MARYVILLE, Mo. - Fresh off his record-breaking cross country season, Southwestern sophomore Chase Oates continued his hot streak by breaking two school records Saturday at the Mel Tjeerdsma Classic hosted by Northwest Missouri State.
Oates and the Spartan hurdle squad led the way for Southwestern in a strong season opener.
Oates started his day by shaving 12 seconds off his own school record in the mile. He finished third overall with his time of 4:20.44, besting his previous PR of 4:32.29 set on this same track back in January. Oates' season debut is just 2.22 seconds shy of the NJCAA national qualifying mark of 4:18.22. He doubled back later in the day to finally take down Shane Breheny's 2019 school record in the 3,000 meters. Oates ran a 37-second PR of 8:59.90 in the event to beat Breheny's mark of 9:05.74.
"We couldn't have asked for a much better start to the indoor season for Chase," said Scott Vicker, Southwestern director of cross country/track & field. "We had hoped to get at least one national qualifying mark out of those two events Saturday, but even coming up short in both, you can never complain about PRs of 12 and 37 seconds. It just shows the fitness level Chase has right now to go out and run those times on Dec. 2, before really doing any mile-specific training. He's setting the standard, not only for his current teammates, but also for all future Spartans, and is quickly establishing himself as the best distance runner in program history."
After the opening weekend of the indoor track & field season, Oates currently ranks first nationally in the NJCAA in both the mile and 3,000 meters.
Another highlight of the day was Southwestern's hurdle squad. The Spartans placed three hurdlers into the finals of the event, led by Rouce Sayee's 8.84 preliminary time, which ranks No. 2 in program history. Ross Stephens ran 8.94 in the prelims to rank No. 5 in program history, while Peyton Embree claimed the final qualifying spot to finals with his time of 9.11, good for No. 7 in program history. Sam Foreman just missed out on finals with his time of 9.30 seconds, ranking 11th in program history.
In finals, Stephens finished fifth and Embree seventh. Sayee did not finish the race after hitting a hurdle hard and falling.
"We saw firsthand the volatility of a college hurdles race Saturday, but this was an encouraging start for our group," Vicker said. "For it being the first time for all four of these guys to race over the 42-inch high hurdles, I was thrilled with how it went. Sam had a tough go in the prelims, with his heat having two false starts, and then he cut his hand open on the first hurdle and clipped the second hurdle. So it was just a strange race for him. But the other guys all ran outstanding prelimary races. We have some things to clean up with our form, but we'll get that fixed and continue dropping time. Both Rouce and Ross ran faster for the 60 meter hurdles over 42-inch hurdles than they did in high school over 39-inch hurdles, and Peyton had never run an indoor 60 meter hurdle race before. I'm really happy with all three of them."
Sophomore Cyrus Hancock had a great start to his season, missing a PR in the 60 meter dash by just .01 seconds and then running a PR in the 200 meter dash by nearly a half second. His 200 meter time of 23.06 seconds ranks 11th in program history. Sophomore Jonathon Hackett posted a new PR in the shot put of 10.65 meters, and also ran a new indoor 400-meter best of 52.56 seconds.
"For a lot of these guys, I came away very impressed with their performances knowing it's only Dec. 2," Vicker said. "They should be very encouraged by this start. There's still a long way to go this season, and we have a lot we still need to improve upon, but this showed a lot of our guys what is possible this season."
The Spartan women's throws squad got a strong start to its season, as well.
Sophomore Malori Leonard posted a new PR in the shot put of 8.88 meters, and wasn't far off of her PR in the weight throw from the end of last indoor season. Abbi Richter and Kasey Spring both had solid debuts in the weight throw event, with Richter throwing 9.90 meters and Springer throwing 9.36 meters.
"The big thing for the ladies was just getting into a competition setting," Vicker said. "They've been working hard all fall, but it's a lot different throwing in a meet compared to throwing in practice. This shows us what we need to continue to work on in practice. I think they will continue to make improvements throughout the season."
Southwestern is now off from competition until the Battle in the Hive on Jan. 13 at Saint Ambrose University.
