GREELEY, Colo. – Idaho closed out the Big Sky Outdoor Championships in style, with five athletes earning all-conference accolades on the day.
“It was pretty neat to see how many season-bests we had and to see how many kids just beat their ranks,” director of track and field Tim Cawley said following the meet. “I kept telling them, 'go beat your rank' and they responded. It was just exciting. It was pretty fun. It was a fun meet. We had some great senior leadership out here and we had a bunch of underclassmen step up and respond. We had fun out there.”
The men's squad finished fourth overall with 64 points, a dramatic improvement from last season. The women also saw a bump in its performance, taking 10th. Nine individuals earned All-Big Sky on the weekend.
“It was neat but it was a struggle in every event,” Cawley said. “The coaches in this conference are darn good and they got their kids ready. It was a good battle for every one of those kids. We had kids diving across the finish line to get into the top-three or to get second and get themselves into all-conference position.”
Kinsey Gomez took second among a competitive field in the 1500-meter run with a time of 4:31.85, earning All-Big Sky honors.
Marquita Palmer had a fantastic race in the 800-meters. Palmer set a new personal-best at 2:10.24 to finish second and earn All-Big Sky honors. She entered the race ranked seventh in the conference in the event.
Zion Stuffle also earned a second-place finish, in the 400-meter hurdles. Stuffle also set a new PR, completing the race in 52.64 seconds and earning All-Big Sky accolades.
Faith Eruwa earned third in the triple jump at 12.01 meters, her best performance of the season, to garner All-Big Sky honors.
Ben Ayesu-Attah earned All-Big Sky honors after taking third in the 400-meter dash with a time of 46.97 seconds. Kaizer Gillispie also scored in the event, taking nearly a full second off his PR and finishing sixth at 47.99 seconds. Gillispie was ranked 21st in the event heading into competition, the lowest ranked athlete to qualify.
“The assistant coaches did an unbelievable job getting these kids ready,” Cawley said. “Cathleen Cawley, Travis Floeck and Jason Fearheiley all did an incredible job getting these kids ready. From last to fourth. We were preseason ranked ninth by the coaches in the conference, so to come back and place fourth was great.
“I wasn't really watching the scores. At that end of the meet when they announced us in fourth it surprised me just like everyone else. I knew we were competing well, but I was just telling the kids to focus on the process and keep competing and it worked out. The women also moved up, performed better than last year. That's all you can ask for, we're moving in the right direction. I couldn't be more proud of this team.”
The Vandals had two score in the high jump, in Dustin Harrah and Drew Thompson. Harrah cleared 2.01 meters and took sixth, while Thompson went 1.96 meter and placed seventh.
Jonny Magee finished fifth in the triple jump with a leap of 14.34 meters. Juan Medina picked up three points for the Vandals in the discus, taking sixth with a personal-best throw of 48.82 meters.
Andrea Pikes earned three points for Idaho in the 100-meter dash, completing the event in 11.94 seconds. Matthew Pete Bauman took seventh in the hammer throw with a toss of 53.28 meters, setting a new personal-best. Meghan Palesch took seventh in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:04.07, despite being ranked 17th in the event prior to the championships.
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