Trip to watch EWU track at Big Sky Championships impresses me

I have been following sports for as long as I can remember, but track and field was never really on my radar before I started working in the athletics department at Eastern Washington University.

I have worked at the 1B/2B/1A State Track meet at Roos Field for the last couple years, but I started covering the Eagles track team towards the beginning of the school year for EWU. That is about as far as my track history goes, but I have actually grown to enjoy following the sport.

Last week, I was fortunate enough to travel to the University of Idaho to cover the EWU team during the Big Sky Outdoor Championships.

The 4x100 men’s relay team was definitely one of the highlights for me to watch as the Eagles took first. Not only is it a huge achievement to earn a gold medal from the conference in any event, but the team also broke the school record and it was the first time a 4x100 relay team earned a title on the men’s side for EWU.

Sophomore Dawson Lack, a Medical Lake graduate, was a part of the squad as well and made the West Plains proud.

Another humbling part about the meet was freshman Lexi Rolan, another ML grad, hurt her hamstring during her 4x100 relay race, but that didn’t stop her from competing in the 100-meter dash.

While the other seven racers finished within 11 seconds, Rolan hobbled along to the finish line in 1 minute, 8 seconds to score a point for her team. In the end, that point was monumental as it was the difference maker in EWU placing sixth overall.

That takes commitment.

Eastern Washington had a good showing at the meet with 12 All-Big Sky performances (third place or higher) and three titles overall. While I was out there in the windy cold weather, I was still proud to be there as an Eagle to watch the team. It may have finally convinced me that I truly do like watching and following the competition.

Track and field is a unique sport as there are so many events going on at a time. I used to think the sport was overwhelming and too much was going on, but that has grown to be my favorite part of watching it. You can go from watching a sprinter run 100 meters in 10 seconds to a pole vaulter clearing 13 feet with no problem.

The sport is still not over yet as the EWU team will have a handful of athletes advance to the NCAA West Regional Championships in Sacramento, Calif. on May 24-26.

On the high school side, Cheney has had an incredible season and will try to continue that during regionals this Friday in Ephrata and hopefully onto state in Tacoma on May 24-26 as well. Medical Lake obviously also produces high caliber athletes in track and they will be competing for medals at Roos Field on the same weekend.

I never thought that I would be one to admit to liking track and field, but here I am. The only downside to it all is that I still haven’t attended a track meet with good and sunny weather. I hope that will change someday.

Grace Pohl can be reached at [email protected].