Tuesday, April 29, 2014

ELLENSBURG, Wash. - Alaska Anchorage's Cody Thomas and Karolin Anders won the decathlon and heptathlon at the GNAC Multi-Events Championships Tuesday at Tomlinson Stadium on the campus of Central Washington University.

Thomas held off a second-day charge by Greyson Kilgore of Northwest Nazarene to win the  decathlon with 6,617 points.  Kilgore, who trailed Thomas by 555 points after Monday's five events, had the best marks in three events Tuesday and finished second with 6,506 points, just 111 back of Thomas who won the title for the second year in a row.

After posting the best marks in four of Monday's five events, Thomas had the best time in the 110 meters (15.10) Tuesday, but Kilgore won the next three events setting a meet record in the discus (136-2), pole vaulting 14-6 3/4 and throwing the javelin 151-1.  

Kilgore then finished third in the 1500 in a time of 4:35.79, 4.65 seconds ahead of Thomas, but fell  shy of Thomas' winning total.  Saint Martin's Michael Holland, who was eighth overall, had the best time in the 1500 (4:33.12).

David Durden of Saint Martin's ended up third with 6,036 points, 36 ahead of fourth-place Eric Gaines of Western Oregon and 37 ahead of Michael Stralser of Western Washington.  Brandon Roddewig of Central Washington, who matched Kilgore for the best pole vault mark Tuesday, finished sixth with 5,984 points.

CWU's Justin Peterson, who tied the high jump meet record of 6-5 1/2 Monday, finished seventh with 5,973 points.  Completing the scoring was Micah Spatz of Northwest Nazarene who placed eighth with  5,870 points.

In the heptathlon, Anders scored 4,997 points to win the title outdistancing Tayler Fettig of Central Washington who finished with 4,604 points.  Maddie Hommes of Seattle Pacific ended up third with 4,391 points, 44 points ahead of Irene Moore of Saint Martin's and 47 ahead of Rosie Smith of Alaska Anchorage.

Anders had the best mark in only two events, including Tuesday's long jump (18-6 1/2).  Hommes had the long throw in the javelin (112-4) and Moore had the fastest time in the 800 (2:18.95).

On Monday, Smith led the way in the 100 hurdles (14.44), Fettig high jumped a meet record 5-8, Anders led the way in the shot put (36-0) and Smith ran the fastest 200 (25.64).

The multi-events are the first event of the GNAC Championships.  The remainder of the meet will be contested May 9-10 at Monmouth, Ore.

Team Scores (1 event): Men - Alaska Anchorage 10, Northwest Nazarene 9, Saint Martin's 6, Western Oregon 5, CentralWashington 5, Western Washington 4.   Women - Alaska Anchorage 14, Seattle Pacific 9, Central Washington 8, Saint Martin's 5, Northwest Nazarene 3.

Decathlon - 1. Cody Thomas, UAA, 6617; 2. Greyson Kilgore, NNU, 6506; 3. David Durden, SMU, 6036; 4. Eric Gaines, WOU, 6000;  5. Michael Stralser, WWU, 5999; 6. Brandon Roddewig, CWU, 5984; 7. Justin Peterson, CWU, 5973; 8. Micah Spatz. NNU, 5870; 9. Michael Holland, SMU, 5568; 10. Cameron Stanek, MSUB, 5282; 11. Luke Conklin, NNU, 4870.

Heptathlon - 1. Karolin Anders, UAA, 4997; 2. Tayler Fettig, CWU, 4604; 3. Maddie Hommes, SPU, 4391; 4. Irene Moore, SMU, 4347; 5. Rosie Smith, UAA, 4344; 6. Janessa Dyk. NNU, 4044; 7. Ali Sowers, SPU, 3829; 8.  Cheryl Hong, SPU, 3738; 9. Emily Moe, WOU, 3611; 10. Emily Stralser, WWU, 3425.