Saturday, May 12, 2018

MONMOUTH, Ore. – Concordia built a base with the throws on Friday and used three individual championships on Saturday to win its first GNAC men’s outdoor track and field title as the GNAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships concluded at Western Oregon University’s McArthur Field.

Carlos Ortiz won both the 100 and 200 meters and Jacob Slate won the hammer, helping Concordia sew up the team title with a score of 138 points. The Cavaliers also claimed the men’s indoor track and field team title in February.

Western Washington finished second with 127 points. Central Washington finished third with 123 points and Western Oregon was fourth with 100 points.

Western Oregon’s David Ribich, the hometown favorite competing in his final college meet at McArthur Field, was named the Men’s Track Athlete of the Meet. Ribich became the first male athlete in conference history to win four consecutive individual outdoor event titles as he won the 1,500 meters in a time of 3:49.22, leading a top-four sweep for the Wolves. Ribich came back later in the day to repeat as 800-meter champion in a time of 1:52.07.

Central Washington freshman Braydon Maier was recognized as the Field Athlete of the Meet. Maier won the decathlon last week and then won the pole vault on Friday. He returned on Saturday to take second in the 110-meter hurdles in 15.08 seconds.

Montana State Billings’ Jorey Egeland and Simon Fraser’s Vladislav Tsygankov shared the Men’s Performance of the Meet award. Egeland was recognized for his win on Friday in the steeplechase in a school-record time 8:55.30 while Tsygankov was honored for winning the 400-meter hurdles on Saturday in a meet-record time of 52.12 seconds. He broke the previous record of 52.23 seconds set by Shaun Ward of Alaska Anchorage in 2011.

Egeland finished as a two-event winner for the Yellowjackets as he won Saturday’s 5,000 meters with a school-record time of 14:47.88.

Ortiz joined Ribich and Egeland as a two-event winner as the swept both the 100 and 200 meters after winning both the 60 and 200 meters during the indoor season. He started the day by outdistancing MSUB’s Sam Zook in the 100 meters with a time of 10.55 seconds that moves him to No. 5 on the GNAC All-Time List. Ortiz completed the sweep with a time of 21.50 in the 200 meter, bettering Zook by four-hundredths of a second.

Slate was Concordia’s other Saturday champion as he won the men’s hammer with a mark of 196 feet, 10 inches.

Beau Ackerman gave Montana State Billings its third individual championship of the meet in the javelin, winning with his first throw of the competition at 223 feet, 1 inch. The Yellowjackets’ 4x100-meter relay team of Lamont Frisby, Mason Schram, Kaelan Shay and Zook was also a winner in a time of 41.54 seconds.

Alaska Anchorage and Central Washington each had two titles. The Seawolves’ Christopher Brake won the high jump with a mark of 6 feet, 7.5 inches, while the 4x400meter relay team of Nicholas Taylor, Darrion Gray, Daniel Remington and Liam Lindsay won with a time of 3:14.21.

Kodiak Landis tied a meet record for Central Washington in the 400 meters. His winning time of 47.55 seconds equaled the mark set by Ethan Hewitt of Alaska Anchorage in 2012. Zach Whittaker added a title in the triple jump with a mark of 48 feet, 0.5 inches.

Western Washington’s Cordell Cummings added a 110-meter hurdles title to his 400-meter hurdles trophy from 2017, outlasting Maier for the title with a time of 14.97 seconds.