The Chico State track and field team's "athlete of the meet" receives a small stuffed animal to hold onto until handing it off to the next week's winner. This week's winner, following the Stanford Invitational, was senior Joseph Ilaoa. The only thing better than seeing the Wildcats' hulking thrower with a stuffed animal in his hands is seeing him hurl large and heavy objects long distances.
Ilaoa launched the hammer 55.30 meters (181.5 feet) at Stanford, beating his personal record by more than a meter, moving up to sixth on Chico State's all-time best list, and cracking the NCAA Championship provisional list. He finished fourth overall in the 12-man field that included 11 from the Division-I ranks.
And that was only the start of the weekend for the Wildcat of the Week. He went on to finish ninth in the discus with a throw of 49.80 meters, and eighth in the shot put with a season-best effort of 14.65 meters.
Ilaoa now boasts NCAA provisional qualifying marks in the discus and hammer throw and ranks second in the CCAA in the discus, fourth in the hammer, and eighth in the shot put.
Ilaoa and the Wildcats will be back in action Saturday when they host the Chico State Distance Carnival and Twilight Invitational. The hammer throw will actually take place Friday afternoon at 2 p.m. The discus is scheduled for Saturday morning at 11 and the shot put will follow.
Outside of the hammer throw, all of the action will take place on Saturday. Field events are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and track events are set to begin at 11. The day's final event is set for 6:40 p.m.
