Track and field prepares for home meet this weekend

DANIEL PARAMO, Evergreen reporter

WSU will host the 16th annual track and field Indoor Open on Friday and Saturday at the Indoor Practice Facility.

The Cougs opened the 2018 season at two different meets, the Ed Jacoby Invitational hosted by Boise State and the UW Indoor Preview held at the Dempsey Indoor Facility in Seattle. Since the meets were held on the same day, Washington State split their team to compete in both meets.

At the Ed Jacoby Invitational in Nampa, Idaho, several Cougs had standout performances, including redshirt sophomore Aoife Martin and redshirt junior Brock Eager, who won the weight throw for the women’s and men’s competitions, respectively. Eager’s 19.86-meter throw also managed to break into the top 25 in the nation.

Junior sprinter Ja’maun Charles won two different races, the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.79 seconds and the 200 meter dash with 21.72 seconds. Senior Zach Smith was the runner up in both races.

Overall, the Cougs achieved eight personal records in Nampa.

In Seattle, redshirt sophomore Natalie Ackerley won fourth place in the 800-meter race, while freshman Zach Stallings placed fifth in the same race in the men’s competition. Freshman Beau Sheeran placed eighth in the high jump.

Each day of the WSU Indoor Open will have a focus on different events, with weight throwing, triple jump and women’s pole vault taking place Friday. The remainder of field events, as well as all of the running events, will be Saturday.