In its only home meet of the spring season, the Whitman men's and women's track and field team celebrated a glorious day in the rain and fog Sunday with an intrasquad competition at Martin Field.
Freshman standout Mari Ruiz hurled the discus 130 feet, 10 inches in what would qualify her for a regional track meet berth, had she thrown that distance at an intercollegiate meet. Ruiz also heaved the shot put 35 feet, seven inches, just eight inches shy of another regional qualifying distance.
Lindsey Bull, another first-year competitor, had a strong showing in the triple jump and long jump competitions. Bull flew 34 feet, 11 inches in the triple jump and 17 feet, 2.5 inches in the long jump. Both distances, in a regular college meet, would have given Bull a contingency berth to regionals.
According to Whitman track coach Scott Shields, both Bracan Williams and Josh Lane were impressive in running in the 400-meter event. Williams ran the lap in 54.34 seconds, just ahead of Lane and his 55.61 time. "Both those guys ran extremely well for a wet, rainy day," Shields said.
Whitman travels to McMinnville, Oregon, this weekend for the Linfield Icebreaker, a multi-school meet. About 15 Missionaries will travel to the meet, which begins at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, March 4.
Freshman Lindsay Bull placed third in the long jump competition, breaking a 15-year-old Whitman School record, to give the Missionary track & field teams their highest individual finish in the Linfield College Icebreaker Saturday in McMinnville, Oregon.
With a best leap of 17 feet, 3 inches, Bull finished less than a footout of first place. Western Oregon University's Farrah McCubbin jumped an even 18 feet to win the event. Bernice Penn, an unaffiliated competitor, finished second with a leap of 17 feet, 9 inches.
Whitman's previous school record in the long jump was 17 feet, two inches, set in 1985 by Tina Parly.
Another Whitman freshman, Mari Ruiz, also had a good day, finishing fourth in the discus event with a toss of 129 feet, 10 inches. Ruiz, the top thrower among NWC competitors, finished just three feet out of second place. The University of Oregon's Mary Etter won the event by a wide margin, however, flipping the discus 159 feet, 5 inches.
Ruiz became the first athlete to qualify for the NWC championships in the women's discus event.
Jennie Wood, a Whitman junior, finished fifth in the 3,000-meter race with a time of 10:58.99. One of her teammates, senior Elisa Bobnes, placed 10th in 11:13.90, while a third Missionary, freshman Stacy St. John, placed 14th in 11:32.84.
Trina Resari, a Whitman sophomore, had the ninth-best time (1:19.39) in the 400-meter hurdles, and freshman Kate Stockert was 17th in the 1,500 meters in 5:51.20.
In the men's competition, Whitman junior Lars Tysver ran both the 5,000 and 10,000 meters. Tysver placed 14th in the 5,000 in a time of 16:07.48. After a short break, he bettered his placing in the 10,000, placing 12th in 34:26.95. Ryan Gold, a freshman, placed 20th in the 10,000 in 36:52.96.
In the men's 400 meters, senior Bracan Williams in 53.89 and freshman Josh Lane in 54.59 had the 17th- and 18th-best times. Another Missionary freshman, David Prins, had the 20th-best time -- 1:05.56 -- in the 400-meter hurdles.
Whitman freshman Mari Ruiz had another good day in the field events, placing second in the discus and fourth in the shot put in the highly competitive Salzman Invitational, held Saturday at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash.
Ruiz tossed the discus 128 feet, six inches, finishing about four feet behind the winner, Sesilia Thomas of the University of Washington. Ruiz beat two other UW athletes and three others from Western Washington University. Her distance Saturday didn't quite match her season-best throw of 129 feet, six inches, which she posted the week before at a Linfield College meet. Ruiz now has the two best throws in the Northwest Conference this season.
In Saturday's shot put, Ruiz placed second with a throw of 37 feet, 8.75 inches. The UW's Thomas also won the shot put with a toss of 45 feet, 11.25 inches. A second UW athlete was the runner-up with a Seattle Pacific competitor taking third.
Ruiz now has the second-best shot put put distance among NWC athletes this spring. She has qualified for the NWC championships in both the shot and discus.
Loren Sackett, another Whitman freshman, placed 11th in the discus and 17th in the shot put.
In the men's competition, Whitman junior Lars Tysver placed fifth in the 5,000 meters in a time of 15:51.52.
Whitman freshman Josh Lane placed 14th in the 400 meters in 53.30, which was the day's best time for that event among NWC runners. Lane's time moved him into the NWC's top 10 times for the event this season.
Freshmen Lindsay Bull and Mari Ruiz continued to post strong numbers in their field events Saturday at the Whitworth Invitational in Spokane.
Bull placed third in the long jump, leaping a season-best 17 feet, four inches to re-set the school record she broke last month. She continues to have the best long jump distance among Northwest Conference (NWC) competitors this season. Renee Dunn of the University of Montana won Saturday's event with a leap of 18 feet, 1.75 inches.
Bull also placed fifth Saturday in the triple jump with a leap of 34 feet, 8.5 inches. It was the fifth best distance this season by a NWC competitor. Lindsay Saboe of the University of Montana won Saturday's triple jump with a leap of 38 feet, six inches.
In her two events, Ruiz placed seventh in the discus (124 feet, two inches) and ninth in the shot put (35 feet, 8.75 inches). The events were won by athletes from Montana and Eastern Washington University. Earlier this season, Ruiz tossed the shot 129 feet, 10 inches, which continues to lead the NWC.
In the men's events Saturday, Whitman junior Lars Tysver placed eighth in the 10,000 meters in 34 minutes, 23 seconds. One of his teammates, freshman Ryan Gold, finished 14th in 36:34. Tysver now has the fourth-best time this season in the NWC.
In the men's 400 meters, Whitman's Josh Lane placed 18th in a crowded field with a season-best time of 52.91 seconds. That moved Lane into 11th place on conference "best times" list for the 400.
David Prins gave the Missionaries a 14th place showing in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles. His time was 1:05.28.
In the women's 3,000 meters, Jennie Wood placed 12th in 11:04.40 to lead a pack of four Whitman runners. Also placing were Elisa Bobnes, 18th, 11:17.10; Stacy St. John, 26th, 11:47.60; and Ariel Andrews, 30th, 12:11.90.
In the women's 400 meters, Whitman's Trina Resari placed ninth in 1:11.98.
Competing against three other Nothwest Conference schools, Whitman freshman Lindsay Bull broke two school records, one of them her own, while winning two events at a Northwest Conference Quandrangular track & field meet at Whitworth College in Spokane Saturday.
Bull won the long jump with a leap of 17 feet, 5 1/4 inches, breaking the Whitman school record for third time this season. She has the best long jump distance in the conference thus far season.
Bull picked up a second school record when she won the triple jump with a leap of 35 feet, 8 inches. That broke a school record (35, 1 5/8 inches) set in 1997 by Bala Dodoye- Alali.
Mari Ruiz, a second Whitman freshman, also had a good day in Spokane, winning the discus with a throw of 131 feet, two inches and placing fourth in the shot put. Ruiz has the best discus distance in the conference this season. She hurled the shot 35 feet, 8 1/2 inches, missing third place by one-half inch.
With continued improvement over the next month, both Bull and Ruiz have a good chance to qualify for the NCAA Div. III national championships, Whitman track coach Eli Brown predicted.
Whitman's Lars Tysver just missed winning the men's 5,000 meters Saturday. The Missionary junior finished second in 16:16.08.
Two more freshmen, Stacy St. John and Kyra Hamilton, placed fourth and sixth, respectively, in the women's 1,500 meters. Their times were 5:18.44 and 5:30.94.
Senior Elisa Bobnes made a strong showing in the 5,000 meters, finishing in 19:37.43 to place fifth.
Others placing in the top ten of their events for the Whitman men were freshman David Prins, who was ninth in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles in 1:05.05, and sophomore Ben Shardlow, who placed 10th in the 800 meters by running a personal-best time of 2:04.96.
Other conference schools in the meet were Whitworth, Linfield and Pacific Lutheran.
Freshman Mari Ruiz twirled the discus 136 feet, placing fourth Friday in the 28th Pelluer Invitational, to shatter a Whitman school record that had stood for 17 years. Colette Tompkins set the previous mark -- 133 feet, seven inches -- in 1983.
Competitors at the Pelluer Invitational, which was hosted by Eastern Washington University at Cheney, were mostly from NCAA Div. I and Div. II schools. The only athletes to hurl the discus farther than Ruiz Friday were from the University of Idaho and Eastern Washington.
In breaking Whitman's school record, Ruiz also established the best distance thrown this season by a Northwest Conference athlete. Whitman will compete in one more track & field meet on Saturday, April 29, before the conference championships take place May 5-6 at George Fox University.
In other women's events on Friday, Whitman's Jennie Wood placed seventh in the 3,000 meters in 10:50.62. Teammate Elisa Bobnes also broke 11 minutes, placing 11th in 10:58.74. The times for both runners were season-best marks.
Stacy St. John, a Missionary freshman, placed 21st in the 1,500 meters in 5:18.60.
In the men's competition, Lars Tysver ran a 16:29.86 to place 15th in the men's 5,000 meters. Ryan Gold, a freshman, placed 22nd in the same event in 17:05.28.
In the men's 400-meter intermediate hurdles, freshman David Prins finished 17th in a season-best time of 59.27 seconds.
First-year athletes Lindsay Bull and Mari Ruiz continued their assault on the Whitman record books by breaking three more school records in the field events at the Whitworth Open track & field meeting in Spokane Saturday.
Bull broke the school record in the long jump for the fourth time this season, winning the event with a leap of 17 feet, eight inches. She also won Saturday's triple jump with a leap of 36 feet, five and one-half inches. That distance re-set the school record she broke for the first time two weeks ago.
Bull will head into next week's Northwest Conference championships with the best marks in both of her jumping events.
Meanwhile on Saturday, Ruiz won the discus while shattering the school record she set the week before. Her winning toss Saturday -- 138 feet, one inch -- broke her previous mark by more than two feet.
In a meet that featured athletes from a pair of NCAA Div. I schools, Eastern Washington and Gonzaga, Ruiz also placed second in the shot put. Her distance was 39 feet, seven inches, her season-best effort by nearly four feet.
Ruiz also will go to the conference championships with this season's best marks in her two events.
Whitman track coach Eli Brown said there is a good chance that Ruiz and Bull can better their marks at the conference championships. "They keep breaking through barriers right and left, so I don't think they have peaked yet," Brown said.
In other results from Saturday, Whitman's 4x400-meter relay team qualified for the conference meet with a time of 3:35.72. Running the event were Josh Lane, Bracan Williams, Ben Shardlow and Lars Tysver.
"It was a good meet for Whitman," Brown said. "Nearly everyone who competed for us had a season-best effort."
Williams placed third in the 400 meters in 52.21 seconds, while Lane was fifth in 52.29. David Prins took eighth in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles in 1:04.79, and Tysver was 12th in the 1,500 meters in 4:23.35.
On the women's side, Kate Stockert and Loren Sackett placed sixth and seventh, respectively, in the 1,500 meters in times of 5:49.78 and 5:53.35.
As a discus thrower, Whitman freshman Mari Ruiz was in a class by herself Friday as the Northwest Conference Track & Field Championships opened at George Fox University's Colchord Field in Newberg, Oregon. Ruiz hurled the discus an eye-popping 148 feet, 10 inches, beating her nearest competitor by almost 19 feet, shattering her own school record by more than 10 feet, and setting new records for both Colchord Field and the NWC championships.
More importantly, perhaps, Ruiz easily qualified for the NCAA Div. III national championships, which are slated for late this month at North Central College in Naperville, Ill. Her distance Friday bested the national qualifying standard by four feet.
"It was an amazing day for Mari, and a tremendous throw," Whitman track coach Eli Brown said. "Mari said everything seemed to click on that one throw, and that the discus just seemed to sail out there. It was beautiful to watch. It was kind of emotional for all of us, to see her qualify for nationals."
According to the most recent information available from the NCAA, Ruiz now has the fifth-best discus mark in Division III this year. Erin Coffey, a sophomore at Loras College (Dubuque, Iowa), has this season's best discus throw at 153 feet, two inches.
Ruiz's record-breaking discus throw overshadowed the fact that a second Whitman freshman, Lindsay Bull, also won an individual event title on Friday while breaking her own school record in the long jump. Bull leaped 17 feet, 10 and one-quarter inches to beat her nearest competitor by more than a foot. She broke her school record by more than two inches, but she fell short of the provisional national qualifying standard by almost three inches.
"Lindsay scratched by about an inch on her best jump, which was a good distance past 18 feet," Brown said. "Had she not scratched on that jump, that might have qualified her for nationals."
The individual track titles won by Ruiz and Bull on Friday are Whitman's first since 1996, when Jessica Bissonnette won the 5,000 meters and Dorothy Metcalf captured the 10,000 meters.
Both Ruiz and Bull return to action Saturday as the NWC championships conclude with a second and final day of competition. Ruiz enters the shot put event with the top NWC throw thus far this season, while Bull has the second best mark in the triple jump event.
Whitman's only other competitor Friday in the women's events was junior Jennie Wood, who placed fifth in the 3,000 meters in a season-best time of 10:47.76.
In the men's competition Friday, Whitman junior Lars Tysver placed ninth in the 10,000 meters in a season-best time of 35:10.7. Missionary freshman Ryan Gold placed 12th in the same event in 35:46.8, which was also a season-best effort for him.
Whitman freshman Mari Ruiz won her second individual event title in two days as the Northwest Conference Track & Field Championships came to a close Saturday at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon.
Ruiz won Saturday's shot put with a season-best effort of 40 feet, two inches. That left her about two feet short of a 17-year-old school record, and she missed qualifying for the NCAA Div. III national championships by about three feet.
Lindsay Bull, a Whitman freshman who won Friday's long jump, placed fourth in the triple jump Saturday with a leap of 35 feet, six and one-half inches. That was about 11 inches less than her school record in the event.
Whitman's only other competitors Saturday were in the men's 4x400-meter relay team. The quartet of Lars Tysver, Bracan Williams, Josh Lane and Ben Shardlow placed eighth in a time of 3:36.7.
There can be a fine line between winning or losing. Or, in this case, between winning and placing fifth.
Whitman freshman Mari Ruiz tossed the discus 144 feet, 11 inches Thursday to place fifth and earn All-American honors at the NCAA Div. III Track & Field Championships at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois.
On her last throw, however, she hurled the discus 156 feet -- a distance that might have won the event had not her momentum caused her to scratch on that particular throw.
One of eight competitors to advance to the finals, Ruiz was in fifth place at that point. "The strategy for her last three throws was to speed it up and put a little more into it," Whitman track coach Eli Brown said. After Ruiz failed to improve her distance on her first two efforts in the finals, Brown offered one last bit of advice: "I told her she had nothing to lose, and to give it everthing she had."
"With her final throw, Mary was a lot faster and stronger than I've seen her all season, and the discus landed at 156 feet," Brown added. "Unfortunately, the momentum of her spin carried her out of the ring and caused her to scratch."
The very next competitor, Claire DeChant, a junior from Baldwin-Wallace College (Berea, Ohio), uncorked a throw of 156 feet, nine inches to win the event. It was the best distance posted this season in Division III.
"At the moment, Mary is still trying to figure out how she feels," Brown said Thursday afternoon by telephone. "Of course she's very happy to be here and to place as high as fifth. But being that close to winning is not easy either."
Tabitha Fendrick, a sophomore from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, placed second Thursday with a throw of 152 feet, two inches. Emily Sowers, a junior from Hope College (Holland, Mich.), was third at 147-11, while Jessica Kohlman, a sophomore from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, was fourth at 147-9.
For Ruiz, her best throw Thursday was her second-best effort of the season, taking a back seat only to the Whitman school record (148-10) she set earlier this month in winning the Northwest Conference championship. Ruiz also won the NWC title in the shot put, falling just short of the national qualifying standard in that event.
"It's been a great year for Mary," Brown said. "Maybe next year she'll make nationals in the shot put as well as the discus."
Ruiz definitely has the work ethic to return to nationals in one or more events, according to Tom Olson, a Whitman assistant coach in track & field. "It's exciting to have someone with Mary's ability and coachability in the program. She is very dedicated to working hard and improving. Maybe we'll see a national champion before Mary's time is up at Whitman."