On Friday, April 4, students may have noticed that most parking lots were packed, and buses lined the curbs of the Pine Bowl. Students from schools across the greater Spokane area were grouped together in the stands as well as on hills to watch the meet taking place below. Well, this excitement was brought about by Whitworth University hosting 900 athletes from 21 different schools to compete in the 2025 Peace Meet.
Toby Schwarz, the head coach of Whitworth’s Track and Field program, was one of the main coordinators in organizing the event. Schwarz states, “We got 21 teams, and I had to turn away four teams that were big teams.” Bringing in this many teams brings in high levels of competition, especially from Division I schools that attend like WSU, EWU, Idaho and Gonzaga.
The planning of the meet wasn’t the only difficult portion of making sure it ran smoothly. Quite a bit of improvising had to take place to keep things moving. “I got 37,000 steps, and it wasn’t walking on that day. I’m running around, moving hurdles and directing people. At one point, I grabbed the starter’s timing stand and ran it over to the next starting line,” says Schwarz. At one point during the meet, they had to cut some of the throwing events short because there were too many throwers with not enough time to compete.
Some may think that this many competitors would be intimidating, but not for Whitworth’s team. “I think it was really great for our younger athletes to be able to experience that,” says Jordyn Lungo, a sprinter. Whitworth’s track team doesn’t get intimidated but instead uses the energy and pressure to hype them up.
The team’s teamwork deserves a lot of credit for its role in the team’s success. Cody Wheeler, a thrower, describes the teams support, “You’ll have crowds at each of the throws, or people will be up in the stands watching the races, or in the field running back and forth during the four by four and stuff, we call it ‘rocking the boat’.”

The idea to approach every meet the same is instilled throughout the team as Emily Brown, a runner, puts it, “For me, it was just every other meet. We prepare the same, and I try to keep it consistent, because if you put all of your eggs in one basket, it’s hard to deal with that if you don’t do as well.”
A meet of this size later in the season may seem like a lot to some people, but it’s actually what the team needs before they gear up for conference. The large crowd and the higher competition help prepare the athletes’ mindsets for the stakes at the conference, also giving the freshmen a chance to see what a highly competitive meet is like. Lungo says, “I think it was really great for like our younger athletes to be able to experience that.”
Lungo, Wheeler and Brown all agree that scheduling these meets is a great way to prepare for the postseason pressures. Wheeler said, “Having those bigger schools there and just all that competition is a good way to get us ready mentally for those bigger meets.” All three athletes admire the work coach Schwarz puts in for his athletes, Brown adds, “He’s got so much going on at the meet too, like he’s trying to run around and direct everything, but he’s also one on one with his athletes still, and so it’s really nice to have that connection with your coach.”
But Coach Schwarz isn’t the only coach on the staff pulling extra time for their athletes. Lungo spotlights Brandon Howell, “I swear, from like one o’clock to like six, he’s out there trying to make sure that he is giving everyone the time of day, because it is hard, especially like a track athlete… he’s always there, whether it’s on the track or if you want to come in and watch film.”
Through creating a culture of teamwork, support, and experience among athletes, large competitions, like the Peace meet, serve as preparation for the Whitworth Track and Field athletes. Whitworth will use this experience to guide their success in the 2025 NWC Conference Championship, which takes place on April 26.