Lakia Arceneaux and Chelsea Putnam.

Track & Field: One Last Chance for Improvements

THIS WEEK: Pacific Lutheran at Mt. Hood Twilight Festival, Friday, 2 p.m.

ONE LAST CHANCE: A handful of Pacific Lutheran track & field athletes have one last chance this Friday to improve their season bests and earn a trip to the Division III championship meet. That opportunity comes Friday afternoon and early evening at the Mt. Hood Twilight meet at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Ore. To date, two individual event athletes and the women's 400-meter relay team have posted provisional qualifying marks for the May 27-29 national meet in Ohio. Sophomore Ayla Mull has thrown 129-4 in the javelin, which puts her 28th on the current national list. She would have to move up anywhere from 12-14 spots to earn a trip to the national meet. Junior Conor McNeill has thrown the hammer 174-10, which puts him 34th on the list. He would have to move up between 16-20 spots to throw at national. The PLU athletes with the best shot of getting to nationals are members of the 400-meter relay team - frosh Katie Jahnsen, sophomore Chelsea Putnam, frosh Madison Sehlke and junior Lakia Arceneaux. That quartet has clocked 48.33, which ranks them 15th in the country. They are less than one-half second behind the eighth fastest team, and an improvement of three- to four-tenths of a second would go a long way toward this group earning the trip to nationals.

GOING TO GRESHAM: A total of nine PLU women and seven PLU men - plus three coaches - are entered in the Mt. Hood Twilight at Earl Klapstein Stadium. Both Ayla Mull and Conor McNeill are scheduled to compete at 2 p.m., while the women's relay goes at 3:40 p.m.

- PLU -