By JOE COLUCCIO, staff reporter
The Wildcats made the 175 mile trek to Spokane Falls Community College to participate in the WAR VI Team Duel this past weekend.
Central had a strong showing in their last meet and were hoping to ride that momentum into Spokane, but did not fare as well as expected.
“The thing about [WAR VI] is it is high-end competition,” head track and field coach Kevin Adkisson said. “We go in to that meet with a lot of Division I schools. But when you look at marks, quite a few people had better marks than the previous weeks.”
The event included multiple Division I schools, including Washington, Idaho, Gonzaga, Montana and Washington State, as well as conference foes Northwest Nazarene and Eastern Oregon.
Weather did prove to be an issue, as cold temperatures, gusty winds, and rain swept the competition.
“We took a pretty good hit with weather last weekend,” Adkission said. “It was cold and windy for the most part. It was just one of those things where people stepped up and did not care. They just did their thing, which is great to see at this time of year.”
Central Washington’s men and women both finished in the middle of the pack, with Whitworth’s men and Idaho’s women taking the top spot in their respective categories.
One of the big highlights from this weekend’s meet was the first place finish in the heptathlon by sophomore Tayler Fettig, who tallied 3999 points in the event.
“If [Fettig] improves her score from the conference meet last year, we will make it to the conference meet in a couple weeks,” Adkisson said. “She will be trying to qualify for nationals, so it will be really nice to see if she could get close to a mark that would take her [to nationals] in the heptathlon, since it looks like she will make it in high jump already.”
Up next for the Wildcats is a home meet at the Spike Arlt Invitational, held at Tomlinson Stadium April 19 and 20. The whole team is excited, but for seniors like sprinter Bryan Mack, this last home meet is a chance to leave a legacy behind.
“Personally, my goal going into this last meet here is to break the meet record in the long jump and triple jump,” Mack said. “I would also like to run a great relay. Two years ago when we had our shot at nationals, this is the meet where we got nationally ranked. I’m hoping this year we can get something close to that.”
Adkisson said he has been telling his team since spring break to get the word out about the meet to create the sense of a home field advantage. Both Mack and Adkisson agree the people in the stands can be beneficial for the team.
“The environment is always a fun one for us,” Mack said. “It’s always nice to know that there are people you know watching you compete, it adds to the adrenaline rush of competition. It also gives us more motivation because we do not want to let down the home crowd since we’re only here once a year.”
