Athletes competed this weekend for a chance to have tune up for championship season or get a world or US standard in Portland.
Pros and College Athletes
Friday - Portland is having the wettest spring since 1940 and the atmospheric river flowed into Lewis and Clark College Friday night. This presented a problem for the 3000 steeplechase as Courtney Frerichs of Bowerman fell in the race. Colleen Quigley ran her first 3000 steeplechase in two years and got a USA qualifying time of 9:39. Evan Jager has also been out with injuries and needed a US qualifying time in the steeple and got it by .06.
Saturday - Raevyn Rogers of Nike Union Athletics Club continues her outstanding season by finishing the 800 in 1:58.90. Brandon McBride of Nike OTC Elite won the men's 800 in 1:45.22 and Derek Holdsworth of Bell Lap Elite got a PB of 1:45.37.
Karissa Schweizer of Bowerman dominated the 1500 by over three seconds in a time of 4:00.75 and established a new meet record. Yared Nuguse of Notre Dame had a big win in the men's 1500 of 3:34.98, just under the world qualifying time.
Weini Kelati of Under Armour won the 5000 in 14:57.07 which is well below the world standard. Vanessa Fraser of Bowerman, Sarah Inglis of Puma Elite and Fiona O'Keefe of Puma Elite also ran under the world standard. Patric Tierman of Puma Elite set a meet record with a time of 13:19.14.
High School
Tyrone Gorze of Crater is used to jumping in with the pros as he did last winter at the University of Washington and Sound Running in May. Not only did Gorze race with the pros in the 10,000 on Friday, he ran the sixth fastest high school 10,000 in history with his 29:29.92 finish.
Sadie Engelhardt of Ventura ran with the pros in the 1500. Engelhardt won the California State Meet in the 1600 in May as a freshman. Her time of 4:11.79 is the sixth fastest 1500 in high school history and is the record for a California high school athlete. Kate Peters of Lake Oswego also ran in a pro heat and ran in a PB of 4:17.80. Caleb Lakeman of Tualatin ran a PB of 3:47.67 in his race with the pros and then changed to go his high school graduation. Kara Mickelson of Eisenhower (WA) ran with the pros in the 800 and ran 2:11.23
In the high school elite mile races, Kaiya Robertson of Franklin continued her outstanding season with a win a time of 4:54.54. Sunset's Beni Balazs edged Central Catholic's Wes Shipsey at the line with a 4:08.82 win in the mile. Balazs missed the Oregon State Meet due to illness and Saturday's victory had to feel good. Balazs also won the high school 2,000 meter steeplechase on Friday evening.
Photo gallery for Portland Track Festival is found HERE
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