Thursday, March 15, 2012

Maurus Hope of Northwest Nazarene and Ashley Potter of Western Oregon have been voted the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Indoor Track-and-Field Male and Female Athletes-of-the-Year.

Both are the first athletes from their school of their gender to win the award in the nine-year history of the GNAC's indoor track-and-field awards program.

Hope (Sr., Adrian, OR) was the men's top point producer in the conference meet, winning the 400 meters in a meet record time of 48.45 and the 200 in a time of 21.91. He also finished second in the 60 hurdles in a time of 8.52.

Potter (Sr., Springfield, OR) was the GNAC's top finisher in last week's NCAA Division II Indoor national meet at Mankato, Minn., finishing second in the women's triple jump with a GNAC record jump of 40-8 ¼. She smashed the old conference record by 8 ¾ inches and bettered her previous school-record by more than a foot.

In the conference meet, she won the triple jump with a meet-record mark of 39-7 and finished third in the long jump with a leap of 18-2 ½.

Ryan Hansen of Western Oregon, Leeza Henry of Montana State Billings, Logan Myers of Western Washington and Tasia Baldwin of Seattle Pacific also won special awards.

Hansen (So., Dallas, OR), who was the lone GNAC male athlete to qualify for the national meet, and Henry (Jr., Scottsbluff, Neb.) were voted the GNAC Male and Female Newcomers-of-the-Years . Myers (Olympia, WA - Capital) and Baldwin (Tacoma, WA - Foss) won the GNAC Male and Female Freshman-of-the-Year awards.

Before finishing ninth in the national meet, Hansen finished second in the 800 in the conference meet in a time of 1:55.61. He also anchored WOU's 4x400 meter relay team that won the conference title in a meet record time of 3:18.60. He had a season-best time of 1:51.55 in a meet at the University of Washington. That time ranks second in conference history.

Henry finished fourth in the weight throw (47-5 ¼) and second in the shot put (44-8 ¼) at the conference meet. Her shot put mark ranks fifth on the GNAC's all-time Top 10 chart.

Myers placed second in the high jump (6-8) and sixth in the hurdles (8.73) in the conference meet, while Baldwin placed third in the 60 meters (7.92), fourth in the 200 (25.82) and fifth in the long jump (17-11 ¾). Myers high jump mark ranks fourth and Baldwin's 60 time ranks ninth on the GNAC Top 10 chart.

Mike Johnson and Karl Lerum, who guided Western Oregon and Seattle Pacific to GNAC team titles were voted the GNAC Male Team and Female Team Coaches-of-the-Year , respectively.

Johnson led Western Oregon to its fifth straight men's indoor team title and its sixth overall. Johnson, a 1972 graduate of Eastern Washington, has now won a total of 12 GNAC Coach-of-the-Year awards also winning for men's indoor in 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011; women's outdoor in 2004, 2005 and 2008 and men's outdoor in 2004, 2008 and 2011.

Lerum, a 1998 graduate of Pacific Lutheran, has won 10 Coach-of-the-Year awards, also winning for women's indoor in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 and women's outdoor in 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2011. SPU's team title was its ninth in a row.