MOSCOW, Idaho – The Idaho Track and Field squad will split up this weekend to travel to three different meets across the country in their final weekend of competition before the Big Sky Indoor Championships.
A handful of distance athletes are traveling to the David Hemery Valentine Invitational in Boston, Mass. The roster that will be traveling East includes Katja Pattis, Lorenz Herrmann, Zac Bright, Tim Stevens, and Shea Mattson. Herrmann and Bright will compete in the 800m while Stevens, Mattson, and Pattis will compete in the mile.
Herrmann and Bright are one and two in the Big Sky in the 800m with times of 1:48.71 and 1:49.95, respectively. Herrmann's mark also ranks No. 36 in the NCAA going into the weekend. Pattis will make her season debut in the mile this weekend. The last time she competed in the indoor mile, she finished fifth at the Big Sky Championships with a time of 4:46.71. The event will be streamed through FloTrack.
On the other side of the country, we will have 10 athletes competing at the Don Kirby Elite Invitational. The list of athletes includes Noah Culbertson, Mia Sylvester, Jurrian Hering, Hanna Tait, Jemini Archer, Simone Fedel, Olivia Martin, Camryn Crouch, Prabhasha Wickramaraachchi, and Ellie Grant.
Crouch and Martin will both compete in the 60m dash and the 200m dash. Martin ranks No. 4 in the Big Sky in the 60m with a time of 7.52 followed by Crouch at No. 6 (7.56). Crouch also ranks No. 4 in the Big Sky in the 200m with a time of 24.29 followed by Martin at No. 10 (24.88).
Tait will join the two in the 200m as well as a handful of other events. The multi-competitor will also compete in the 60m hurdles and the long jump. Tait ranks top-10 in the Big Sky in all three events – 200m: No. 9 (24.80), 60H: No. 10 (8.89), and LJ: No. 8 (5.70m).
Jemini Archer and Jurrian Hering will represent the men's sprint squad in the 60m, 200m, and 60m hurdles. Archer will compete in the dashes, where he ranks No. 4 in the 60m (6.83) and No. 3 in the 200m (21.57). Hering will focus on just the 60m hurdles where he currently holds the second-fastest time in the conference at 7.87.
Wickramaraachchi will round out the runners, competing in the 400m dash. She ranks No. 6 in the Big Sky with a time of 55.87.
In the field, Grant and Fedel will compete in the jump events while Sylvester and Culbertson compete in the throws. Both the jumpers will compete in the triple jump, but Grant will also include the high jump while Fedel will compete in the long jump. Grant ranks top-10 in the Big Sky in both the events she will compete in while Fedel ranks No. 4 in the triple jump.
The 2x Big Sky athlete of the week, Sylvester will compete in the weight throw and the shot put. Last weekend, all of her attempts broke the previous school record that she created the week prior. Culbertson also reigns supreme in the shot put, ranked No.1 in the Big Sky with a distance of 17.69m. The event will be streamed through FloTrack.
The rest of the Idaho team will stay local and travel up to The Podium in Spokane for the Whitworth Invitational. The Vandals have 33 entries that rank top-10 in the performance list for the meet.
Gage Zanette, Leah Holmgren, Joseph Ruddell, Justyn Rogers, and Tayler LyDay all enter with the top marks in their respective events. The event will be streamed through RunnerSpace.
All three meets will be held Friday through Saturday this weekend. Stream links and live result links are provided on the Track and Field schedule page.
