T&F Athletes Shine on the Field

3/26/2024 10:34:00 AM

By: Sydney Henderson

Eugene, OR/Tacoma, WA– The Saints took on the Oregon Preview and Peyton-Shotwell Invite over the weekend. The Saints once again had some fantastic success at their meet out in Oregon and Tacoma. The Saints had new seasons bests and personal records

The women's Saints competed in many different events during the course of these meets. The first event was the 100-meter hurdles which was ran by Gabriela Cintron with a time of 15.37 and placed 12^th which is a season's best for her. In the 200-meter, Madison Vu had a time of 26.01 and placed 13^th. In the 400-meter, Madison Vu placed 7^th with a time of 58.88. In the women's 800-meter, Alisha Saucedo despite being under the weather gutted out 9th place overall in the women's 800m running a season's best time of 2:16.23, her time ranks her 22nd in NCAA DII. In the 1500-meter, Cassidy Walchak-Sloan placing 3^rd overall with a season's best time of 4:33.16, ranking her #7 in NCAA DII at the time. In the 5000-meter, Cassidy Walchak-Sloan ran a personal best with a time of 16:40, which at the time ranked her #1 in NCAA DII, she placed 6^th overall in the race and finished with a blazing 71 second last lap. Sara Sabra ran a season's best in the 5000m, which at the time ranked her 42nd in NCAA DII. In Hammer throw Jocelyn Saribay threw PR with a mark of 45.87m, 150' 6" and placed 7^th. In Long Jump, Margaret Zilla placed 14^th with a distance of 4.71m. In the Shot-Put throw Jocelyn Saribay placed 7^th with a mark of 11.06m which is a season's best. Taja Ward placed 12^th in women's Shot Put with a mark of 10.33m. In the Peyton-Shotwell Invite out in Tacoma Washington, SMU's Kya Ramirez was the first college female to place in the women's 5000m, she placed 2^nd. She pushed the pace by herself, running 18:50, finishing only 7 seconds away from her personal best. The only woman to beat Kya was an adult club runner.

The men's team also competed in multiple events during both of these meets. In the 400-meter, Zachary Franco place 15^th with a time of 50.48 this was a seasons best for him. In the 3000-meter steeple, Kainalu Pagente ran the #7 best time in NCAA DII just missing his lifetime best by 1 second, he placed 8^th with a time of 9:29.52. In the Javelin throw, Ethan Guidry placed 9^th with a distance of 57.30m which was a season's best. In the long jump, Hewson Nguyen placed 10^th with a distance of 6.30m. In the Peyton Shotwell invite, Noe Ortega and Jaydon Blackburn started the men's team off strong in the 1500m. Noe placed 4^th and was only 1 second off his personal record; and Jaydon was only 2 seconds behind, placing 8^th while running a personal record time. Matt Cooper set another personal record in the 400m and placed 4th overall. In the 800m, Francis (Timmy) Higgins had the best race of his college career! He placed 3rd in 1:58.61, which was only 0.14 seconds off his lifetime best. Eli Dale battled hard in the 5000m, placing 6^th overall and running a new personal record of 15:47.96. The team capped off the meet with an exciting men's 4x400m relay race. Matt Cooper started the team off strong with his fastest relay split of his life in 51.56, then Timmy Higgins kept the team in the race, handing off to Kainalu Pagente who seized the lead for SMU by running a new personal best 400m split in 50.15! Noe Ortega held the lead for 100m but was overtaken by the 400m NCAA DIII National Champion from UPS and the Saints finished in second place.

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