Simmons breaks Eastern record

BOZEMAN, Mont. — Paced by several medalists, the Eastern Washington University women finished eighth and the men ninth in the Big Sky Championships on May 10-11.

The Eagles were paced by Caitlin Simmons, Cody Teevans and Savannah Schultz.

Simmons won the long jump and triple jump.

Teevens captured silver in decathlon and Schulz bronze in pole vault.

“She did it again,” university track and field director Erin Tucker said. “The ‘jump queen’ shows up when the lights come on.”

Simmons continues to separate as the top jumper in the Big Sky, winning the long with a 6.18m mark.

For the fourth time this season, Simmons broke the triple jump record after a 12.88m mark to place second at the championships. Her previous record was 12.78m set last month in Long Beach, Calif. 

The junior now has the outdoor and indoor long jump title after winning the latter back in February. 

Teevens gave the Eagles an opening statement in the decathlon, placing second with a 6184 total score to secure the all-conference honor. 

The senior scored in the event with wins in the 100m (11.07 seconds) and the 110m hurdles (15.07 seconds). Teevens added second-place finishes in the long jump (6.53m), discus throw (30.25m) and javelin (47.12m). He placed third in the 400m (52.34 seconds) and pole vault (3.79m). 

Schultz nearly set a personal record after posting a 4.14m mark in pole vault to place third. The senior holds the third-best mark in program history, recording a 4.16m vault in the 2021 season. 

In other events, Kimberly Smith posted a 5.91m jump to place fifth in the long jump as well. 

Madelyn Knight improved her personal best in the 100m hurdle preliminaries, finishing fifth with a time of 13.76. The senior topped her previous mark by 14  seconds and improved her spot at second on the Eastern all-time performance lists. Knight also moved up on the 400m hurdles top 10 list, finishing with a time of 1:00.70 in the event prelims. She now holds the fifth-best time in program history.

Dyvhine Fonoti placed sixth in the hammer throw with a 52.36m toss. She added another sixth-place finish in the shot put with a 13.57m mark. 

In the 3000m steeplechase, Kaylin Sheley placed sixth with a time of 10:56.95 minutes. 

“Hats off to Kaylin ending her Steeplechase career at Eastern with a 5th place finish,” Tucker said. “What a way to close it out!”

Suzi Woodall placed fourth with a 3.99m mark as a freshman. 

Madelyn Knight placed fifth in the 100m hurdle finals, finishing in 13.94 seconds. She followed up with a seventh-place finish in the 400m hurdles in 1:02.40. 

Bradley Fillis placed sixth in hammer throw (58.71m) and shot put put (16.17m), while placing seventh in discus throw (50.04m).

“How about Brad sixth place in the hammer and SP this weekend and seventh in discus but a PR,” Tucker said. “He was ranked eighth or worse in all three events coming in and rose to the occasion during championship time.

Tucker also looked forward to continuing the postseason competition in two weeks, “I promise you we are a better team than we finished today and we will never finish this low again!” We head to Arkansas in a week from Monday working to advance as many folks as we can.  The season is not over yet, we are not done!!!!”

Eastern Washington shifts its focus from the conference championship to the NCAA Outdoor Championships first round, taking place in Fayetteville, Ark., on May 22 and 25.