A Long Mountain to Climb

The Boise State track team has its work cut out for them.


Competing in the All-Idaho Cup in which their top competition, Idaho of the Western Athletic Conference, was not even there, the Broncos could only manage six wins in Bronco Stadium in the first day of competition.  No offense to Idaho State, College of Idaho or Northwest Nazarene but Boise State will be facing much tougher competition not only from the WAC this year, but they will soon be entering an even tougher Mountain West Conference next year.  


One event in which Coach J.W. Hardy's team showed good depth was the men's 200-meter dash, where the Broncos took first, third, fourth and fifth.  Manoah Wesson has showed the kind of improvement that the entire team will need to achieve if they are to compete in the Mountain West.  Wesson was timed in 21.69, ahead of teammates Karrie Butler (21.98), Dusty Klein (22.24) and Paul Robertson (22.32).  


The surging Bronco hurdles program continued to make strides as Rolando Trammel (52.47) and Anthony Belcher (53.81) went 1-2 in the 400-meter hurdles.  Belcher set a personal best in pushing his teammate to the finish line.  Eetu Viitala also broke a personal best with a 25-foot long jump to win that title.



Up until this year, the Bronco women have been unable to compete with Louisiana Tech in the sprints--that could change.  Boise State owned the top five spots in the 200 yesterday, led by Mackenzie Flannagan (24.95).  Cyntrail Pierce (24.96), Taryn Campos (25.01), Destiny Gammage (25.05) and Yvonne Bennett (25.61) led a sea of blue and orange on the podium.  That said, those five won't be able to waltz to a similar finish at the WAC Championships, which is why Boise State needed similar finishes yesterday in all 14 events.


Emily Funkhouser took the 400-meter hurdles title with a 1:02.81 time and Racquel Jones (18'9"), Shannon Jacobs (18-8.5) and Alexi Morton (17-11.75) took the top three places in the long jump.


Boise State did not place a runner in the top five in either 5,000-meter run, did not finish in the top three of the men's 1,500-meter or the top nine of the women's 1,500 meters.


Field events get underway this morning at 10 with the final track events beginning at 1 this afternoon in Bronco Stadium.