CHENEY, Wash. – After nearly a 21-month hiatus, the Western Washington University Track & Field team returned to indoor competition and wrapped up the Candy Cane Invitational Multis with several standout performances.
 
Junior Aliyah Dawkins placed 2nd out of seven competitors in the five-event Pentathlon and junior Cooper Cummings was also runner-up in the seven-event Heptathlon out of 13 athletes.
 
Dawkins placed 2nd with 3,237 points trailing Eastern Washington's Margaret Nelson (3,425). Dawkins set a personal best in the 60m hurdles tying for the top spot in 9.12 seconds, retaining her No. 4 spot in the WWU Indoor Record book. The junior All-American won the high jump clearing 1.68m/5-6) and placed second in the long jump (5.45m/17-10.75). Dawkins fell just short of her school-record mark 3,310 points set in 2020.
 
Sophomore Matty Lagerwey made her multis debut placing 5th with 2,882 points, the 5th-best mark in program history. She won the long jump with a leap of 5.52m/18-1.5) and placed 2nd in the shot put (9.85m/32-3.75). Junior Leanne Kibbee set a personal best with 2,864 points to finish 6th.
 
Cummings came in 2nd with 4,300 points, falling just short of his personal-best mark of 4,412 points set at the 2020 GNAC Indoor Championships (4th in WWU history). He finished the competition with a pair of second-place finishes by clearing 4.20m/13-9.25 in the pole vault and clocking 3:02.01 in the 1,000m.
 
Freshman Ryan Kenny placed 5th with 4,004 points in his indoor multis debut marking the 8th-best mark in WWU history.
 
The Vikings are back in action next Saturday sending a contingent of competitors to the Spokane Invitational and the newly-opened The Podium.