Portland, Ore. - Willamette Women's Track finished in third place at the 2025 Northwest Conference Track & Field Championships thanks to a series of strong performances on both days of the competition. Katherine Thornton, Mashani Coleman, Morgan Shaw, Tenley Grant, Erica Snyder, and Ella Thompson all scored points in multiple events during the competition. Thompson was named Rookie of the Meet by accumulating the most points by a first-year student.
On the track, Coleman raced to a fifth-place finish in the 100-meter sprint and fourth in the 400-meter Hurdles, and was a part of the 4 x 100m Relay team that placed second and the 4 x 400m Relay that came in sixth. Thornton was also a member of both relays and finished fifth in the 400m Hurdles and seventh in the 100m Hurdles. The other members of the relay teams were Kenzie Lee and Thompson in the 4 x 100m race and Lee and Katie Briggs in the 4 x 400m.
Shaw scored her points in the distance races, placing seventh in both the 1500-meter Run and the 3000-meter Steeplechase. Anastasiia Lemesh took fifth in the Steeple in a season-best time of 11:41.79.
In the field events, Grant earned fourth place in the Hammer Throw with a distance of 44.31m and sixth in the Shot Put at 12.18m. Henri Osborne came in just behind Grant in the Shot Put, finishing seventh with a distance of 12.08m. In other throwing events, Kaiona Apio finished sixth in the Javelin after throwing 36.80 meters.
In the jumping events, Whitley Stepp cleared 1.61m in the High Jump to finish in second place, followed by teammate Erica Snyder in sixth at 1.56m. Stepp was Willamette's top finisher in the Long Jump as well, placing fifth with Thompson right behind in sixth. Amanda McArthur placed fifth in the Triple Jump with a distance of 10.88 meters, with Thompson following right behind again, placing sixth at 10.64m.
Willamette scored a total of 78½ points in the championship, behind second-place Whitworth and 7½ points ahead of fourth-place Lewis & Clark. Select Willamette student-athletes will continue to compete over the next few weeks until the qualifying list for the National Championships is released.
