NAMPA, Idaho - The University of Nevada track & field team is geared up and ready for the 2007 Western Athletic Conference Indoor Championships set to begin Friday, Feb. 23, 2007 in Nampa, Idaho. Boise State is hosting the championship meet at the Jacksons Indoor Track with the women’s events running through Saturday, Feb. 24.
The track has been host to the WAC Championships for the last five years and Nevada has become especially familiar with the facility having competed in three meets at the site over the last month. Events for the WAC Championships begin Friday, with Nevada’s first appearance coming from junior Amanda Boice (Gold Beach, Ore.) in the high jump at 3 p.m. (MT). Saturday its junior Ashley Land (Chandler, Ariz.) and senior Corinne Kuklovsky (Scottsdale, Ariz.) starting the day with the pentathlon starting at 11:30 a.m. (MT). The final event of the meet will be at 8:15 p.m. (MT) on Saturday with the 4x400-meter relay.
The Wolf Pack is poised to make an impression over the fifth-place finish it claimed last year. Nevada won back-to-back indoor titles in 2003 and 2004, but has struggled to break the top three places since. The Pack is ready to re-gain its WAC prominence in 2007 by mixing some talented youth with some strong veteran student-athletes.
The bulk of the team’s leadership will come from the field events. Senior Ashley Mathis (Las Vegas, Nev.) finished second in the triple jump back in 2005 and qualified for the NCAA West Regional in the same event during last year’s outdoor season. Mathis has been showing championship form this year, having nearly set a school record early this month with a jump of 40’4.25”.
Junior Inger Appanaitis (Brookings, Ore.) is also on schedule to score points for the Pack in the throws. Appanaitis has proven her vast versatility winning Nevada’s only gold medal at last year’s outdoor WAC Championships and qualifying for the NCAA Championships. She has been more of a force in the outdoor season, but has taken advantage of her opportunities during championship meets. She is the lead thrower on this year’s team in both the shot put and weight having posted the school’s sixth- and fifth-best marks, respectively, in the two events earlier this year.
Appanaitis has some serious responsibility to carry, having to make up for the loss of departed senior Jamie Martino who won the shot put at last year’s indoor championships. The Pack will also be missing on the track without All-American Kali Baker (Las Vegas, Nev.) who won both the mile and 800-meters and was named the meet’s outstanding performer last year.
Senior Bree-Ann Piva (Challis, Idaho) will be the Pack’s lone competing pole vaulter this year, but she should be a major contributer. Piva has twice won a WAC bronze; once at last year’s outdoor meet and at the indoors two years ago.
Nevada should be able to make up for the loss of Baker in the distance events with some very capable newcomers this year. After finishing second at the WAC Cross Country Championships this fall, Wolf Pack distance runners could become a deciding factor in Nevada’s success at the indoor meet including two freshmen who won All-WAC cross country honors in Charlotte Schnbeck and Amanda Moreno.
