Saturday, May 10, 2014

MONMOUTH, Ore. - Western Washington won its third straight men's team title and its fifth overall in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Track and Field Championships which concluded Saturday at McArthur Stadium on the campus of Western Oregon University.

The Vikings outpointed Alaska Anchorage 186-158 to claim the title.  Western Oregon finished third with 113 points.  WWU had previously won team titles in 2005 and 2010 before starting its string of three in a row in 2012.

WWU's five wins matches Western Oregon's five victories in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008 and 2011.  Central Washington (2006, 2007) is the only other men's team to win a championship.

UAA's Cody Thomas, who won the decathlon last week at Ellensburg with a score of 6,617, was selected the Most Outstanding Performer. 

Thomas finished the championship with a meet-high 21individual points also earning fifth-place finishes in the long jump (21-10 1/4)  and high jump (6-2 1/4) and a sixth in the 100 (11.00).   

Thomas edged four athletes for the most individual points in the meet.  Logan Myers of Western Washington, Luke Plummer of Central Washington, and UAA's Dylan Anthony and Victor Samoei all earned 18 points in individual events.

Thomas was also one of 19 different athletes to win an individual event, marking the first time in conference history that 19 individual events were won by 19 different athletes.

Alaska Anchorage accounted for seven of the individual wins.  Western Washington had five.  Central Washington athletes won three.  Northwest Nazarene, Simon Fraser, Western Oregon and MSU Billings all had one.  NNU (4x100) and WWU (4x400) added victories in the relays.

Thomas, Western Washington shot putter Frank Catelli and Western Oregon sprinter Tyrell Williams all etched their names into the GNAC record book.

Thomas set a meet record for the highest decathlon score, breaking the old record of 6,598 by Alex Harrison of Western Washington in 2012.

Catelli's winning shot put of 59-7 bettered his own record of 58-7 1/2 he set earlier this season and the meet record of 55-8 1/4 by Cameron Neel of Central Washington in 2005.

Williams matched the GNAC record of 21.32 in winning the 200 meters.  Rimar Christie established that mark last year in the preliminaries.

Christie's win in in the 100 (10.64) was his third straight in that event.  He also finished third in the 200 in a time of 21.83 and keyed NNU's victory in the 4x100 relay.

UAA's Ethan Hewitt also earned his third victory in the 400 posting a time of 47.94.  He previously won the 400 in both 2010 and 2012.

Other repeat winners included Thomas in the decathlon, WWU's Logan Myers in the 110 hurdles (14.70), UAA's Elliott Bauer in the 400 hurdles (53.20), Brett Watson of Western Washington in the high jump (6-8 1/4) and  Franz Burghagen of UAA in the javelin (218-7).

Team Scores - Western Washington 186, Alaska Anchorage 158, Western Oregon 113, Northwest Nazarene 109, Central Washington 190, Simon Fraser 77, MSU Billings 42, Saint Martin's 36, Seattle Pacific 6.