PORTLAND, Ore. – With their best showing ever in the Cascade Collegiate Conference Championships in three years as members of the CCC, the Multnomah University Lions brought an end to a successful 2018 women's outdoor track and field season in which they established seven new school records.
 
--- Individual Awards: For the first time ever, individual awards were presented at the team banquet on Thursday night before the CCC Championships.  Rookie of the Year (a freshman or first-year track athlete) went to Faith Kraatz, Most Improved (from the year before or throughout the season) went to Natasha Jensen, Most Valuable Athlete went to Maile Kam, and the Leadership of Lions Award (from the coaching staff recognizing a male or female non-captain for being a leader and going above and beyond the call of duty each and every day whether at practice or at competitions) went to Sydney Amundsen.
 
--- CCC Championships Recap: In the CCC Championships May 11-12 in Hermiston, Ore., the Lions earned 8.0 points, based on a fourth-place finish by Faith Kraatz in the shot put, a seventh-place finish by Maile Kam in the javelin, and an eighth-place finish by the 4x400 meter relay team of Natasha Jensen, Sydney Amundsen, Peyton Fagerland and Kam.
 
"I thought we got off to a rough start overall on Friday," noted MU head coach Corey Mehl, "probably a combination of overnight travel for the first time this year as well as many new faces competing in their first conference championship meet.  We don't see a ton of our conference competitors throughout the season, so it can be a little intimidating at first.  However, the beauty of track and field is there are always plenty of opportunities to make an impact.
 
"Faith stepped up and had a great day in the shot put on Friday.  A school record and finishing fourth overall was a great way to get us started.  That place was our best ever for either men or women at the CCC.  Saturday brought plenty of exciting moments throughout the day.  Maile rebounded well from Friday's high jump and placed seventh in the javelin, throwing lifetime bests.  In particular, she found her stroke on her third throw in prelims, which then carried into another PR throw in the finals.
 
"The meet was capped off by our awesome 4x400 relay performances by both teams.  The women had worked incredibly hard all season to continually improve and learn how to run this relay together.  We had been struggling with handoffs, so they spent all week practicing and it paid off big time.  Furthermore, Sydney hurt her lower back at Thursday's practice at the high school, so I had to move her to anchor leg and move Tasha to lead off.  The squad didn't flinch.  They dropped a stunning 12 seconds from their previous school record and scored a point by finishing eighth.  It was special to watch and I am very proud of this group!
 
"Overall, this was a great conference championship for the Lions.  We improved in so many ways from our first conference championship in 2017: more conference qualifiers in more events and more points scored.  Our women's team, while ninth overall, was only five points behind Warner Pacific and Northwest."
 
--- Records: The following records were set by the Multnomah women during the 2018 season:
 
100 Hurdles – 20.56 by Natasha Jensen, 4-19 in CCC Multi-Events
4x400 – 4:28.50 by Natasha Jensen, Sydney Amundsen, Peyton Fagerland and Maile Kam, 5-12 in CCC Championships
High Jump – 4-11 / 1.50 (equaled record) by Maile Kam, 4-27 in Pacific Twilight
Pole Vault – 8-8.75 / 2.66 by Jessie Roberts, 3-17 in Rich Allen Classic
Discus – 83-0 / 25.30 by Faith Kraatz, 3-17 in Rich Allen Classic
Javelin – 115-1 / 35.08 by Faith Kraatz, 3-10 in Saints Open
Shot Put – 39-2.5 / 11.95 by Faith Kraatz, 5-11 in CCC Championships
 
--- Final Thoughts from Coach Mehl: "On a personal note, it was a challenging yet extremely-rewarding year for me as a first-year head coach.  I absolutely loved leading this group, and I look forward to basically bringing back the entire team next year while adding some fresh faces.  I expect the Lions will continue to climb up the standings and challenge for a top seven spot among the 10 teams that will be competing at Southern Oregon in 2019 (including Evergreen State and the newly-added University of British Columbia)."