Mountain West Outdoor Championships return to Central Valley

Mountain West Outdoor Championships return to Central Valley

5/12/2021 4:00:00 PM | Track & Field

By: Josh Mitchell / Assistant Director of Strategic Communications

FRESNO, Calif. – For the fourth time since 2016, Veterans Memorial Stadium will host the Mountain West Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Unlike previous years in which the meet has been contested over a four-day period, this season's championship will begin on Thursday and run through Saturday.

Fresno State enters the meet with 17 marks that rank in the Top 10 in the conference, led by a combined six from its women's hammer throwers and triple jumpers. Two of its most veteran event groups, each own three of the top eight spots in the MW.

With youth throughout the roster, Vanja Spaic is the Bulldogs' most experienced and lone conference champion currently on its roster. The sixth-year senior is a two-time champion in the javelin, winning in 2017 and 2018 before redshirting the 2019 season.

2021 Mountain West Outdoor Track & Field Championships
Host: Fresno State
Date: May 13-15
Start Times: 3:30 p.m. PT/10 a.m. PT/12 p.m. PT
Location: Clovis, Calif.
Venue: Veterans Memorial Stadium
Championship Central
Live Results | Mountain West Network
Meet Schedule (PDF) | Meet Program (PDF)
Tickets: Thursday, 5/13 (FREE - As capacity allows) | Friday & Saturday ($10 Adults | $5 Youth/Senior-- Must purchase online)

Fresno State entries - Men
Raphael Adedigba, David Barajas, Kelly Brewer, Nathan Burd, Isaiah Calvin, Matthew Founds, Stephan Gelpi, Cameron Haynes, Ahmad Kirkland, Michael McCabe, Garrett Ostrinski, Andrew Remlinger, Mohamed Saleh, Joey Turner

Fresno State entries – Women
Haley Abirached, Tijana Antic, Haley Barham, Nakyia Buckner, Hannah Chappell, Breanna Covington, Amelia DiPaola, Daylee Dunn, Hailey Fernandez, Taylor Hohenbrink, De'ja Hudson, Morgan Johnson, Victoria Nardella, Queen Okoh, Kaitlynn Perez, Ceonna Pipion, Daveion Robinson, Vanja Spaic, Brianna Sproles, Tahj'nee Thurston, Jodeci Weems, Trinity Williams

Rolling into championship week
After 23 months without a hosting a track meet, Fresno State has used its home away from home in Clovis to rack up 67 personal bests during its two home meets this past month. A total of 43 were recorded on April 24 at the Fresno State Invitational with another 24 on April 30 at the West Coast Relays.

Triple Trio
With the addition of transfer Haley Abirached to the senior triple jump duo of Breanna Covington and Tijana Antic, the Bulldogs have the deepest group triple jumpers in the Mountain West. Led by Covington's 12.86m/42-2.25, the 'Dogs rank third, sixth and eighth in the conference.
- All three rank in the top seven all-time in Fresno State history (No. 2 - Covington, No. 6 - Antic, No. 7 - Abirached).
- Fresno State's triple group sits eighth in the USTFCCCA Event Squad rankings with an average of 12.16m/39-11 among its top four.

Hammer Crew
With Joe Riccio taking over as Fresno State's throws coach in 2019, the second-year coach has quickly built depth within the Bulldogs hammer group. Led by Hannah Chappell who ranks third in the Mountain West this season (60.97m/200-1), the Bulldogs have three of the five hammer throwers in the conference following big personal bests in recent weeks by Tahj'nee Thurston and Amelia DiPaola.
- The three 'Dogs rank in the top in program history (No. 4 – Chappell,, No. 6 – DiPaola, No. 7 – Thurston).
- Fresno State's hammer group sits 12th in the USTFCCCA Event Squad rankings with an average of 57.76m/187-11 among its top four.
- Florida State transfer Nadia Maffo (2021 redshirt) won the hammer at last week's Fresno State Invitational with a mark of 60.87m/199-8, a throw that would rank fourth all-time at Fresno State.

Final go around
June 2018. NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene. That was the last time Vanja Spaic had competed for Fresno State prior March 2021. Following the championships, the javelin thrower injured her elbow during the summer which required surgery and subsequently knocked her out of the 2019 season. She has competed twice this spring, winning both competitions.
- Spaic's throw of 51.85m/170-1 at the UNLV Invitational tops the Mountain West, is 11^th in the West and 23^rd nationally.
- Since 2017, Spaic has competed at 19 meets, finishing first 12times and twice coming in second. Since the start of her sophomore year, she has only finished outside the top two at one non-NCAA meet.
- This week, she is attempting to join Air Force's Dana Pounds and New Mexico's Katie Coronado as three-time MW javelin champions, doing so in their sophomore, junior and senior seasons. No athlete has ever won more than three javelin titles in a career.

Leaping up the charts
On April 24, in front of her home crowd, Fresno native Breanna Covington moved from No. 5 to No. 2 all-time in Fresno State history during her the best series of her career in the triple jump. Though she finished with a top mark of 12.86m/42-2.25, three of the senior's jumps would have put her in the No. 2 spot.

Throwing toward the top
After nearly two years since her last hammer throw competition for Fresno State following last year's shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, Hannah Chappell made the most of that time away. Since returning to the cage, the senior has won the event in all three meets she has competed in this spring. During her second meet she launched a personal best throw of 59.82m/196-3 on her final throw to win the event at the UNLV Invitational and move to fifth on the all-time list at Fresno State.
- That throw in Las Vegas was more than 45 feet further than what she had thrown in 2019.
- Heading into this week's championships, Chappell is coming off the best throw of her career at the West Coast Relays, crossing the 60-meter mark for the first time (60.97m/200-1).

Leading the sprint groups
Senior Raphael Adedigba and freshman Ceonna Pipion look to continue moving up in the Mountain West this week as the two have been the standard for Bulldog sprinters this spring.
- Adedigba enters his final championship meet coming off back-to-back meets with PBs in both the 100 and 200 meters. The senior ranks sixth in the MW in the 100m (10.73) and 12^th in the 200m (21.71)
- Pipion clocked a pair of PBs in the 200 and 400 meters on April 24 and followed that up with another in the 200m six days later. She enters the championships seventh in the 200m (54.64) and 17^th in the 200m (24.29).

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