The final regular season event for the Linfield track and field team finished with great success April 14 at the Pacific University Luau at Lincoln Park Stadium.

Approximately 14 Wildcats posted season-best times on the day, which bodes well for the upcoming NWC Conference Championships on April 20 and 21.

The event that exemplified the excellence of the track team on April 14 was the 800-meter run. Junior Nelly Evans smoked the competition on the women’s side with the eighth-fastest time in Linfield history (2:18.88).

On the men’s side, junior Lester Maxwell won the event with a season-best time of 1:56.35, and his two teammates finished off a 1-2-3 Linfield finish. Junior Lucian Battaglia nabbed second with a time of 1:56.84 and senior Eric Weinbender grabbed third place with a time of 1:57.26.

Junior Melany Crocker swept the women’s 100 and 200-meter races, posting a time of 12.61 in the 100 and 25.96 in the 200. The men’s 400-meter dash was won by freshman Colin Nelson with a time of 50.53.

Two more Linfield women claimed multiple events on April 14. Senior Misty Corwin ended the day victorious in the pole vault, clearing a season-best 3.5-meter bar.

Sophomore Anna LaBeaume won the shot put with a throw of 13.09 meters, and she also won the discus with a toss of 36.26 meters. To top off her victories, she merely finished third in the hammer throw with a heave of 41.93 meters.

Distance runners excelled during the meet. Junior Shanna Peaden won the women’s 5,000-meter by nearly a full minute with a blistering time of 18:45.11.

In the men’s 5,000-meter, senior Arian Anderson and freshman Calvin Howell finished first and second. Anderson won the race with a time of 15:53.48, and Howell set a personal record with a time of 16:17.20.

The women’s 1,500-meter saw freshman Audrey Lichten grab hold of third place by running a season-best 4:52.71.

The men’s side saw a third place finish as well from senior Alex Van Slyke, who ran a fantastic 4:06.98. Sophomore Brandon Lemerande finished second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 11:00.11.

Field events on the men’s side had a winner in the javelin.

Senior Sean Boedeker tossed a season-best at 53.61 meters.

Boedeker’s teammate, junior Josh Melander, took second with a league-qualifying toss of 50.44 meters.

Juniors Drew Wert, Caleb Stringer and Kyle Pfeifer all finished in the top three in their events: shotput, discus and hammer toss.

Sophomore Bryan Takano and freshman Garrett Soumokil tied for third in the long jump with career-best efforts. Their distance of 6.12 meters was good enough to qualify for the league championships.

As the athletes prepare for the NWC Championships, Evans believes that the team is “full of morale.”

“We have top performers in most events, and I feel like we have a good shot of being top contenders,” Evans said.

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Tyler Bradley/For the Review
Tyler Bradley can be  reached at  [email protected].