Geoducks Break Two School Records, Establish Two More

February 11, 2007

SEATTLE, WA. - Evergreen Track and Field sent a small team to the University of Washington on Sunday to take part in the UW Indoor Open Meet. For some, this was their first indoor track race of the year. For others this was their first track competition at the collegiate level. You'd never have known it from looking at them. Five Geoducks took to the track like seasoned veterans and held their own against athletes from all over the country.

"The results were encouraging," said Jason McConnell and Miguel Pineda, the impromptu Evergreen coaches for the meet, acting in the stead of Head Coach Craig Dickson. Despite the absence of their beloved coach Evergreen athletes still performed well, breaking two existing school records and establishing two more.

Women's 3,000m

Evergreen had two entries in the women's 3k. Women's aces Kelly Beckham and Emily Uhlig both ran in the longest race of the day. Beckham received a time of 11:14.76. Uhlig came in on her heels at 11:27.88. Beckham's time surpassed the 11:15.07 mark set by Uhlig last month as the Washington State University Indoor Open.

Mens 60m

Jason Shoemaker, Evergreen's lone sprinter at the meet, took to the blocks and competed in the 60m dash, and established a school record for that event. The short sprint had almost one-hundred entries arrayed in 16 heats. The former small-school state champion lit up the track with a solid 7.91 second time. Shoemaker said of the 60m, "In such a short race a good start is very important. I didn't get as good a start as I wanted but it was still a good beginning to the season."

Men's Mile

Brian Rakestraw, the maverick freshman from Woodinville , WA , made a noteworthy effort in the true mile. The 1609m race (exactly one mile) was plagued by high temperatures in the Dempsey Indoor Arena. By the time officials opened the vents to let in some fresh air, the race was all but over. Overcoming the heat, Rakestraw still ran a record breaking race, surpassing the school standard set by Miguel Pineda on the same track one year ago. He crossed the line with a time of 4:42.9 and barely slowed down as he ran out the door to in an attempt to get back to Olympia without being late to work.

Men's 800m

Evergreen veteran Miguel Pineda returned to the track at UW and added the indoor 800m to list of school records he holds. Pineda, although he has been plagued by injuries since September, proved that he is staying strong regardless with a 2:04.6 season opening effort. Watch for "The Midnight Rider" and a few other team members, as they will be traveling to Moscow , ID to compete in the Vandal Invitational on Saturday, February 17.