SACRAMENTO, Calif. — There truly is no place like home for the Sacramento State track & field teams when it comes to the Big Sky Outdoor Championships. When the team last hosted in 2011, the Hornets captured the men's and women's team titles completing a sweep of the indoor and outdoor crowns during the year. Now back at Hornet Stadium in 2017, Sacramento State got off to a strong start with victories from seniors Elizabeth Venzon in the heptathlon and Max Jette in the decathlon.
Venzon used career bests in all three events on Thursday to win the heptathlon and and lead a dominant performance by the Sacramento State women. She scored 5,322 points which ranks second in school history and is the highest total by a Hornet since Natalie Day totaled 5,422 in 1985. Along with the 10 points from Venzon, Sacramento State had Kassandra Corrigan place second and Julia Grimm finish sixth to give the team 21 points in the event. Montana had the second highest total at seven.
Venzon entered the final day in fifth place but began moving up the list with a long jump of 18-10.00. Her biggest move came in the javelin where she threw 135-09. That distance was easily the best in the field and surpassed her previous career best of 120-09 by 15 feet. That mark took her to the top of the standings and she held that lead by running 2:20.45 in the 800. Venzon not only secured the title with that time, she also set a PR by 10 seconds in the race.
"The second half of this multi was such a blessing," Venzon said. "I've been working at this for the last nine years and I could not have wished for a better season and the coaches are the reason why I've done so well.
"(In the javelin), it was one funny technical thing that I hadn't thought of all year. My coach mentioned it and it worked. I honestly never thought I'd be able to throw over 40 meters and to have that happen in my last meet is amazing."
Corrigan moved into fourth in school history with 5,163 points in the heptathlon. The senior earned all-Big Sky honors for the second time in her career in the event. She opened with a long jump of 17-10.75 before throwing the javelin 95-09. Corrigan placed second in the 800 by running 2:16.69.
Grimm also set a personal best in the heptathlon with a total of 4,937 to move her into seventh place in the Hornet record book. Grimm long jumped 17-00.00 to start her day. She ranked second in the javelin behind Venzon with a best of 135-00 and ended the day by running a career-best 2:35.29 in the 800.
Jette also made a late charge to win the decathlon. The senior, who did not compete in a decathlon during the season, did not hold a lead until after the final event. He worked his way up from seventh place at the start of the day and was second entering the 1500. Montana's Brendan Thurber-Blaser held the overall lead by nearly 150 points but suffered an injury to his right leg on the second lap of the race knocking him out of contention and leaving the door open for Jette.
"I never really thought I had a chance to win," Jette said. "I knew day two was going to be tough and it always seems to come down the last event but there were a lot of good competitors out there and I knew I would have to run a good 1500 to give myself a shot.
"I heard my coach screaming at me 'you got a chance' (when Thurber-Blaser went down) but I didn't know what that meant. I didn't know if he was right behind me or what was happening because you get tunnel vision when you're out there."
Jette started strong on Thursday by running 15.17 in the 110-hurdles for 829 points. He then had a discus throw of 113-8 and matched Thurber-Blaser for the best pole vault at 14-06.26 to set his season best. A javelin throw of 164-06 kept him in second heading into the final event. Jette's total of 6,960 was a career best and is the fourth highest in school history.
Fellow senior Alec Acevedo led the decathlon after the first day and early in the second day. Acevedo finished with 6,734 points to place fourth and score five points towards the team total. Acevedo ran the 110-hurdles in 16.33, threw the discus 127-01 and cleared 13-02.50 in the pole vault. He had a javelin throw of 112-09 before running 4:52.67 in the 1500.
The team also received a point from Andrew Stich who placed eighth with a career best 6,379 which places him 10th in the Hornet record book. Stich entered the final day in 15th place but ran 15.63 in the 110-hurdles for 775 points, threw 174-07 in the javelin for 636 points and and ran 4:34.17 in the 1500 for 717 points. He finished one point ahead of ninth place to earn the team point.
Sacramento State won the Big Sky heptathlon and decathlon in the same year for the first time in school history and it marked just the third time since 2000 that the same school won both events at the conference meet (Idaho State, 2003 & 2009). Sam Schur was the only Hornet win the decathlon as he did it in 2011. Current assistant coach Baiba Celma had been the school's lone winner in the heptathlon with her victory in 2012.
"We have a really strong multi program here and I have to hand it to Coach (Eric) Fremd," Jette said. "He set the training up so well this year. We had hard practices because we wanted to get after it. You never have a perfect dec but that's as close as you can hope for."
"It's an amazing start for us as team," Venzon added. "We had some people upscore and we're excited for the rest of the meet and make as many points as we can."
Big Sky Outdoor Track & Field Championships
Women's Team Standings
1. Sacramento State - 21
2. Montana - 7
3. Montana State - 5
4. Idaho State - 4
5. Eastern Washington - 2
Men's Team Standings
1. Sacramento State - 16
2. Portland State - 8
T3. Weber State - 6
T3. Montana State - 6
5. Montana - 3
Heptathlon Results
1. Elizabeth Venzon, SAC, 5322
2. Kassandra Corrigan, SAC, 5163
3. Nicole Stroot, UM, 5144
4. Jessica Chrisp, MSU, 5107
5. Bailey Woodbury, ISU, 5054
6. Julia Grimm, SAC, 4937
7. Kendra Hamm, EWU, 4857
8. Jenna Dukovcic, UM, 4766
9. Deandra Elcock, UNC, 4659
10. Claire Harris, UNC, 4653
11. Mackenzie Pettit, UNC, 4642
12. Shayla Henderson, ISU, 4630
13. Hannah Coburn, UM, 4565
14. Helena McLeod, NAU, 4359
15. Dominique Butler, EWU, 4302
16. Sara Murray, NAU, 4167
DNF. Ivie Eboigbodin, SAC
DNF. Erika McLeod, UM
Decathlon Results
1. Max Jette, SAC, 6960
2. Donte Robinson, PSU, 6852
3. Reece Lafaye, WSU, 6741
4. Alec Acevedo, SAC, 6734
5. Caleb Neth, MSU, 6586
6. Josh Riley, UM, 6580
7. Dalen Hargett, MSU, 6435
8. Andrew Stich, SAC, 6379
9. Brendan Thurber-Blaser, UM, 6378
10. James Rodeman, ISU, 6329
11. Dyllan James, ISU, 6271
12. Tim Ankenman, ISU, 6241
13. Tyler Kendell, WSU, 6133
14. Drew Thompson, UI, 6115
14. Grant Withcutt, UM, 6083
15. Mason Storm, MSU, 5855
DNF. Charlie Bush, UM
DNF. Kyle Searle, ISU
