The second week of the season saw UCC athletes competing in multiple locations. With Covid-19 restrictions, competitions are much smaller with fewer events contested at meets. In order to give the best opportunities to the team, athletes could be found in Ashland, Coos Bay, and Las Vegas.
First up was a group of athletes competing at the SOU Meet #1 in Ashland on Thursday, March 18, 2021. The following day, the track team had athletes competing in day two of the SOU meet, as well as the combined event athletes competing at SWOCC in Coos Bay. Individual athletes also competed among the combined events as a way to get athletes in more events that were not offered elsewhere. Saturday was the second day of the combined events at SWOCC. Zachary Holland also was able to compete as an unattached athlete at the UNVL Spring Invitational while adhering to the NCAA Covid-19 screening criteria.
Stand out performances at SOU included Carson Burris with a personal best of 13.51m in shot put and a second place finish, Christopher Penn with a second place finish in the 200m (22.51) and a fourth place finish in the 100m (11.45), and Samantha Eichman in the 800m. Eichman finished in third place with a time of 2:27.23. Carson's shot, Chris's 200, and Samantha's 800 all established new school records.
Competing at the SWOCC Empire Lake Multi were fellow freshmen Dustin Baze for the decathlon and Genessa Eldredge in the heptathlon. Baze finished in 3rd with 4,065 pts with Eldredge finishing in 4th with a point score of 2,684. Open event winners included Tyson Brasfield in the men's 400m, Carver Beck in the men's pole vault, Gabriela Rudd in the women's pole vault, and Kaylee Hendron in the women's shot put and discus.
Also competing on Saturday was Zachary Holland. Holland was invited to compete at the UNLV Spring Invitational. Holland opened up with a personal best of 64.65m. He followed it up with a huge throw on his second attempt which approached 75m, but crossed the foul line for a scratch. On his third attempt Zach threw another personal best of 69.71m to win the javelin competition by 3 meters. All other competitors were NCAA DI athletes.
The team will all be competing together again at the SOU meet #2 in Ashland on Thursday and Friday.
