Tuesday, May 2, 2017

NAMPA, Idaho – A big second day performance for Northwest Nazarene junior Payton Lewis and continued momentum for Alaska Anchorage senior Karolin Anders made the two champions at the 2017 GNAC Combined Event Championships, held at Northwest Nazarene’s Bohner Track.

After finishing the opening day of competition in third place, Lewis benefitted from having his strongest events on the second day to surge ahead and take the title with a total NNU school record of 6,815 points. It is his second conference decathlon after having won it in 2015 as a freshman. Alaska Anchorage’s Travis Turner finished second with 6,688 points and Kodiak Landis finished third with 6,677 points.

Anders, meanwhile, built upon her first day lead to win her third GNAC heptathlon title with a score of 5,032 points. Seattle Pacific freshman Scout Cai finished second with 4,894 points while her Falcons’ teammate, freshman Brooke Benner, finished third with 4,579 points.

The Seawolves will take a total of 15 points from the heptathlon into the GNAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships thanks to a sixth place finish by sophomore Yvonne Jeschke (4,520 points) and a seventh place finish by freshman Elena Cano (4.518 points). With Cai and Benner’s finishes, the Falcons take 14 points into next week’s meet.

Lewis opened the day with a second place finish in one of his specialities, the 110-meter hurdles, in 14.97 seconds. He went on to place second the discus in a mark of 124 feet, 10 inches, and won the pole vault with a clearance of 15 feet, 11 inches. The 865 points earned in the vault was enough to give Lewis the lead for good as he finished fourth in the javelin (144 feet, 4.25 inches) and eighth in the 1,500 meters (5:20.19).

Turner surged from fourth to second on the final day by winning the 110-meter hurdles in 14.90 seconds and placing second in the javelin with a mark of 153 feet, 11.5 inches. Landis kept pace with a pair of third place finishes in discus at 112 feet, 2.25 inches, and the javelin in 148 feet, 6.5 inches.

Concordia’s Giovanni Brown won two of the final five individual events: the discus (139 feet, 11.75 inches) and the 1,500 meters (4:32.49) to finish in fourth place overall.

Anders opened the second day of the heptathlon with her only individual win of the competition, taking the long jump with a mark of 17 feet, 3.25 inches. She went on place second in the javelin with a mark of 121 feet, 6.25 inches, and seventh in the 800 meters with a time of 2:23.71.

Cai, meanwhile, finished no worse than third in any of the three second day events. She finished second in the long jump at 17 feet, 2 inches, before taking third place finishes in both the javelin (117-0.25) and the 800 meters (2:19.49).

Other individual event winners in the heptathlon include Western Washington’s Kaylie Greninger in the javelin (122 feet, 6.75 inches) and Central Washington’s Ali Anderson in the 800 meters (2:15.88).

Team points from the GNAC Combined Event Championships will carry over to the 2017 GNAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships, which will take place on May 12 and 13 at Western Oregon University’s McArthur Field in Monmouth, Ore.