Saturday, May 13, 2017
MONMOUTH, Ore. – As all good meets do, the team title came down to the final event and a solid effort by the Alaska Anchorage 4x400-meter relay team gave the Seawolves their second straight title at the GNAC Men’s Outdoor Track & Field Championships, Saturday at Western Oregon University’s McArthur Field.
The team of Nicholas Taylor, Liam Lindsay, Travis Turner and Adam Commandeur led from start to finish, claiming the victory with a time of 3:17.21. That allowed the Seawolves to win the team title with a total of 134 points, just two points ahead of second place Western Washington.
The 4x400 win was just one of two for the Seawolves, who instead picked up the title by packing in lots of second, third and fourth place finishes. Senior Travis Turner earned the 110-meter title with a time of 14.83 seconds.
Western Washington finished with 132 points while Concordia placed third with 109 points. Western Oregon placed fourth with 107 points and Northwest Nazarene was fifth with 104 points.
Crusaders’ junior Payton Lewis was named the Male Outstanding Athlete of the Meet after winning two events and finishing runner-up in a third. Lewis won his second decathlon title last week with a score of 6,815 points and won his third consecutive pole vault title with a mark of 16 feet, 3.25 inches. He topped a day that saw NNU sweep the top four places in the pole vault. Lewis also finished second in the 110-meter hurdles in a time of 15.06 seconds and ran the second leg on the Crusaders’ second place 4x100-meter relay team.
Western Washington kept the meet close with three individual titles, one that was expected and two that weere surprises. Sophomore Alex Barry was the expected title as he easily won the javelin with a mark of 198 feet, 11.75 inches.
Freshman Cordell Cummings took advantage of a trip on the final hurdle by Central Washington’s Trevaughn Scott to surge ahead over the final 40 meters to win the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 53.97 seconds. Junior Issac Derline, meanwhile, came out ahead in a cat-and-mouse game with Alaska Anchorage’s Dominik Notz and Edwin Kangogo on the final lap of the 5,000 meters with his winning time of 15:49.49. Notz was second in 15:19,75 while Kangogo placed third in 15:20.23.
The homestanding Wolves made the most of the day with four individual titles, a relay title and a pair of records. Senior Wesley Gray turned in the performance of the meet as he set the meet and GNAC records in the men’s triple jump with a mark of 50 feet, 10.25 inches. In becoming the first athlete in conference history to surpass 50 feet, Gray broke the GNAC record of 49 feet, 11 inches, set by Central Washington’s Justin Lawrence in 2004 and the meet record of 49 feet, 2.5 inches, set by Lawrence in 2003.
Junior David Ribich was a two-time winner. He opened the day by winning the 1,500 meters with a meet record time of 3:47.37. He and teammate Dustin Nading, who was second in 3:47.63, went under the former record of 3:49.03 set by Alaska Anchorage’s Alfred Kangogo in 2010. Ribich later went on to win the 800 meters in a time of 1:52.71.
Western Oregon junior Aaron Whitaker just missed the meet record in the 400 meters as he won the event with a school record time of 47.59 seconds. The Wolves’ 4x100-meter relay team of Gray, Devonte Woods, Whitaker and Codi Blodgett, won a close race in a time of 41.62 seconds.
Montana State Billings junior Sam Zook won a pair of showdowns in the 100 meters and 200 meters. Zook went toe-to-toe with Northwest Nazarene senior Ebu Camara in the 100, with Zook pulling away in a time of 10.84 seconds to Camara’s 11.00. After Camara false started in the 200 meters, Zook cruised to the win with a time of 21.86 seconds.
Saint Martin’s junior Kauanoe Vanderpoel picked up the Saints’ lone championship of the meet, winning the hammer with a mark of 188 feet, 7.75 inches.