Junior hurdler Jake Hare made it to the finals of the Mountain T’s Invitational to post an 8.11 time on the 60-meter hurdles, a personal best among seven performances that would have been D-II provisional qualifying performances on Saturday, Feb. 8. Photo credit: Kimberly Smith
Mountain T’s Invitational, held in Flagstaff, Ariz., Feb. 7-8, saw Cougar competitors improving their previous personal records.
Three runners each in the men’s and women’s 200-meter matched or improved their best times this season.
Freshman hurdler and sprinter Kanoe Yadao ran a 26.34 and freshman hurdler and sprinter Ayzha Aupiu finished with 27.46 on the clock. Putting her first time on the board this season, senior hurdler Jordan Chesley ran 26.69, the second-fastest time of her career.
In the men’s 200, sophomore sprinter Ronald Douglas clocked in with an improved 22.02. Freshman sprinter Benjamin Byer and sophomore sprinter Cory Crawford also landed their season bests with 22.70 and 22.77, respectively. Running for the first time in this event, senior hurdler and sprinter Sameer Sedam finished strong with 23.19.
There was improvement in the throwing events as well. In the shot put, junior thrower Danica Dobosy outdid her previous distance by nearly a foot with her 36-foot, 10-inch toss. Senior thrower Brad Beckwith also scored his best in the weight throw with 51 feet, 1.75 inches.
After the meet came to a close Saturday, Azusa Pacific had seven finishers who performed well enough to be NCAA Division II provisional qualifiers. Junior heptathletes Tomas Czerwinski and Justin Young finished with personal best scores of more than 4,600 points. Czerwinski scored 4,912 points while Young scored 4,629, breaking his personal top score by 300 points.
Czerwinski scored 2,164 points during the second day of the invitational by participating in the 60-meter hurdles, pole vault, 1,000 meters, long jump and high jump.
Young scored 1,978 points on the second day, besting four of his seven personal best records. The events included the 60-meter dash (7.31), 60-meter hurdles (8.60), shot put (41 feet, 5 inches) and 1,000 meters (3:05.94).
The five others who met provisional qualifications were junior thrower Amber Panapa, junior hurdler Jake Hare, senior jumper and sprinter David Schulte, senior mid-distance runner Riley McKee and Douglas, who met the qualifications Friday.
Panapa’s season best 55-foot, 5-inch throw, Hare’s personal best 8.11 finish in the finals of the 60-meter hurdles, Schulte’s 400-meter time of 49.26, McKee’s 800-meter time of 1:54.10 and Douglas’s 22.02 finish on the 200-meter dash were all provisional qualified performances.
The Cougars’ final regular-season meet of the indoor season is the Run For The Dream Invitational Monday, Feb. 17.