A step ahead of the competition

From staff reports

The WSU women’s 400-meter relay team sprinted their way into the record books this weekend at the Jim Click Shootout in Tucson, Ariz.

 The women got off to a scorching start behind Courtney Zalud and Abby Regan who finished one-two in the 800-meter race, including a season best for Zalud of 2:09.01.  Regan carried the momentum into the 1,500-meter race she came in third place with a season best time of 4:26.50, while Ruby Roberts captured second place in a season best time as well of 4:26.22. 

 The Cougar women displayed fireworks in the 400-meter relay dash.  The squad of Shaquana Logan, Dominique Keel, Christiana Ekelem and Danielle Darden ran an extraordinary race to earn a top-five fastest time in school history at 45.06 seconds.  But Keel wasn’t done yet.  She also ran the 200-meter sprint in a personal record time of 24.07 seconds, good for third place, while receiving another third place finish in the 100-meter sprints with a time of 11.60 seconds. Bree Winfrey’s 400-meter time of 55.30 seconds and second place finish is the fastest by a Cougar woman this season. 

 Kelsey Bueno leaped her way to winning the pole vault by clearing the bar at 12 feet and 8 and ¼ inches. Just behind was the veteran Kristine Felix clearing the bar at 12 feet and 4 and ½ inches for second place.  

CharLee Linton paced herself to become the runner up in the 3,000-meter race by gaining a new personal record time of 10:20.48. 

 The women also faced stiff competition in the javelin, but managed to squeak out and second and third place finishes led by Kelsie Taylor and Celena Ward with throws of 143 feet and 8 inches and 139 feet and 5 inches.   

The women ran away with the meet, scoring a total of 158 points, finishing 16 points ahead of Arizona. 

The javelin continues to be a strong event for WSU this season as Sam Ferenchak and Kyle Stevens both had lifetime best throws in the men’s javelin.  Ferenchak, won with a heave of 222 feet and 1 inch and Stevens was good enough for second with a toss of 215 feet and 5 inches. 

The Cougar men also shone in the races. Josiah Sims and Daniel Zmuda grabbed first and second place in the 110-meter hurdles with personal record times of 14.26 seconds and 14.34 seconds

“It was a great job by the Cougs on both sides today,” WSU Head Coach Rick Sloan said in a press release. “It was a nice, warm day with some wind which helped us in some areas, but hurt us in some areas like the hurdles races where are kids were blown into the hurdles.” 

Steeplechasers Andrew Gonzales earned a first place finish in a time of 9 minutes and 14.04 seconds, while Forrest Shaffer finished closely behind in second at 9 minutes and 34.44 seconds. 

The Cougars continued the momentum in the long distance races with Andrew Kimpel winning the men’s 3,000-meter dash with a time of 8:32.10, followed by a solid performance from John Whelan, who finished second with a personal record time of 8:37.47. 

 In the men’s sprints, sophomore Andre McBride just missed two-top place finishes, by becoming runner up in both the 100-meter and 200-meter races. McBride earned personal records for both events in wind-aided times of 10.42 seconds in the 100 and 21.03w in the 200.  Rashaun Johnson teamed up with Terrance Chambers, Kyle Farmer and McBride to produce a second place finish, narrowly missing first place by less than half a second. 

Jacob Sealby also just missed first place by jumping out to a clean start and leading most of the race until the final turn in the 400-meter sprint. Sealby still ran the 400 in a lifetime best of 46.80 seconds, while joining the team of CJ Allen, Lucas Sealby and Dino Dodig in the 1,600-meter relay and capturing second place. 

 The men scored a total of 193 points, easily surpassing Arizona’s 133 points.  

 “The goal today for our distance runners was not about running fast times but about beating the people in the other colored uniforms across the line,” Sloan said. “And they did a good job of it and scored well for us.”

 “With six places scoring we kept battling through the events,” Sloan said. “In our two scoring meets this season the kids have really come up and competed well.”