BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Ashleigh Fraser stole the spotlight at the Western Washington Quad Meet, breaking the school record once again the long jump, while her teammates Deanna Avalos and Liz Larson improved their chances for qualifying for the NCAA Championships.
 
COMPLETE RESULTS
 
"I always enjoy coming up to Western as they put on a quality meet," said head coach Jim Brewer. "This really helped many of our athletes set either season or lifetime PR's which ultimately is what we are going for. Again I can't thank my coaches enough for the great job that they are doing. Liz (Larson) had an eight foot pr which may be enough to give her spot in nationals… Deanna Avalos improved her season best by a couple feet as well. I am very pleased with how things played out today."
 
Starting off in the women's track side of events, Artresa Nickelson and Alycia Frazier each earned points in the 100-meter dash with times of 13.05 and 13.65 seconds respectively. Nickelson also earned two points in the 200-meter with her time of 26.82 seconds. Taylor Tandecki finished fifth overall in the 400-meter dash after a time of 1:00.00 minute even. Ariya Kendrick finished third overall in the 100-meter hurdle with a mark of 15.12 seconds. Ashley Vest placed third in the 400-meter hurdles at 1:16.15 minutes while her teammate, Sadie Dalgleish was fourth in the 3000-meter steeplechase at 12:34.27 minutes.
 
In the women's field events, Vest placed sixth in the high jump with her height of 1.56-meters. Fraser shined in the long jump, breaking her own school record, hitting 5.40-meters and taking fourth overall in the meet. Liz Larson improved her standings on the national leaderboards, moving up to 10th overall after winning the hammer throw with a mark of 55.69-meters. Larson blew the competition out of the water, winning the event by over 12 meters. Also moving her way up the national leaderboard was Deanna Avalos in the javelin, placing third overall with a mark of 47.98-meters in the seeding flight. Sarah Howsden also performed well in the event, taking home sixth at 36.24-meters.
 
Winning his first ever collegiate event was Logan Armstrong in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.36 seconds. Armstrong edged out the competition by 0.02 of a second. Andrew Kier took seventh in the 100-meter as well with a time of 11.63-meters. Kier placed third in the 200-meter with time of 23.12 seconds, with Armstrong finishing fifth in the event. Jackson Hand took third place in the 400-meter with his time of 50.22 seconds. Miguel De LaMelena and Derrick Howlett both placed top-five in the steeplechase, earning 11 points for SMU. In the relay events, the Saints took second and third overall in the 100 and 400 relay respectively.
 
Cyrus Marshall took home third overall in the pole vault with a height of 4.02-meters. In the long jump, Josh Schulz and Guillaume Tabary finished fourth and fifth with marks of 6.63 and 6.58-meters. Schulz also managed a third place finish in the triple jump after hitting 12.37-meters, while teammate Grant Gardner earned fifth in the event. Kauanoe Vanderpoel outlasted the competition in the hammer throw, winning the event with his mark of 55.14-meters.
 
Overall, the Saints finished fourth on the men's side with 61 points while the women were third at 111 points. Host school Western Washington won both sides of the meet.
 
The Saints host the Jay Hammer on SMU's campus, next Saturday, April 14. All meet information can be found on smusaints.com under the track and field page.