Feb. 26, 2016
RESULTS LINK
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The Nevada Wolf Pack women's track & field team snagged 10 points on the second day of the Mountain West Indoor Championships, putting them in fifth place overall with 21 points.
Senior Nicole Wadden scored the team five points with a surprise finish in the long jump, coming in fourth. Junior Emily Myers finished out the afternoon with a competitive fourth place finish in the 5000 meter, scoring another five team points. Both senior Caitlin Devitt-Payne and junior Fiyin Olusola qualified for final races tomorrow.
In the long jump, Nicole Wadden, Thursday's pentathlon champion and junior Kadeisha Hield both marked for new personal records to advance to the finals. Hield's preliminary jump of 18 feet and three inches would be her longest of the day, putting her in ninth place. Wadden broke her brand new personal record in the finals with a final mark of 18 feet and 9.25 inches, good enough for seventh on the Nevada all-time list. The Canada native's sixth new personal record of the meet put her in fourth in the event, scoring Nevada five team points.
Myers, the school record holder in the 5000m, shuffled in the top three spots for most of the race. As the final laps counted down and the field began to spread, she found herself in a battle for fourth with Darby Gilfillan from Colorado State. With two laps to go, Myers kicked on the burners, pulling well ahead of Gilfillan and finishing less than two seconds out of third. The distance runner put another five points on the board for the Wolf Pack with her finish.
"The race went exactly how I thought it would," Myers said. "We started out at a slow pace, and I just sat on the girl in front. I knew the pace was going to drop eventually, but when it did we went hard. We started running really fast and it put me in a world of hurt. I'm still satisfied with my race, and I'm ready to run a great 3000 meter tomorrow."
Senior Caitlin Devitt-Payne qualified for the mile finals, finishing the race at 4:57.95. Devitt-Payne hung tight up front the entire race, maintaining a spot in the top three. As the race picked up speed headed into the final stretch, the distance runner held her own against charging athletes and wild elbows to finish second in her heat and fourth overall to make the final race, slated for Saturday at 12:10 p.m. MT.
"Caitlin positioned herself beautifully in the mile prelim, sling-shotting off the final turn to blast into second place," said assistant coach Kirk Elias, who works with the distance runners. "Her time came in a heat that was quite slow until the final 200 meters."
Fiyin Olusola showed off her dominance in the hurdles, qualifying for finals with a time of 8.63. The junior will be seeded in sixth in Saturday's finals, scheduled for 12:30 p.m. MT.
"I was most scared for the prelims," said Olusola, who is coming off an ankle injury that put her out for a month. "Now that that's passed, I know I can run faster in the final."
In the head-to-head Governor's Series battle between Nevada and UNLV this weekend, the Pack currently leads 21-5. All race times will be converted post-championships due to the high altitude of the sight. The championships will conclude on Saturday, with Nevada's first competitions at 10 a.m. MT in the shot put and the high jump. Live video and results can be found at themw.com.
