time in the pole vault at Eastern Washington with a personal best of 16-7. He earned four All-Big Sky titles in his career, including the 1988 indoor and outdoor conference championship.
 
In the men's 400-meter dash prelims, Liam Bracken placed third with a personal best time of 47.86. Daniel Gaik also competed and placed fourth with a time of 48.07. These times both qualify Bracken and Gaik for the 400-meter dash finals tomorrow. 
 
"Bracken shined huge today and finally joined the 47 second club in the 400-meter. His dedication to learning the event from the day he started at EWU has paid off big time for him. Bracken and Gaik qualified for tomorrow's 400-meter final which will be a dandy," stated Kerr.
 
Joe Gauthier, the defending Big Sky 100-meter champion, competed in the men's 100-meter dash prelims and placed fifth with a season-best time of 10.59. This qualifies him to compete tomorrow in the 100-meter dash finals. 
 
"Gauthier ran well in prelims and will be in the 100-meter final tomorrow," explained Kerr.
 
In the women's discus throw Carissa Stovall competed and placed fifth with a five-foot personal best throw of 146-0, earning four points for the women's team.
 
"Stovall was our other scorer of the day with a five-foot personal record in the discus and a fifth place finish. She did that after throwing a personal record earlier in the day in the hammer. Stovall is having the meet of her life right now and she still has the shot put to go on Saturday," stated Mecklenburg. Stovall placed 12th in the hammer throw with a mark of 164-1.
 
Katie Petsch competed in the women's 100-meter dash prelims and placed eighth with a time of 11.88, advancing to tomorrow's finals. 
 
Mecklenburg explained, "Petsch qualified for finals in the 100-meter. She has been having an amazing season. She has worked hard over the last year to bring her sprint times down and it is paying off."
 
Madelyn Knight competed in the women's 100-meter hurdles and placed 12^th with a personal-best time of 14.55. This time if now fifth all-time in the Eastern Washington University record book on the all-time top-ten list. This time improves her previous time of 14.58. Knight also ran a personal-best of 1:04.06 in the 400-meter hurdles, placing 10th.
 
Mecklenburg explained, "Although Knight did not make it to the finals she was our top 100-meter and 400-meter hurdler today with personal records in both of those events. It is her first year focusing solely on the hurdle races so I can see her doing some big things in the next couple of years."
 
Kerr stated, "We're looking forward to tomorrow's events with Bobby Say going into to battle in an excellent triple jump and Colton Kautz and Garrett Peoples making regional caliber statements in the hammer throw."
 
"Overall, at, this point, I believe we are doing better than what we were ranked. Tomorrow is show time and we need to keep the personal record performances going. It is going to be a very exciting day," stated Mecklenburg.
 
The Big Sky Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships will conclude tomorrow (May 14) in Pocatello, Idaho, at the Davis Field. The field events will begin at 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time and the track events will begin at 1 p.m. PT. 
 
 
Additional quotes from head women's coach Marcia Mecklenburg:
 
"We had two athletes finish just out of the points today. Nicole Deherrera was ninth in the 10,000-meter running it for the first time. Kahlani Schloss also finished ninth for us in the discus throw. Given that this was the first time that both of those athletes competed in the Big Sky Conference Championships, I was pleased with both of those performances."

Additional quotes from head men's coach Stan Kerr:
 
"Logan Allen had a personal record in the 100-meter, but missed out on qualifying for finals. Allen has a bright future in the sprints." 
 
"Alex Kness raced tough in the 800-meter against a very strong field. He continues to develop and will contribute to the program in the long run."