POCATELLO, Idaho — Eliana Coburn and Abby Sheets each scored for the Sacramento State women's track and field team in the heptathlon on Thursday at the Big Sky Championships at Idaho State. Each student-athlete set a career best in the heptathlon en route to finishing fifth and eighth respectively.
Coburn totaled 4,897 points in the seven events to move into ninth place in Sacramento State history. The freshman set career bests in five of the seven events. Sheets amassed 4,203 points to secure the final team point.
Thursday's action began with the long jump where Coburn set a personal best with a leap of 17-02.00 which was 12.25 inches beyond her previous long. She then destroyed her PR in the javelin with a throw of 114-03 — 5-feet, 1-inch longer than her previous best. Coburn concluded the heptathlon by running the 800 in 2:30.25.
Sheets had marks of 16-00.50 in the long jump, 103-10 in the javelin and 2:33.48 in the 800. Her total was 60 points better than she scored at the Bryan Clay Invitational in April. Coburn improved on her total from that meet by 479 points. Sacramento State and Southern Utah were the only teams to have two scorers in the heptathlon. The event was won by Idaho State's Brianna Hagler with 5,459 points. SUU's Jentry Skidmore placed second with 5,190.
In the decathlon, Jack Charlton narrowly missed scoring for the team as finished ninth with 5,668 points. Joshua Braun scored 5,113 points to place 14th. Charlton ran a wind-aided 15.25 in the 110-hurdles to start Wednesday. He then threw the discus 93-11 and cleared 9-07.00 in the pole vault. Charlton had the longest javelin throw in the field with a toss of 179-01 and then ran 6:00.12 in the first 1500 of his career.
Braun had a wind-aided 110-hurdles time of 16.18 before a discus throw of 57-04.00. He recorded a substantial PR in the pole vault after clearing 11-10.50 before setting a PR in the javelin at 89-04. He completed the competition with a 1500 of 5:27.79.
Caleb Whitney of Weber State finished first in the decathlon with 7,128 points to edge Idaho State's Chase Gardom (7,102).
The main program of the meet will begin on Friday with the women's hammer throw at 8 a.m. PT. The first running event will be the men's steeplechase at 11:30 a.m. PT. Friday's action will wrap up with the women's 10K at 5:05 p.m. PT. The meet will be streamed on ESPN+ (Note: the hammer competition will be streamed on Idaho State's Facebook page).
