ELLENSBURG, Wash. – Renick Meyer spent several weeks this past winter and early spring getting her breath back.
 
Now, the multi-talented Seattle Pacific senior is showing that she's getting her groove back, too.
 
Meyer won two of the seven events and took the overall championship in the women's heptathlon on Saturday at the CWU Wildcat Invitational track and field meet.
 
 

Through two days of competition at the CWU Recreational Sports Complex on the Central Washington University campus, Meyer piled up 4,629 points. She needed almost every last one of them, too, as Western Oregon's Jenelle Hurley was right behind her with 4,596.
 
But for Meyer, who battled and recovered from covid early in 2021, this was about more than point totals or even winning.
 
"Honestly, I wasn't worried about getting first or second or even the score," she said, "Coming into this, it was 'Let's just try some things out, get some stuff under our feet and really just get going and see what we can do.'"
 




The 100-meter hurdles and the long jump are unquestionably two of Meyer's favorite events – and that showed, as she won both of them, clocking a season-best 14.55 in the hurdles to get things started on Friday with 902 points, then going 18 feet, 3¾ inches for 723 points in the long to start off Saturday's schedule.
 
But the events which gave her the most satisfaction in this, her eighth career heptathlon for SPU, were Friday's 200-meter dash and Saturday's 800-meter run – the final events of each day. Meyer finished second in the 200 in 25.92 for 804 points, and clinched it with an aggressive, gutsy third-place run in the 800, stopping the watch in 2:30.74.
 
"The 800 felt good because I had pretty bad lung pain after I had covid a couple months back," Meyer said, "So getting back into running and trying to get my fitness back has been a journey. I was more aggressive than what I was supposed to do (in the 800) – but I felt pretty good doing it, so it ended up working out."
 
WOU's Hurley, who came into the meet-ending 800 just 20 points behind, was right on Meyer's heels the whole way, finishing fourth in 2:31.76.
 
Meyer's 4,629 total is a provisional qualifying mark for the NCAA Division II nationals, and ranks No. 17 as of Saturday evening.
 
 

"For Renick to finish a hep in just a solid way over two days, given the year that she has had, I'm happy for her," Falcons head coach Karl Lerum said. "I hope this will give her confidence in a couple weeks that she can make a few small changes and get quite a bit different point total. She hasn't had all the training that she might have wanted, but she's still tough."
 
Meyer agreed that the past two days should be a big boost in her preparation for the Great Northwest Athletic Conference multi-event championships, scheduled for May 3 and 4 at this same venue.
 
"I'll just keep practicing on all the things I can practice on and just knowing that I can do it,' she said. "When we come back here in two weeks for conference, I want to really get after it and hopefully get a good score."
 
Falcons senior Kellie May finished ninth in the hep with 3,322 points, and freshman Abby Kauffman was 11^th with 3,017. On Friday, May won the shot put portion with a throw of 34 feet, 2 1/4 inches. Kauffman took the javelin portion on Saturday at 110 feet even, thus giving the Falcons victories in four of the seven events.
 
NJERI IS FLYIN' OFF THE BOARD
David Njeri let it rip in the long jump and the triple jump on Saturday.
 
 

The graduate of Tacoma's Wilson High School who spent his freshman year (2019) at Wingate University in North Carolina, set an outdoor personal-best in the triple and had his second-best outdoor distance in the long..
 
Njeri (pronounced Jerry) won the triple with a leap of 47 feet, 1 ¾ inches. That's the No. 2 mark in the GNAC this season, trailing only the 47-3 of Western Oregon's Jalon Fields.
 
It was Njeri's first outdoor triple jump for the Falcons; he did it four times during at Wingate, with a personal-best of 45-4¼. His overall PB of 47-8 came for Seattle Pacific at the GNAC indoor meet in February 2020.
 
Prior to that performance on Saturday, Njeri went 21-10 ¼ in the long jump, taking second place. The only time he has gone farther outdoors was 22-2 ½ in March 2019 at Wingate. His overall best in the long is 22-3 ½ at the 2020 GNAC indoors.
 
AND THAT'S NOT ALL
-- Senior Grace Bley won the 100-meter dash in a season-best 12.26 seconds, with sophomore Jenna Bouyer second in 12.37 and senior Julia Stepper fourth in 12.51.
-- Bley, Bouyer, and Stepper went 2-3-4 in the 200 with times of 24.67, 25.04 and 25.22, respectively. Bouyer's mark was a season-best.
-- For the seventh straight time, senior Scout Cai won the pole vault. She cleared 12 feet, 1 ½ inches. Freshman Lizzy Daugherty set a PB of 11-1¾ for third place.
 

-- Kate Lilly was back on the track for the first time since March 7, 2020, when the ran the 800 at the Ed Boitano Invitational in Tacoma – the only meet of the season before everything was shut down due to covid. She raced in the 3000 meters on Saturday, finishing second in 10:46.64.
-- A pair of Falcons came close to breaking barriers in distance events. J.R. Hentges clocked 2:01.70 for third place in the 800. Jared Putney ran 4:02.42 for third in the 1500. They likely will get additional opportunities at those barriers – sub-2 for Hentges, sub-4 for Putney – in the remaining weeks of the season.
-- Julius Shepherd won his heat of the men's 100-meter dash in 11.40 seconds and was seventh overall.
-- Charisma Smith took her heat of the 200 meters in 26.98 and was 11^th overall.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons will be back at the University of Puget Sound's Baker Stadium in Tacoma next Saturday for the Peyton-Shotwell Invitational. A full schedule has not yet been released for that meet.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD
CWU Wildcat Invitational
Friday-Saturday, April 16-17, 2021
CWU Recreation Sports Complex / Ellensburg, Wash.
 
Team scores – Not kept.
 
SPU EVENTS ONLY
100 – 1, Grace Bley (SPU) 12.26. Other SPU – 2, Jenna Bouyer 12.37; 4, Julia Stepper 12.51; 11, Aniya Green 13.25; 13, Charisma Smith 13.36.
200 – 1, Jasmine Devers (E. Oregon) 24.24. SPU – 2, Grace Bley 24.67; 3, Jenna Bouyer 25.04; 4, Julia Stepper 25.22; 7, Aniya Green 26.34; 11, Charisma Smith 26.98.
800 – 1, Calista Van Delden (E. Oregon) 2:24.36. SPU – 2, Annika Esvelt 2:24.87.
3000 – 1, Molly Mattson (CWU) 10:39.73. SPU – 2, Kate Lilly 10:46.64.
Pole vault – 1, Scout Cai (SPU) 12-1 ½ / 3.70m. Other SPU – 3, Lizzy Daugherty 11-1 ¾ / 3.40m; 15, Emily Northey 9-2 ¼ / 2.80m.
 
 
HEPTATHLON
Final scores – 1, Renick Meyer (SPU) 4,629; 2, Jenelle Hurley (WOU) 4,596; 3, MCCall DeChenne (CWU) 4,479; 4, Hailey Holsey (CWU) 4.098; 5, Jai Kinneveauk (NNU) 4,092; 6, Makenzie Smith (WOU) 3,782; 7, Leanne Kibbee (WWU) 3,692; 8, Amity Deters (WOU) 3,589; 9, Kellie May (SPU) 3,322; 10, Ellie Earnest (NNU) 3,235; 11, Abby Kauffman (SPU) 3,017;
 
DAY 1
100 hurdles – 1, Renick Meyer (SPU) 14.55 (902 points). Other SPU – 6, Kellie May 16.46 (659); 9 Abby Kauffman 18.33 (455).
High jump – 1, Jenelle Hurley (WOU) 5-4 ¼ / 1.63m (771 points). SPU – T7, Renick Meyer and Kellie May 4-7 ¾ / 1.42m (534); Abby Kauffman no height.
Shot put – 1, Kellie May (SPU) 34-2 ¼ / 10.42m (557 points). Other SPU – 4, Renick Meyer 30-2 ¾ / 9.21m (478); 9, Abby Kauffman 27-4/ 8.33m (421).
200 – 1, McCall DeChenne (CWU) 25.52 (840 points). SPU – 2, Renick Meyer 25.92 (804); 7, Abby Kauffman 27.95 (635); 8, Kellie May 28.11 (622).
 
DAY 2
Long jump – 1. Renick Meyer 18-3 ¾ / 5.58m (723 points). Other SPU – T7, Kellie May 16-1 ¼ / 4.91m (535); 10, Abby Kauffman 15-6 ½ / 4.74m (490)..
Javelin – 1, Abby Kauffman (SPU) 110-0 / 33.53m (543 points). Other SPU – 3, Renick Meyer 103-1 / 31.42m (504); 6, Kellie May 87-8 / 26.72m (415).
800 – 1, McCall DeChenne (CWU) 2:20.76 (813 points). SPU – 3, Renick Meyer 2:30.74 (684); 9, Abby Kauffman 2:49.24 (472); Kellie May DNF.
 
 
NCAA MEN'S TRACK & FIELD
CWU Wildcat Invitational
Friday-Saturday, April 16-17, 2021
CWU Recreation Sports Complex / Ellensburg, Wash.
 
Team scores – Not kept.
 
SPU EVENTS ONLY
100 – 1, Cody Milmine (E. Oregon) 11.08. SPU – T6, Julius Shepherd 11.40.
200 – 1, Cody Milmine (E.Oregon) 21.98. SPU – 7, Julius Shepherd 22.62.
800 – 1, JP Friedrichsen (E. Oregon) 2:00.54. SPU – 3, J.R. Hentges 2:01.70.
1500 – 1, Hunter Nichols (E. Oregon) 3:58.19. SPU – 3, Jared Putney 4:02.42.
Pole vault – 1, Jacob Thompson (CWU) 14-11 / 4.55m. SPU – 4, Brad Bowman 13-11 ¼ / 4.25m; 5, Carter McGinnis 13-11 ¼ / 4.25m.
Long jump – 1, Ryan Greenwalt (WWU) 21-11 ¾ / 6.70m. SPU – 2, David Njeri 21-10 ¼ / 6.66m.
Triple jump – 1, David Njeri (SPU) 47-1 ¾ / 14.37m. No other SPU.
Shot put – 1, Ben Malquist (WWU) 52-6 ½ / 16.01m. SPU – 7, Darius Holmes 37-0 ½ / 11.29m.
Discus – 1, Aidan Cain (CWU) 158-3 / 48.24m. SPU – 7, Darius Holmes 122-8 / 37.40m.