Saturday, May 9, 2015

MONMOUTH, Ore. - Alex Donigian won both the 100 and 200 meters and also ran the second leg on the Vikings'  victorious 4x100 relay team to lead Western Washington to its fourth straight Great Northwest Athletic Conference Men's Track and Field title Saturday at McArthur Field.

The Vikings edged pre-meet favorite Alaska Anchorage by two points (176-174) in what was the closest race in GNAC history.  The two relays, in the end, turned out to be pivotal.

Early on, WWU scored 10 points in the 4x100 relay as Alex Binkerd, Donigian, Brett Watson and Nate Van Tuinen raced to a time of 41.79 to finish .24 seconds ahead of Western Oregon.  UAA did not finish the race.

Then in the final event of the day, WWU placed fourth in the 4x400 relay as Binkerd, Ryan McArthur, Watson and Jade Wilson finished in a time of 3:16.31, effectively clinching at least a tie for the team championship - the Vikings sixth since 2005.  Alaska Anchorage needed to win the race to claim that tie and it took a GNAC-meet record run of  3:13.84 by Simon Fraser to deny them that tie.

The difference between first and second for the Seawolves?  A scant .08 seconds.

Watson's contributions to the two WWU relays along with his wins Friday in the high jump (6-7) and long jump (24-1 3/4) earned him Outstanding Performer honors for the meet.  He won the high jump for the third year in a row and his long jump mark broke a 49-year old school record.

Watson was one of four men to win two events in the Championships. Joining Watson and Donigian as two-event winners was Kevin Stanley of Central Washington and Payton Lewis of Northwest Nazarene.

Stanley won the hammer Saturday (194-1) after winning the shot put (50-11) on Friday.  Stanley also won the hammer last year.  Lewis, who won the decathlon last week at Lacey, earned his second win in his freshman season Saturday in the pole vault, clearing 16-4 3/4.

The only meet record set Saturday in the men's meet was by the Simon Fraser relay team of Stuart Ellenwood, Cameran Proceviat, Joel Webster and Daniel Kelloway.  They eclipsed the old record of 3:15.03, ironically set by Alaska Anchorage in 2012.

Among the winners Saturday were two UAA athletes that won their third titles in a row - Elliott Bauer in the 400 hurdles in a time of 52.90 and Franz Burghagen in the javelin with a heave of 220-10.

Winning second titles in the same event Saturday were Luke Plummer who repeated in the triple jump with a hop, skip and a jump of 48-2 1/2, and Dylan Anthony of Alaska Anchorage who defending his 5,000 title leading a 1-2-3 5K sweep in a time of 14:39.17.

Other Saturday winners included Kelloway in the 400 (47.62), Badane Sultessa of Western Oregon in the 800 (1:52.31), WOU freshman David Ribich in the 1500 (3:50.58) and WWU hurdler Travis Milbrandt in the 110 hurdles (14.38).  On Friday, Milbrandt set a meet record in the prelims with a time of 14.21.

Final Team Scores – Western Washington 176, Alaska Anchorage 174, Central Washington 109 ½, Western Oregon 88, Northwest Nazarene 85, Simon Fraser 85, Saint Martin’s 54 ½, Seattle Pacific 21, MSU Billings 17.

Saturday’s Finals:

100 – 1. Alex Donigian, WWU, 10.44; 2. Cody Warner, WOU, 10.76; 3. Jordan Todd, CWU, 10.81; 4. Rimar Christie, NNU, 10.89; 5. Alex Binkerd, WWU, 10.97; 6. Darrion Gray, UAA, 10.99; 7. Garret Steuk, CWU, 11.05.

200 – 1. Alex Donigian, WWU, 21.56; 2. Darrion Gray, UAA, 21.91; 3. Jordan Todd, CWU, 22.19; 4. Jacob Oswalt, NNU, 22.35, 5. Joel Webster, SFU, 22.42; 6. Mario Lopez, SPU, 22.42; 7. David Ferguson, SPU, 22.43; Cody Warner, WOU, did not finish.

400 – 1. Daniel Kelloway, SFU, 47.62; 2. Adam Commandeur, UAA, 47.75; 3. Joel Webster, SFU, 48.41; 4. Ryan McArthur, WWU, 48.52; 5. Aaron Whitaker, WOU, 48.95; 6. Liam Lindsay, UAA, 49.04; 7. Nathan Vanderby, MSUB, 49.30; 8. Mario Lopez, SPU, 49.34.

800 – 1. Badane Sultessa, WOU, 1:52.31; 2. Cameron Proceviat, SFU, 1:53.05; 3. Josh Dempsey, WOU, 1:54.33; 4. Nathan Kipchumba, UAA, 1:54.37; 5. Josh Hanna, WOU, 1:54.42; 6. Max Trummer, SFU, 1:54.90; 7. Jesse Miller, UAA, 1:57.222; 8. Michael Mendenhall, UAA, 2:01.84.

1500 – 1. David Ribich, WOU, 3:50:58; 2. Marc-Antoine Rouleau, SFU, 3:51.29; 3. Robert Peterson, MSUB, 3:51.58; 4. Travis Vugteveen, SFU, 3:53.37; 5. Sam Naffziger, WOU, 3:54.80; 6. Nathan Kipchumba, UAA, 3:54.86; 7. Dylan Brown, WWU, 3:55.19; 8. Phillipe Gravel, SFU, 3:55.20.

5000 – 1. Dylan Anthony, UAA, 14:39.17; 2. Henry Cheseto, UAA, 14:44.92; 3. Dominik Notz, UAA, 14:47.65; 4. Max Romey, WWU, 14:51.90; 5. Victor Samoei, UAA, 14:53.35; 6. Andrew Wise, WWU, 15:01.60; 7. Oliver Jorgensen, SFU, 15:02.25; 8. Edwin Kangogo, UAA, 15:05.50.

110 Hurdles – 1. Travis Milbrandt, WWU, 14.38; 2. Travis Turner, UAA, 14.93; 3. Payton Lewis, NNU, 15.04; 4. Rimar Christie, NNU, 15.20; 5. David Durden, SMU, 15.22; 6. Kyle McLaughlin, NNU, 15.24; 7. Dennzell Mickelson, CWU, 17.38; Micah Spatz, NNU, did not finish.

400 Hurdles – 1. Elliott Bauer, UAA, 52.90; 2. Kaleb Dobson, WOU, 53.23; 3. Jade Wilson, WWU, 54.20; 4. Travis Turner, UAA, 54.28; 5. Kyle McLaughlin, NNU, 54.84; 6. Trevaughn Scott, CWU, 56.31; David Durden, SMU, disqualified.

4x100 Relay – 1. Western Washington (Binkerd, Donigian, Watson, Van Tuinen) 41.79; 2. Western Oregon 42.03; 3. Central Washington 42.12; 4. Northwest Nazarene 42.27; 5. Seattle Pacific 42.89; 6. MSU Billings 42.90; Alaska Anchorage did not finish; Saint Martin’s did not finish,

4x400 Relay – 1. Simon Fraser (Ellenwood, Proceviat, Webster, Kelloway) 3:13.84 (meet record, old, 3:15.03, Alaska Anchorage, 2012); 2. Alaska Anchorage 3:13.92; 3. Western Oregon 3:15.50; 4. Western Washington 3:16.31; 5. Central Washington 3:21.57; 6. MSU Billings 3:21.60; 7. Seattle Pacific 3:22.51; 8. Northwest Nazarene 3:27.16.

Pole Vault – 1. Payton Lewis, NNU, 5.00 – 16-4 ¾; 2. Gordon Kordas, WWU, 4.52 – 14-10; 3. Tysen Campbell, WWU, 4.37 – 14-4; 4. Zach McClanahan, NNU, 4.37 – 14-4; 5. Zane Irvine, CWU, and Joseph Keeton, SMUm 4.22 – 13-10; 7. Berlie Walker, CWU, 4.22 – 13-10; 8. Chris Rickard, SMU, 4.22 – 13-10.

Triple Jump – 1. Luke Plummer, CWU, 14.69 – 48-2 ½; 2. Tevin Gladden, UAA, 13.79 – 45-3; 3. Mark Seely, WWU, 13.60 – 44-7 ½; 4. Somit Chhim, WWU, 13.53 – 44-4 ¾; 5. Jonathan Osborne, CWU, 13.38 – 43-10 ¾; 6. Justin Peterson, CWU, 13.31 – 43-8; 7. DeAndre Baines, CWU, 13.30 – 43-7 ¾; 8. Brian McElroy, CWU, 13..24 – 43-5 ¼.

Hammer – 1. Kevin Stanley, CWU, 59.17 – 194-1; 2. Peter Behnecke, SFU, 52.33 – 171-8; 3. Armando Tafoya, CWU, 52.16 -  171-1; 4. Mitch Wilkens, SMU, 51.74 – 169-9; 5. Vincent Fualefau, SMU, 50.67 – 166-3; 6. Matt Silva, NNU, 49.48 – 162-4; 7. Kegan Allen, WOU, 47.44 – 155-8; 8. Nels Flanagan, MSUB, 44.97 – 147-6.

Javelin – 1. Franz Burghagen UAA, 67.31 – 220-10; 2. Cody Parker, UAA, 65.91 – 216-3; 3. Brian Chalkley, SMU, 65.19 – 213-10; 4. John Haskin, WWU, 64.70 – 212-3; 5. Slater Hirst, WWU, 63.65 – 208-10; 6. Tyler Kostiuk, UAA, 59.10 – 193-11; 7. Justin Larson, WOU, 59.05 – 193-9; 8. Bryan Moon, CWU, 52.83 – 173-4.