PORTLAND, Ore.– Sixteen season-best times. Nine top-five finishes. Two event victories. Two CCC qualifiers. One incredible weekend for the Bushnell track & field teams at the Lewis & Clark Invitational in Portland.
 
The Beacons made a shift in the schedule this week, looking to avoid predicted poor weather in Ashland at the SOU Invitational. While the team wasn't able to stay clear of the rain, hail, snow, and an hour-long lightning delay, the decision seemed to pay off as the team really began to hit their stride.
 
CCC Qualifiers
 
Things got off to a strong start on Friday during the field events portion of the competition, taking place in Newberg at George Fox University. For Dakota Underwood, it meant finally landing a CCC qualifying mark in the Discus which had eluded her thus far. She threw a 31.48m toss to qualify.
 
Also qualifying for the women was Sarah Phillips (pictured) in the 400m Hurdles. The junior ran a season-best 1:12.01 to clear the conference standard by two tenths of a second.
 
Event Wins
 
Mayah Pappas had the most impressive showing of the day, easily winning the long jump with a leap of 5.20m. Director of Track Tom Boldon said, "Mayah won the event, but had one scratch that was well beyond the NAIA "A" Standard. Her toe was ruled just an eyelash past the board, but I think today shows that she will get that mark any day now."
 
Also winning was the men's 4x400m relay team of Ashton Williams, Christopher Rosebrook (pictured), Jacob Sanders, and Jaron Carter, who finished in three minutes, 30.82 seconds for their best time of the season and a four-second victory.
 
Top-Five Finishes

• Jaron Carter took second-place in both the 100m (10.99) and 200m (22.39) and was the top collegiate finisher in each with season-best times. "Jaron really seens to be regaining his form now and also ran a solid anchor leg in the 4x400m relay," said Boldon.
• Faith Palmer took second-place in the triple jump (9.73m).
• Taylor Huffman (47.21m) and Jenae Usselman (36.57m) both earned third-place finishes in their respective Javelin events, as did Sierra Janikowski in the 400m hurdles with a season-best 1:11.58.
• Adrienne Mai finished fifth in the 100m (12.98).

 
Season Bests
 
The Beacons had a total of 16 season-best times. That included six distance runners in the 1500m: four women, and two men. Coach Boldon said, "The 1500m races went really well for us. Olivia Bailon took 15 seconds off of her time and is just starting to come into form after the transition from the basketball season. Aneykah McCall, Hannah Scott, and Kennedy Larson all had personal bests, Linus Rueegger ran his first 1500m, and Christopher Rosebrook dropped another six seconds off of his collegiate best."
 
The Beacons will take a week off from competition and will have just two more weekends before the Cascade Conference Championship. Next up for the team will be the Oregon State High Performance Meet in Corvallis on April 29-30.