Friday, February 21, 2020

NAMPA, Idaho – Central Washington senior Aidan Cain broke the meet record in the weight throw while Alaska Anchorage junior Wesley Kirui and Saint Martin’s sophomore Tyler Cronk repeated as champions to headline day one of the 2020 GNAC Indoor Track and Field Championships, Friday at the Jackson’s Indoor Center.

Cain, already the GNAC record-holder, collected the meet record in the weight throw on his first attempt of the finals, finishing with a mark of 61 feet, 2 inches. The performance was just better than the previous record of 61 feet, 1.75 inches, set by Concordia’s Tyler Lamott in 2016.

Kirui held off Western Washington’s Ed Kiolbasa to repeat as champion, crossing in a time of 14:48.55. Cronk, meanwhile, surpassed the seven-foot plateau for the first time this season in the high jump to repeat with clearance of 7 feet, 1 inch. Cronk turned right around to place second in the long jump with a mark of 22 feet, 11.75 inches.

Western Washington jumped out to the first-day team lead with 53 points. The Vikings were bolstered by sophomore Ethan Sterkel’s win the long jump with a mark of 23 feet, 8.75 inches which ties him for No. 4 on the GNAC All-Time List. Kiolbasa’s effort in the 5,000 meters led a 15-point performance in the event. Western also earned 12 points in the high jump, led by senior Tupre Wickliff’s third-place clearance of 6 feet, 9 inches.

The Vikings also have the top qualifier in the 60-meter hurdles in sophomore Koby Okezie, who posted a preliminaries time of 8.29 seconds.

Alaska Anchorage is in second place with 34 points thanks to Kirui and a victory in the men’s distance medley relay team. The squad of Lawson Sims, Daryl Bushnell, Eduardo Orozco and Felix Kemboi finished less than a second ahead of Simon Fraser in a time of 10:05.60.

Western Oregon junior Derek Holdsworth is the top qualifier in the 800 meters with a time of 1:55.38 while Wolves’ freshman Dominique Loggins leads the field in the 60 meters in 6.91 seconds. Northwest Nazarene senior Logan Blake claimed the top preliminaries positions in both the 200 meters and 400 meters. Blake opened with a time of 49.25 seconds in the 400 meters and came back for a time of 22.02 seconds in the 200.

Nighthawks’ junior Dakota Tidwell holds the lead after the first four events of the heptathlon with 2,623 points. Tidwell won the shot put with a mark of 38 feet, 7.75 inches, placed second in the 60 meters (7.35 seconds), tied for third in the high jump (5-9.75) and was fourth in both the long jump (20-10.5). Concordia senior Emmy Carrizales stands in second place with 2,536 points and Alaska Anchorage senior David Sramek is third with 2,485 points.

Sramek was the winner in the long jump at 21 feet, 8 inches. Carrizales was the winner of the high jump with a mark of 6 feet, 2.25 inches and Central Washington junior Luke Simonson won the 60 meters in 7.33 seconds.

Saturday finals action will begin with the heptathlon at 8:45 a.m. Field events commence at 9:30 a.m. with the running-event finals starting at 11 a.m.