And You Thought Our Last Meet Was Big...

We are still living off the glow of what was a terrific Northwest Conference Track & Field Championships. Pacific put on a great meet and great show and we have received a lot of great compliments about how everything came together.

After the meet, I commented to a couple of people about how once the NWC Championships were done, I could start winding down and taking a few deep breaths.

I shouldn't have spoken so soon because, as Head Track & Field Coach Tim Boyce said, "clearly this has grown way beyond the intended fun final meet for Pacific athletes."

Saturday's Pacific Twilight meet has grown into one very large meet. A total of 23 teams will be represented at the meet, representing every level of collegiate athletics. We will have Division I schools (Portland State & Portland), Division II schools (Alaska-Anchorage, Central Washington, Northwest Nazarene, Seattle Pacific & Western Washington), Division III schools (Pacific, George Fox, Linfield & Puget Sound), the NAIA (Corban, Concordia, Northwest, Cascade, Warner Pacific) and a slew of community colleges and club teams.

The meet grew big time on Friday when we accepted the five Division II teams in the field who were affected by the cancellation of the GNAC Championships due to Western Oregon's Swine Flu scare.

What does that mean? Whoever comes to watch the meet will be in for an exciting afternoon and evening of high caliber action. Here are some of the athletes to watch...

• Jernise Saunders (Portland State) - Stadium record holder in the 100 and 200 meters. Has season best times of 11.88 in the 100 and 24.14 in the 200.
• Ellie Siler (Western Washington) - Season best of 56.18 seconds in the 400 meters. The top-nine competitors in the 400 have times under a minute, which will make for some fast performances.
• Irene Johnson (George Fox) - She won the 100-meter hurdles at last week's NWC Championships and will run the same event on Saturday.
• DeShawn Shead & Peter Jason Tait (Portland State) - Times of 14.57 anf 14.63 seconds, respectively, in the 110-meter hurdles.
• David Kiplagat (Alaska-Anchorage) - One of the top small college distance runners in the nation, he brings a season best og 9:01.76 to the steeplechase.
• Angie Miller (Pacific) - The Pacific record holder in the long jump will look to add to her Division III provisional qualifying mark.
• Lauren Sexton (Concordia) - One of the nation's best collegiate javelin throws. She was amongst the field at last summer's Olympic Trials.

The complete performance list can be found here (beware...very lengthy).

We hope to see you here on Saturday!