by Tiara Pajimola
Whitworth qualified seventeen more men’s athletes for the Northwest Conference Championships after last Thursday’s second annual Twilight Meet. Among the qualified are five individuals who made their way up into the Division III national rankings.
Senior Chilbron Tomeo and sophomore Joseph Green both qualified in the pole vault clearing 15-11 1/4 and 15-5 1/2, respectively. Their performance moved them to first and second in the Northwest Conference and No. 7 and No. 14 nationally. Green also qualified for conference in the high jump clearing 5-9 3/4. Junior Jeff Krieger also qualified in the pole vault clearing 14-5 1/2 and moved up to fourth in the conference standings.
Junior Sam Wright qualified in the hammer throw with a distance of 182-8, moving him into the No. 14 position nationally. Senior Frank Lima and freshman Nate Stenson both cleared 6-8 3/4 in the high jump making them tied for first in the conference and No. 10 in the nation.
Junior Jonathan Hoff advanced in the long jump with a distance of 22-10 and now leads the conference.
Hoff was confident about Whitworth coming away with the conference title for the fourth consecutive year.
“We are hoping to score 340 points as a team,” Hoff said. “I definitely think we are capable of winning and we have a chance if we just perform our abilities.”
Forty-nine of the 54 men on the team have advanced in time for conference. Head track and field coach Toby Schwarz was excited about the large amount of last-minute qualifiers.
“We had a great meet; better than expected,” Schwarz said. “We were trying to get some athletes qualified for the Northwest Conference meet that weren’t qualified and we ended up getting almost everyone qualified, with some surprises.”
The Bucs will now prepare to make the trip to Salem Ore., where Willamette University will host the Northwest Conference Meet starting Friday April 26 at 2:00 p.m.
Multi-Event recap:
Junior Peter Delap was the only one to make the trip to Parkland, Wash. for the Northwest Conference Multi-Event Championships. Delap placed third after all 10 events in the decathlon with a score of 5,949 points. He scored six points for the Bucs’ team score in the Northwest Conference Championships this Friday and Saturday, April 26-27.
Contact Tiara Pajimola at tpajimola16@my.whitworth.edu