BELLINGHAM, Wash. – As the Cascade Collegiate Conference and NAIA National Championship meets draw ever closer, the UBC Thunderbirds continue to produce more and more qualifying standards and personal bests as evidenced Friday and Saturday at Western Washington University.

Competing at both the Pee Wee Halsell Invitational and the Ralph Vernacchia Invitational at Bellingham's Civic Stadium, the T-Birds took full advantage of unseasonably warm weather to produce some outstanding results.

"It was breezy, but not to the extent that it was a huge negative impact on endurance events," said UBC head coach Laurier Primeau who was certainly pleased with both the weather and his athletes' performances just south of the border. "Specific to the shorter sprints and pretty much every field event, the westerly winds at Civic Stadium are ideal when we can get 20 degree heat in Bellingham. It was just perfect both today and yesterday."



There likely isn't a UBC Thunderbird who enjoys competing in Bellingham more than Theo Manuel. The sophomore javelin thrower crushed the competition Friday, setting a new personal best of 65.77 metres to overtake teammate Kayden U-Ming for the number one NAIA ranking. Manuel's throw comes nearly a year to the date he set his previous lifetime best at WWU.

"A two metre personal best, we knew that he had that in him because he's thrown even further in practice than what you've seen so far this year," Primeau said of Manuel's exceptional day. But really cool that we have three men over 65 metres and holding down the top three spots in the NAIA in that event."

Amelia Cha won the women's long jump with a top distance of 5.92 metres. Meeting 'A' Standard to qualify for next month's NAIA National Championship in Marion, Indiana, the sophomore T-Bird set a new personal best by 14 centimetres and now holds the sixth overall ranking in 2025.



After setting a personal best in men's pole vault Friday by clearing 4.70 metres, sophomore Bryce White cleared 4.80 for the first time on Saturday to take first place at the Ralph Vernacchia Invitational. That height meets 'B' Standard for a conditional berth at the National Championship meet and is good for a share of the 12^th overall NAIA ranking.

"What you're seeing in success are different names than who was in Los Angeles too. Theo we kept home and let him train through it, Amelia had exams last week and probably would have gone to the conference multi-event championships had she not had that conflict anyway. And Bryce has had a really nice weekend too."

Lucia Rueppell finished third in women's pole vault at the Pee Wee Halsell with a lifetime best attempt of 3.55 metres.



Freshman Debbie Suleman set a new personal best by one one-hundredth of a second in the women's 100 metre dash, finishing with an 11.70 on Saturday, improving upon her 'A' Standard time to bump up to sole possession of the 11^th fastest time in the NAIA this season.

Senior Hanna Sobkowich improved her 'B' Standard time in the women's 200 metres with a season best of 24.35 on Friday. A day later, Suleman made 'B' Standard for the first time in the event with a 24.45, nearly a full second faster than her previous personal best.

Haley Martin improved her lifetime best in the women's 400 metre hurdles by posting a 1:03.59 to make 'B' Standard.

Laura Beghin and Grace Beach both produced lifetime bests in the women's 800 metres with times of 2:14.93 and 2:18.54, respectively.

Freshman Calvin Brain ran the men's 3000 metre steeplechase in 9:34.63 for a new personal best of nearly six seconds.

The Thunderbirds have one more meet ahead of the conference championships, that being the Oregon State High Performance in Corvallis next Friday and Saturday, May 2 and 3. The CCC Conference Championship takes place the following weekend in Ashland, Oregon with the 2025 NAIA National Championships set for May 21 to 23 in Marion, Indiana.

FULL RESULTS