Whitworth’s Tonya Turner breaks school record in 3,000-meter steeplechase

Tonya Turner shattered a school record for the second straight day and Whitworth University claimed its first two All-Americans out of the NCAA Division III Track and Field Championships in Delaware, Ohio.

Turner, a senior from Mead who had never run a distance race on a track until two years ago, finished third in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase. Running behind winner Kimberly Chinn of Baldwin-Wallace and Northwest Conference champ Kimber Mattox of Willamette, Turner clocked 10 minutes, 28.21 seconds – slashing 20 seconds off the school record she set earlier this spring.

She’ll run today in the finals of the 1,500, in which she set a Whitworth record of 4:29.13 in Thursday’s heats.

The Whitworth men got on the scoreboard when sophomore Frank Lima – the 20th and final qualifier in the field – tied for sixth in the high jump with a leap of 6 feet, 7 inches.

• Jeshua Anderson won the men’s 400 hurdles and along with teammates Anna Layman and Joe Abbott qualified for the NCAA championships in two weeks at the West preliminary meet in Eugene, Ore.

Mt. Spokane graduate Jordan Roskelley, competing for Oregon, also advanced to the national meet in Des Moines, Iowa, with a lifetime outdoor best in the women’s pole vault, 13-5 1/4.

Anderson’s time of 49.59 seconds was the fastest of the quarterfinals, from which the top 12 finishers advanced to the national meet. Two other Cougars in that event cracked the top 20 – J Hopkins in 15th (51.24) and Dana Wells in 18th (52.14) – but did not advance.

Abbott became the fourth Cougar in history to dip under 1:47 in the men’s 800 meters with a 1:46.84 clocking, fifth fastest of the quarterfinals.

Layman, the Pac-10 champion, advanced in the women’s 800 with the day’s eighth-fastest time, 2:05.86, while Idaho’s Lauren Schaffer was 17th in 2:07.38.

• Ryan Booth of Eastern Oregon advanced to the finals of the men’s 800 at the NAIA championships in Marion, Ind. The Post Falls graduate was fourth in his semifinal in 1:51.64. EOU’s Christine Eckstein, a Community Colleges of Spokane alum, advanced in the women’s 800 with a 2:12.51 time.

Rowing

The Washington State Cougars women advanced all three of their boats to today’s semifinals at the NCAA Rowing Championships at the Sacramento State Aquatic Center on Lake Natoma in Gold River, Calif.

The Cougars’ varsity 8 and varsity 4 boats advanced by posting third-place finishes during heats. The second varsity 8 boat needed a third-place showing in a repechage heat to advance.

The Washington Huskies also advanced the same three boats as the Cougs, although the varsity 8 had to go the repechage route.