NAMPA, Idaho -- The Eastern Oregon University track and field team had a great start to its 2010 campaign Saturday at the BSU Bronco Invitational.
Competing mainly against NCAA Div 1. competition at the Invitational at the Idaho Center), EOU put up some strong marks for the first meet of the Indoor season.
In the first running event of the day, Ryan Booth started the day off right by hitting an NAIA auto-qualifying mark to win the 1,000 meter run with a time of 2:31.79. Booth was followed by teammate Jeff Roy who hit a provisional mark. Booth's time also ranks fifth on the EOU all-time list for the 1K.
Booth came back later in the meet to win the 600 meter race and narrowly miss the NAIA auto mark in that event as well. But, his time time of 1:21.00, set another EOU school record. Joining Booth on the EOU top 5 list for the 600 were Carlos Quintana and Roy. Quintana’s time, 1:24.18, was also a provisional qualifying mark.
Chris Dilley started the season off well, finishing second overall in the 35-pound weight throw, and his throw of 18.25 meters easily qualified for the national meet. Andy Munsey just missed the provisional mark in that weight as well.
Competing in his first collegiate meet, freshman Larry Warren finished fourth in the long jump with the second best jump in indoor school history, 6.70 meters.
For the women, Garcilazo won the 600 meter run with an auto mark of 1:37.98 which broke the school record. In second place was Talissa Baldovino who narrowly missed the provisional mark by 0.01 of a second. All four of the women in the race ran the 600 for the first time. Baldovino's 1:40.11 mark is the third fastest in school history.
Anchoring the meet for Eastern was the women’s quartet of Melisa Abesa, Grace Deboodt, Orie Gamez and Kimmy Moore in the 4x400 relay. They teamed up to easily qualify for the national meet by almost three seconds, and smash the indoor school record by over seven seconds with a time of 4:00.25.
"All in all, of the 11 women and 10 men who competed this weekend, there were a number of very solid, promising marks," EOU Track and Field head coach Ben Welch said.
The next meet for the Mountaineers will be Feb. 12-13 at the BSU team scored meet in Nampa.