PULLMAN, Wash. – It was another successful day for the Vandals as Idaho took home three more individual wins on Saturday to close out the WSU Open.
"I thought it went pretty well. I thought that across the board we competed really well," said head coach
Tim Cawley. "I think we're further ahead than we were last year at this time, which is exciting. We had four wins over the two days, that's great to see. They're working hard, they've been working hard through these first few weeks and I think some of those results are starting to show. I think we're in a good place right now."
Ben Doucette had a fantastic day, competing in a pair of events for the first time as a collegiate athlete. Doucette won the 200-meters with a time of 23.24, but more impressive was his second place finish in the 60-meter hurdles. He qualified with an impressive time of 8.30 seconds and got even better in the finals, completing the race in 8.04 seconds. Heading into the weekend, the best time in the conference so far this season had been 8.24 seconds.
""As a freshman coming out and running 8.04, opening up that way, that was pretty exciting to see," said Cawley.
Rechelle Meade also had a tremendous day. She won the high jump at 1.70 meters, competing in the event for the first time as a collegiate athlete. She also took fourth in the 60-meters at 7.80 seconds.
Arphaxad Carroll rounded out the winners on Saturday, dominating the long jump with a meet-record performance of 7.47 meters. The mark is also an indoor personal best for Carroll.
A number of other Vandals had top-five performances on Saturday.
Silke Berendse took third in the 200-meters with a time of 26.75 seconds, while
Mack Baxter placed 3
rd in the 400-meters at 51.30 seconds.
Wednesday Walton finished fourth in the 400-meters at 1:00.58, while
Kaleala Bass took fourth in the 800-meters with a personal-best performance of 2:19.84.
Ian Middleton placed fourth on the men's side of the 800-meters at 1:59.12.
Kolcie Bates finished fifth in the shot put with a throw of 11.55 meters. Bates also won the weight throw on Friday.
"I think the team support was good, especially here being close to home," Cawley said. "You can just see people growing, the progression is going really well. We talk a lot about the process and we can see these kids working through that, not getting too up or too down and not get too excited and just working their way through. I thought overall the team did really well, a really good job."
Next up is a trip to Seattle for the UW Invitational next weekend. Check back with GoVandals.com next week for more information.
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