Monday, April 27, 2015

LACEY, Wash. - Saint Martin's freshman Jasen Yoro used a meet-record high jump of 6-6 1/4 to take the lead after Day 1 of the decathlon Monday in the GNAC Multi-Event Championships on the SMU campus.

Yoro, who also had the best mark of the day in the 100 meters (11.26), scored 3,617 points.  Another freshman, Payton Lewis of Northwest Nazarene, is in second place with 3,389 points and Travis Turner of Alaska Anchorage is third with 3,328 points.

The multi-event is the first of the outdoor season for Yoro, who finished second in the GNAC Indoor heptathlon in February at Nampa with a score of 4,870 points.

Yoro broke the GNAC decathlon meet record for the high jump of 6-5 1/2 by Sean Gabe of Western Oregon in 2002.  Central Washington's Cresap Watson matched that record in 2006.

CWU's Justin Peterson came into the meet as the top seed with a score of 6,401, one point better than Lewis, but cleared only 6-5 in his specialty.  He has a season best of 6-8 1/4 in the high jump.   Lewis' top event is the pole vault which is coming up Tuesday.  He has one of the best marks in NCAA Division II this spring, ranking fifth with a best of 16-10 3/4.

In the heptathlon, defending champion Karolin Anders of Alaska Anchorage is the Day 1 leader with 3,071 points.  The top three scores are all from UAA athletes as Rosie Smith ranks second with 2,843 points and Haleigh Lloyd is tied for third with Maliea Luquin of Seattle Pacific with 2,777 points.

Anders had the top performances Monday in the high jump (1.70 - 5-7) and shot pult (11.77 - 38-7 1/4).  Smith ran the fastest time in the 100 hurdles (14.33) and 200 meters (25.69).

In the decathlon, the best marks in addition to Yoro came from Lewis in the long jump (6.39 - 20-11 1/2) and shot put (13.34 - 43-9 1/4) and from Turner in the 400 (50.64).

The multi-events are the first events in the GNAC Championships.  The remainder of the meet will be held May 8-9 at Western Oregon University.