Monday, July 11, 2016

PORTLAND, Ore. – Former Great Northwest Athletic Conference champion Jessica Smith just missed making her second Olympic team, leading a list of six past and present GNAC athletes that competed last week in their country’s respective track and field Olympic trials meets.

Smith, the 2011 GNAC indoor mile and outdoor 800-meter champion for Simon Fraser, placed fourth in Sunday’s women’s 800 meter final at the Canadian Olympic Track and Field Trials in Edmonton, Alta. She was at the back of a close finish between three athletes with her time of 2:03.77. Annie Leblanc placed second in 2:03.38 and Jenna Westaway placed third in 2:03.39. Melissa Bishop was the Canadian champion with her meet record time of 1:59.32. Smith was an automatic qualifier for the final after placing second in the first preliminary heat in 2:05.07.

The 2011 Simon Fraser graduate ran for Canada at the 2012 Olympic Games in London where she advanced to the semifinals in the 800 meters.

Five GNAC performers competed at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials, held June 30 – July 10 at Hayward Field in Eugene. Former Seattle Pacific national champion Jessica Pixler Tebo qualified for the final in the women’s 5,000 meters on Sunday and placed 11th with a time of 15:41.02. The No. 16 seeded competitor in the finals field, Tebo, who now runs for Nike, crossed the line ahead of former Oregon standout Jordan Hasay and longtime American distance standout Sara Hall. Tebo automatically qualified for the final after placing sixth in her preliminary heat on Thursday.

Tebo’s former Falcon teammate, McKayla Fricker, placed 14th overall in the semifinals of the women’s 800 meters with a time of 2:03.95. Fricker advanced into Saturday’s semis with the ninth best time of the preliminaries with a time of 2:01.53.

Tebo is the most decorated individual athlete in GNAC history, finishing her career with 12 NCAA championships (three cross country, six indoor track and field, three outdoor track and field). She also won 19 GNAC titles, including all four possible GNAC cross country crowns. Tebo finished her career as the 2010 GNAC Female Athlete of the Year and Female Student-Athlete of the Year and as the 2010 CoSIDA College Division Academic All-America of the Year for Cross Country and Track and Field.

Fricker, the 2014 GNAC Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Athlete of the Year, was a three-time All-American indoors in the 800 meters and a 2014 outdoor All-American in the 800 meters. The three-time GNAC champion outdoors, Fricker was the 2014 NCAA Division II Champion in the outdoor 800 meters.

Like during the collegiate season, Western Washington was well represented at the U.S. Olympic Trials in the women’s javelin. Junior All-American Bethany Drake led the Vikings with a 14th place finish in Thursday’s preliminaries, missing the finals by just a foot with her throw of 170 feet, 2 inches. That bettered the 15th place finish of reigning Division II champion Allie Updike of Azusa Pacific. The GNAC record holder in the javelin (171-7), Drake has one year of eligibility while she works to complete her Master’s of Arts in Teaching.

Teammate and fellow All-American Katie Reichert placed 16th with a mark of 169 feet, 3 inches. The 2016 GNAC champion, Reichert qualified for the trials with a school record throw of 180 feet, 4 inches at the Harry Jerome meet in Vancouver, B.C., in June.

A 2011 graduate of Western Washington, Monika Gruszecki placed 22nd with a mark of 162 feet, 6 inches. Gruszecki was the 2007 and 2011 NCAA Division II national champion in the javelin and placed second in 2008. She was the 2011 GNAC champion and owned the GNAC Championships record at 156-11, which was broken in May by Reichert (164-8.25).

Concordia had three former athletes from its NAIA days competing in the U.S. and Great Britain Olympic trials. Nate Moses, a 2015 graduate and two-time NAIA national champion, led the Cavalier alumni with a sixth place finish in the U.S. trials in the men’s discus with a mark of 196 feet, 5 inches. McKenzie Warren, the 2016 GNAC indoor champion in the shot put, just missed the 24-person field in the event at the U.S. trials by one centimeter.