Friday, May 12, 2017

MONMOUTH, Ore. – A pair of meet record performances by Alaska Anchorage senior Tevin Gladden and Concordia freshman Caleb Bridge highlighted the efforts in the first day of the GNAC Men’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships, held at Western Oregon University’s MacArthur Field.

Bridge, who set the GNAC’s all-meet discus record two weeks ago, led four Cavaliers’ competitors in the top six as he claimed the conference title with a meet record mark of 176 feet, 6.5 inches. That easily bettered the old record of 169 feet, 6 inches, set by Central Washington’s Tyler Fischer in 2008.

The performance made Bridge two for two in Friday’s throwing events. Earlier in the day, Bridge won the men’s shot put title with a mark of 54 feet, 4.5 inches.

Gladden captured the meet record in the men’s high jump, claiming the GNAC title with a clearance of 6 feet, 11 inches. That surpassed the old record mark of 6 feet, 9.75 inches set by the Seawolves’ Eric Draper in 2006.

The pair of performances helped put the Cavaliers and Seawolves at the top of the team leaderboards. Alaska Anchorage leads the men’s competition with 66 points, which includes 39 points from the two distance events. Concordia is second with 61 points, all but 11 of which came in the thowing events, while Western Washington third with 37 points and Northwest Nazarene fourth with 33 points.

Gladden was one of three Alaska Anchorage athletes to claim championships on the opening day. Freshman Kaleb Korta held off Simon Fraser’s Oliver Jorgensen in the final lap to win the steeplechase title with a time of 9:06.59. Junior Edwin Kangogo closed the evening by leading a 1-2-3 finish for the Seawolves in the 10,000 meters, outkicking teammate Dominik Notz to win in a time of 31:43.65.

Concordia claimed four of the top eight places in the day’s two throwing events. Bridge led a 1-3-4-5 finish in the shot put and a 1-2-5-6 finish in the discus.

Western Oregon freshman Alani Troutman was the other men’s champion on the opening day, taking the long jump in front of the home crowd with a mark of 23 feet, 2.75 inches.

The Wolves also had two of the top qualifiers in Friday’s running semifinal events. Senior Aaron Whitaker was the top qualifier in the 400 meters in 48.53 seconds. Junior AJ Holmberg led four WOU athletes to qualify for the final in 800 meters with his qualifying time of 1:53.52. Junior David Ribich was second in 1:54.15.

Montana State Billings junior Sam Zook and Northwest Nazarene senior Ebu Camara had the top qualifying performances in the 100 and 200 meters. Zook was top qualifier in both events, running 10.86 seconds in the 100 meters and 21.68 seconds in the 200 meters. The 100-meter time came despite a head wind of 4.6 meters per second. Camara ran 10.92 seconds in the 100 meters and 21.72 seconds in the 200 meters.

Alaska Anchorage senior Travis Turner turned in the top qualifying time in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.14 seconds while Central Washington junior Trevaughn Scott had the top time in the 400-meter hurdles in 54.11 seconds.

Day two action begins with men’s field events commencing at 10:45 a.m., with the javelin. Running events begin at noon with the first of the men’s events, the 4x100-meter relay, taking place at 12:05 p.m. Field event finals include the javelin, pole vault, hammer and triple jump.