Monday, February 18, 2019
PORTLAND, Ore. – Putting a bow on a pair of superb regular season campaigns, the Seattle Pacific women and Western Washington men took home the top prizes at last week's GNAC Indoor Track and Field Championships in Nampa.
The teams have been named as co-GNAC Teams of the Week for their outstanding accomplishments at Jacksons Track inside the Ford Idaho Center over the weekend.
On the women's side, the Falcons won their third consecutive team title after splitting the championship in 2018 and winning it outright two years ago. The team finished with 154 points, picking up critical points in the final two events of the day: the 4x400-meter relay and the pole vault.
"It is a long two days and so many kids put so much effort into the meet, with most of them doing multiple events," head coach Karl Lerum said. "It is just a privilege to watch them compete and take advantage of the opportunities they were given. It's a special moment when you're involved with a conference championship and it is obviously fun to come out on the winning side of it."
Lerum's team was led by victories by junior Grace Bley in the 200 meters, freshman Peace Igbonagwam in the long jump and junior Scout Cai in the pentathlon. Cai set the meet record on Friday with 3,815 points, while Igbonagwam posted a GNAC record leap of 19 feet, 7.5 inches.
On the men's side, the Vikings used consistent performances across multiple events to win their first team title since 2014 and their fifth overall. Four individual championships, led by victories for Kyler Sager in the 800 meters and Cordell Cummings in the 60-meter hurdles, led WWU to the title with 138.5 points.
The individual victories added to titles won on Friday by J.T. Konrad in the pole vault and Seren Dances in the long jump.
"It was an all-around great team effort during the championships," said head coach Pee Wee Halsell. "If they weren't competing they were cheering and they all fed off each other's performances. We had a number of student-athletes step up with great performances to score in all 17 events and I couldn't be prouder of how they competed this week."
Before heading to the NCAA Championships on March 8-9, many of the Seattle Pacific and Western Washington athletes will turn their focus to the SPU Final Qualifier, held on February 23 at Dempsey Indoor in Seattle.