CHENEY, Wash.- Five Wildcats represented the Central Washington University track and field team at the EWU Candy Cane X Invitational Saturday morning in the Thorpe Fieldhouse on the campus of Eastern Washington University. Highlighting the list of performances was senior Kodiak Landis' first-place finish in the heptathlon, which included setting a new school record in the pole vault.
 
The Wildcats had five athletes from the men and women's team competing in Saturday's combined events competition. Landis, Braydon Maier and Michael Forster competed in the men's heptathlon, while Ali Anderson and HarLee Ortega competed in the women's pentathlon.
 
The men competed seven events including: the 55-meter sprint, long jump, shot put, high jump, 55-meter hurdles, pole vault and the 1,000-meter run. Landis finished first overall with a total of 5,220 points. Landis placed first in the 55-meter (6.54 seconds), long jump (22 feet, 4.5 inches), shot put (38 feet, 7.75 inches) and the pole vault (15 feet, 11 inches). His performance in the pole vault was not only a provisional qualifying mark for Nationals, but also broke the Central Washington school record in the event.
 
Finishing second overall was true freshman Braydon Maier. Maier accumulated a total of 4,859 points after winning the 55-meter hurdles (8.10 seconds) and placing second in the pole vault (14 feet, 7.25 seconds) and the 1,000 (2:52.04). Both Maier and Landis hit the provisional qualifying mark for Nationals in the event.
 
"Very talented group and very big marks for this early in the season," CWU assistant coach Brittany Aanstad said. "There are even bigger things to come. Freshman Braydon (Maier) had a phenomenal first outing. He put his name on Central track and field in just the first meet of the year."
 
Michael Forster also competed for the Wildcats, finishing fourth with a total of 4,552 points.
 
The women competed in five events including: the 55-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump, and 800 meter dash. Leading the women's team was Ali Anderson, who recorded 3,480 points and won the 800-meter with a time of 2:19.18. Finishing second overall was HarLee Ortega with 3,468 points. Ortega led the field in the high jump (5 feet, 3.25 inches) and shot put (34 feet, 11 inches). Both Anderson and Ortega's performances were provisional qualifying marks and now rank first and second on the CWU all-time list in the event.
 
The Wildcats will compete next at the WSU Open on Jan. 20 in Pullman, Wash.
 
-CWU-