2008 Track & Field Season Review
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FITTING FINISH: After seeing her 2007 season cut short by injuries
and fatigue caused a later diagnosed iron deficiency, Kelsey Owens found
a fitting way to come back and end her Pacific track and field career in
grand fashion.
Owens posted a banner season in 2008, setting school records in the 800 meters (2:18.34), 1,500 meters (4:36.96) and the 5,000 meters (17:26.81). The three records are the most broken in one season since Brooke Barker set five records during the 2005 season. Owens set NCAA Championships provisional qualifying marks in all three events and was Pacific's lone competitor at the national meet, competing in the 1,500 meters.
At the national meet, Owens finished just short in a very close field in the preliminary heats. She finished sixth in the close second heat of the 1,500 meters with her second best time of the season at 4:38.01. While the heat saw first and sixth place separated by a half second, Owens found herself aced out of the finals field by just six-hundredths of a second.
In addition to her records, Owens finished with the conference's top time in the 1,500. She ranked second in the 5,000 meters and fourth in the 800 meters. She finished second in the 5,000 meters and fourth in the 1,500 meters at the Northwest Conference Championships.
TRIPLE
THREAT: In just his first year competing in the red and black,
Carson Bartlett put together a season that could make him one of the best
male athletes to have competed for the Boxers' track and field program
in some time.
As a freshman, Bartlett leaped his way to Northwest Conference titles in both the long jump and triple jump. His mark of 46 feet, 8 inches bested the conference meet field by nearly four feet, while his top mark of 22 feet, 5.75 inches in the long jump was a winner by almost eight inches. Both ended up being the best marks in the conference this season. Bartlett had won both events at the 2007 Oregon 5A High School State Championships.
Bartlett also placed in the high jump, finishing third with a school record-tying effort of 6 feet, 8 inches. Considered the weakest of his three jumping events, the high jump was ironically the one event in which Bartlett earned a spot at the NCAA Championships. While provisionally qualifying in all three events, his mark in the high jump was the only one good enough for the 16-competitor field. Unfortunately, Bartlett was unable to compete at nationals after sustaining a back injury at his final meet before nationals, the Willamette Last Chance Meet.
LOGGER
TURNS BOXER: After winning the NWC triple jump title for Puget
Sound in 2007, Risa Allen picked up roots and transferred to Pacific for
her junior season. In Forest Grove, Allen not only defended her title,
but saw substantial improvement in her marks from the year before.
Allen won the NWC triple jump title again by posting nearly a two-foot improvement over her winning mark from the year before, finishing with a mark of 36 feet, 4.25 inches. Before the season was over, however, Allen went on to set a new personal record and school record not once, but twice. The next week, Allen went 37 feet, 4 inches in front of the home crowd at the Pacific Twilight, her first effort over 37 feet. She added another six inches to the mark just eight days later, leaping 37 feet, 10.5 inches at the John Knight Twilight.
That mark was an improvement over a two-foot improvement over her 2007 best of 35 feet, 5 inches, which won the NWC Championships, and broke one of the oldest records remaining on the Pacific record board. The previous record of 33 feet, 8.75 inches, had been set by Rachel Taylor in 1996. The new best, however, was not enough to get Allen into the NCAA Championships. A provisional qualifier in the triple jump, Allen missed the field by just a quarter inch.
FRESHMAN
PHENOM: With her record and conference-champion efforts in the
long jump, Angie Miller should give the Boxers a double threat in the horizontal
jumps as she pairs with Allen again in 2009. Miller, a native of the small
Coast Range community of Alsea, won the NWC championship in the long jump
with a leap of 17 feet, 7.5 inches.
Miller went on to improve her mark over the next three meets and eclipse the previous school record of 17 feet, 7.75 inches set by Suzi Chaffee in 1983. Miller eclipsed the record the next week, leaping 17 feet, 9.5 inches at the Oregon Relays at Hayward Field. She also finished with marks above the previous record in her final two meets of the season, the Pacific Twilight and the Oregon Twilight.
HOME SWEET HOME: With the sound of the gun shot by President Phil Creighton to begin the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase, Pacific began its first home track and field meet in over four decades. Pacific hosted a Northwest Conference Four-Way meet on Mar. 7, hosting George Fox, Lewis & Clark and Linfield in the first meet to be held at the brand new Lincoln Park Stadium. Pacific also hosted what they hope will become a large annual meet at the end of the season on May 2. The Pacific Twilight brought nearly 350 athletes to Lincoln Park Stadium, including Division I competitors from Portland State and the University of Portland.
It is anticipated that the Boxers will host at least three meets during the 2009 season. Among those meets, Pacific will host the Northwest Conference Championships in April. Pacific last hosted the conference meet in 1998, but hosted it at Linfield's Maxwell Field because of Pacific's lack of a facility.
POWER IN NUMBERS: First year Head Coach Tim Boyce succeeded in building numbers on both the men's and women's track and field squads, putting together some of the largest squads in the recent history of the program. Pacific put 19 men in uniform in 2008, covering nearly every event. A total of 14 women donned the red and black in 2008, mostly in the distances and jumps. In addition, there is great potential with a young roster that will return a great deal of talent in 2009. Pacific's men's roster this year featured 15 underclassmen, including 11 freshmen. On the women's side, 11 were underclassmen, including nine freshmen.