SEATTLE, Wash. — The Eastern Washington Eagles faced their toughest test yet on Friday and Saturday as they competed at the University of Washington Invitational in Seattle.
"The second road trip of the season didn't disappoint," said Director of Track and Field
Erin Tucker. "Our distance and vault crews showed up and showed out with a bunch of PRs and top-10 performances against really stout competition."
Eagle distance runners had an outstanding weekend. Jenni Bissell posted a 5:03.44 in the mile, good for 9th in program history. Faith Martinez (5:03.44) and Sara Sanders (5:04.08) both set new personal bests just outside the EWU Indoor Top 10. Ellie Linnenburger ran a 17:17.95 in the 5,000 meters, good for 5th all-time, while Lilly Fetzer improved on her career-best and sits at 9th in Eagle history. Marcus Lemon PR'ed in the mile (4:13.95) and the 3,000 meters, jumping into 5th all-time in the 3K at 8:18.94.
"The only person not surprised was Coach (Sam) Read as he's been calling this from them since cross country season. He's doing a great job with them."
The EWU pole vaulters also performed well. Savannah Schultz finished 11th at the meet with a new season-best 3.95 meters, good for 2nd in the Big Sky this season. Zach Klobutcher finished 8th on the men's side at 5.17 meters and Corbin Luce put himself 9th on the EWU Indoor list with a new PR of 4.87 meters.
"This was the level of competition we needed to see as a whole. Coach EA and the vault crew walked away with four season-bests and we know more is coming. We can all see them moving in the right direction."
Madelyn Knight, racing in the 400 meters for just the third time as a collegian, improved her career mark by six seconds to finish second in Seattle and jump to second in Eastern history at 56.30; Lisa Sorrell's 55.9 mark from 1979 was before the advent of fully automatic timing (FAT).
"There was another Madi the Magnificent sighting… the fastest 400-meter FAT in school history! How crazy was that?"
Overall, the meet marked another step in the right direction for an Eagle Track & Field team that has already posted 13 marks on the EWU all-time indoor performance list.
"We had a few hiccups, but overall we had some great performances and learned some key lessons as Week 4 comes to a close," Tucker concluded. "The count down to the Big Sky Championship is upon us… four more weeks!"
Some Eagles also competed at the Inland Northwest Invitational, hosted by Whitworth University at The Podium powered by STCU in Spokane on Saturday. Click here for those meet results. Eastern returns to The Podium for the Riverfront Invitational and Multis next week, from Feb. 1 to Feb. 3.
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ABOUT EASTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS
Eastern Washington University Athletics sponsors 14 intercollegiate sports, six for men and eight for women, both as learning opportunities for its most athletically talented students and as an enhancement to student and community life. Eastern is affiliated with Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and is a member of the Big Sky Conference, an association of 10 regional schools with comparable enrollments and academic goals.
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