2011 Meet Info / Preview - Portland Track Festival
Portland Track Festival – Open Meet Friday June, 10 – Saturday June, 11
www.PortlandTrack.org/Festival
The Portland Track Festival is in its fourth year of supporting Pacific Northwest athletes as they prepare for USATF national championship meets in late June. Portland’s leading running organizations have combined efforts to recruit athletes and support the costs of putting on a national-caliber competition as local elite and sub-elite athletes secure qualifying times and get in final, tune-up races in preparation for nationals.
The meet also highlights age-group competition for masters, high school and middle-school athletes. In 2010 the masters set 3 USATF age-group records in the 3000m event while Sam Crouser, of Gresham HS, set a national high school record in the javelin of 255’-4”.
2011 will be the largest and deepest year for the PTF. We are expecting 300 athletes with competitive races from 100m – 10000m.
Meet Locations:
Lewis and Clark College
Eldon Fix Track at Girswold Stadium
http://www.lclark.edu/
0615 S.W. Palatine Hill Road Portland, Oregon 97219
The PTF’s Primary home – All track and select jumps events
Lincoln High School
http://www.pps.k12.or.us/schools/lincoln
1600 Southwest Salmon Street Portland, OR 97205-1782 Friday, June 10th
Special session of 4x1mile relay and women’s 10K
Concordia University Throws Center
http://cuatthethrowcenter.halleyhosting.com/index.html
9376 NE Sunderland Rd. Portland OR 97211
All throws events. Hosted by Olympic Gold Medalist, Mac Wilkins
Participants: Portland Track Festival – Open Meet
Participants: 300 Registered Athletes Primarily Elite athletes. Also including masters, high school and middle school participants.
Portland Track Festival – Youth Meet
Co-hosted with Bowerman Athletic Club Held May 28th at Lincoln High School Participants: 465
Spectator Information
$5 Entry fee at Lewis and Clark for Saturday events Friday events at Lincoln HS are free Street drummer, Phil Bondy, will perform before the first event at 5:00 Sawyer Olsen, a middle-schooler from Alaska, will play the National Anthem on violin. DJ Raj will perform during the running events. Concessions and meet merchandise will be available for purchase.
Event Highlights:
Women’s 5000 (Presented by Team Athena – Portland’s all-women’s running club) Desiree Davila is the headliner here. Davila, competing for Michigan’s Hansons-Brooks Distance Project, was second in the 2011 Boston Marathon, by only 2 seconds. She would have been the first American to win the event since 1985. Other top entrants are Davila’s former ASU teammate, Amy Hastings, Kim Conley of Davis, CA, and Beaverton’s Tanya Zephherjan running for Bowerman AC Men’s 5000 (Presented by Bowerman Athletics Club) Oregon Track Club of Eugene will visit the PTF 5000, again in 2011, as a tune-up for the USATF National Championships later this month. Kevin Chelimo and Ian Dobson lead 9 athletes seeded under 14:00 minutes. Also in this race are collegians Alfred Kipchumba of the Univ. of Portland and Jakub Zivec of Florida State Univ. Zivec spent a notable 2008 season running nation-leading times as a JV athlete while at a Minnesota HS as an exchange student. He was not able to compete as a varsity athlete as an exchange student according to state athletic association.
Men’s Mile (Presented by Run Portland) The PTF is aiming to bring the sub-4 mile back to Portland. It’s been a couple of years. Nike’s annual mile event has not produced a sub-4 since 2009 and the last one run in Portland was accomplished during Galen Rupp’s attempt at Lincoln HS in 2004. The men’s mile includes Jordan McNamara, seeded at 3:58 along with several other sub-4 hopefuls including Oregon freshman Boru Guyota.
Women’s 1500
The women’s 1500 will be headlined by OTC’s Lauren Fleshman, seeded at 4:11 and steeplechaser Erin Bedell, seeded at 4:16.
Masters Women’s 3000 (presented by Team Red Lizard) This race has grown from a good race in 2009 to one of the PTF’s premier events. The meet record of 9:49.48 will surely be smashed this year. Joining our top returnees are 40-year-old Grace Padilla, who has recently run 4:29 for 1500 and Sylvia Mosqueda, a former NCAA champ who is aiming to run 9:25 in the 3000 this year.
High School Highlights
California State Cross-Country and 3200 meter champ, Sarah Baxter, a freshman from Simi Valley HS will run the Women’s 5000.
Fellow Californian, Lane Werley, of MLK Jr. HS, Riverside, finished 4th at the California State meet in 8:53.21, is aiming to break 14:20 while joining the men’s 5000.
Katie Knight, of North Central HS, Spokane, the state runner-up in the 1600 and 3200 in Washington, will join the women’s 1500 where she should run around 4:25 which would be the fastest run since 1982 when the OR state high school record was established.
North Central High School, Spokane, is aiming to break the 35 year old 4xMile record of 17:06.6, set by South Eugene High School in 1976. South Eugene set the record with splits of 4:16.9, 4:19.7, 4:11.8 and 4:18.2. North Central brings a squad of 4 with 1600 PRs of 4:13, 4:15, 4:16, 4:16.
http://archive.dyestat.com/?pg=us2009-Outdoor-NON-Preview-4xMile
Marcus Dickson of Washington and Chris Brewer of Rancho Buena Vista will lead the boys’ mile with seed times of
4:12. Erik Harris of Idaho and Keith Williams, coming off of the 4xMile record attempt, will lead the challengers.
Middle School Highlights
To watch the best middle-school athletes you’ll have to watch the girls’ high school two-mile where Chloe Pigg, Christine Bayliss and Gracie Todd have all elected to run-up in order to compete at the longer distance. Pigg, of Mckinleyville, Ca, is the daughter of former elite triathlete, Mike Pigg. She recently finished second in the Oregon Twilight Meet 1600 in a thrilling photo finish won in 5:00+. Christine Bayliss, of Danville, CA, is a multiple-time USATF Junior Olympic champion in cross country and at 3000m. Todd, who will be a freshman at Sheldon HS in the fall, recently ran 18:15 for 5K on the roads. They’ll be taking on Idaho state champ Emily Nist, Arizona state champ, Kayla Freeman and Alaska state runner-up, Jaymi Bethea.
Meet Partners and Sponsors
Nike Willamette Valley Track and Field Youth Runner Magazine Bowerman Athletics Club Foottraffic Running and Walking Stores Portland Frontrunners Portland Athletics Club Roadrunner Sports Run Portland Steve Strode, Broker Team Athena Team Red Lizard
