Sports
8A — THE OBSERVER
TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 2021
LABEL
8A
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
Th e Observer
Eastern Oregon
track athletes
and coaches
receive awards
MAKING HER MARK
Union High grad Michelle
Herbes joins 7 EOU teammates
in trip to NAIA championships
The Observer
By DICK MASON
LA GRANDE — Eastern
Oregon University coaches and
athletes received accolades from
the United States Track & Field
and Cross Country Coaches
Association.
The association on Friday, Feb.
27, announced its 2021 Regional
Athlete and Coach of the Year
awards. Two EOU coaches and
two athletes received recognition:
head men’s and women’s track and
fi eld coach Ben Welch; assistant
men’s and women’s coach Rebecca
Rhodes; and athletes Allexander
Kosel and Jasmine Devers.
According to an EOU press
release, the association named
Welch the men’s West Region Head
Coach of the Year and Rhodes the
West Region Women’s Assistant
Coach of the Year. The organization
tabbed Kosel the Male West Region
Field Athlete of the Year and Devers
the West Region Female Track Ath-
lete of the Year.
Kosel and Devers both will be
competing this week in Yankton,
South Dakota, at the 2021 National
Association of Intercollegiate Ath-
letics Indoor Track & Field Cham-
pionships. Six other EOU ath-
letes join them in representing the
Mountaineers.
Welch is in his 19th year as East-
ern’s head coach. He has led the
EOU men to a 22nd ranking in the
USTFCCCA National Rating Index
and No. 1 in the West Region.
Rhodes is in her fourth year as
the top assistant under Welch at
Eastern. She helped lead athletes
to six national-qualifying positions
in just two regular-season meets
during the 2020-21 indoor season.
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Michelle Herbes
stepped off Union High School’s volleyball
court Four-and-a-half years ago and on to a
path toward NAIA All-American status.
Herbes, then a UHS senior, decided to
turn out for cross-country in late summer
of 2017 instead of volleyball, which she had
played for three seasons. Now an Eastern
Oregon University track star, Herbes said she
made the switch believing her best chance of
landing a college scholarship would be as a
middle-distance runner.
Today, there is no doubt Herbes made the
right decision.
She landed the athletic scholarship she
sought after signing with EOU in 2018 fol-
lowing a successful senior year in which she
placed 11th at the state cross-country meet
and won the state 400-meter title in track.
She has continued to progress at Eastern and
in 2020 placed eighth in the 1,000-meter run
at the National Association of Intercollegiate
Athletics Indoor Track & Field Champion-
ships, earning her All-American status.
A year later, Herbes, the daughter of Mike
and Janet Herbes of Union, is set to return to
the indoor national championships to com-
pete a second time in the same event. The
college junior’s focus is not on placing.
“My goal is to win,” Herbes said.
The NAIA championships run March 3-6
in Yankton, South Dakota. Qualifying heats
for the women’s 1,000 will be Wednesday,
March 3, and the fi nal will be Thursday.
Herbes qualifi ed for nationals with a mark
of 3:03 at an outdoor race in Caldwell, Idaho,
in early February. Conditions were far from
ideal with the temperature 35 degrees during
the 1,000-meter contest.
“It was a little hard because my muscles
were tight,” Herbes said.
EOU head track and fi eld coach Ben
Welch said he believes Herbes will run faster
Eastern Oregon University/Contributed Photo
Eastern Oregon University junior Michelle Herbes of Union runs the 4K during the College of
Idaho Ice Chipper on Feb. 5, 2021. She placed ninth in the event and has her sights now set on
winning the 1,000-meter run at the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Indoor Track
& Field Championships in Yankton, South Dakota. Seven of her EOU teammates also are com-
peting in the championships March 3-6, 2021.
at nationals because weather will not be an
issue indoors.
Welch said Herbes has excellent speed
and is a tough competitor. The latter is
important at indoor meets, he said, because
they are on smaller tracks with tight turns,
resulting in crowding and bumping.
Welch said the best is defi nitely yet to
come for Herbes. One reason is she pushes
herself hard in workouts during all seasons.
“The big key is that she trains consistently and
intensely all year,” Welch said. “She knows
only one way to train — and that is hard.”
Welch said sometimes Herbes trains
too intensely. He said there are times when
she needs to ease up and give herself more
recovery time, which she is doing.
Herbes is majoring in exercise science
at Eastern and wants to pursue a career
as a cross-country and track coach after
graduating.
“I have a passion for running and helping
people get better,” she said.
Herbes is one of eight EOU athletes who
will be competing at the NAIA 2021 Indoor
Track & Field Championships. The following
teammates join her:
• Jasmine Devers, a sophomore from
Boise, Idaho, who will compete in the wom-
en’s 200-meter race.
• Allexander Kosel, a junior from Rob-
erts, Montana, in long jump and triple jump.
• Cody Milmine, a sophomore from Buf-
falo, Wyoming, in the 60-meter dash.
• Hunter Nichols, a sophomore from Hep-
pner who is running in the 1,000-meter race.
• Darrian Walker, a junior from Emmett,
Idaho, competing in the pole vault.
• Tyler Davis, a junior from Sandpoint,
Idaho, in the heptathlon.
• Sam Roddewig, a senior from Helena,
Montana, in the heptathlon.
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