Friday, May 26, 2017

BRADENTON, Fla. – Alaska Anchorage’s Edwin Kangogo earned All-American honors in the men’s steeplechase while the GNAC saw three athletes advance in the women’s 800-meter final to lead the conference’s efforts on day two of the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships at the IMG Academy Complex.

Running in his second race is as many days, Kangogo dropped four seconds off his time from the preliminaries to place sixth with a time of 8:56.21. The time was a new personal best for the junior and improves his No. 3 time on the GNAC all-time list. Kangogo is the fourth All-American for the conference at the meet.

The GNAC had eight athletes qualify for the national meet in the women’s 800 meters and three will advance for All-American trophies. Western Oregon’s Olivia Woods automatically qualified by winning the third heat of the preliminaries and had the fourth fastest time at 2:07.82. The time ranks No. 9 on the GNAC all-time list.

Alaska Anchorage’s Danielle McCormick was also an automatic qualifier with a winning time of 2:08.03 in heat one, the sixth fastest time of the prelims. Simon Fraser’s Addy Townsend automatically qualified with a second place finish in the second heat with a time of 2:08.71.

Simon Fraser’s Alana Mussatto had the fastest time of the the GNAC runners to not qualify for the finals, earning Second Team All-American honors with an 11th place time of 2:09.29. Western Oregon’s Olivia Woods finished 13th with a time of 2:09.44 while the Clan’s Sophie Dodd placed 14th in 2:10.01. Suzie Van De Grift of WOU was 16th in 2:10.64 and SFU’s Paige Nock placed 23rd in 2:18.88.

The Seawolves’ Karolin Anders picked up Second Team All-American honors in the heptathlon, fading from seventh place after the first four events to finish in ninth with a total of 5,105 points. After placing 12th place in the long jump with a mark of 17 feet, 7.5 inches, Anders rebounded to finish fifth in the javelin with a mark of 118 feet, 4 inches, and ended with an eighth place finish in the 800 meters in 2:24.78.

A day after jumping a lifetime best in the high jump during the heptathlon, Anders ended her meet with a no height in the open high jump competition.

Alaska Anchorage’s men’s 4x400-meter relay team of Nicholas Taylor, Liam Lindsay, Travis Turner and Adam Commandeur earned a spot in Saturday’s final with the fourth fatest time of the day, taking second place in the opening prelimianry heat in a time of 3:10.65. The Seawolves’ women’s 4x400-meter relay team just missed the finals, placing 10th in a time of 3:43.33.

Montana State Billings’ Sam Zook finished his first outdoor national meet with a 15th place finish in the men’s 200-meter preliminaries with a time of 21.52 seconds. Western Oregon’s Wesley Gray placed 17th in the men’s triple jump with a leap of 48 feet, 11.75 inches, on his opening attempt of the competition.

Competition on the final day of the national meet will commence on Saturday at 7:30 a.m. (Pacific) with the women’s javelin, an event in which seven GNAC athletes are entered in the competition. Running events begin at 2:30 p.m. (Pacific).