Friday, February 15, 2019
by Craig Craker

NAMPA, Idaho – The Alaska Anchorage women’s distance medley team stole the show in the final event on the track Friday at the first day of the GNAC Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Jacksons Indoor Center.

The relay made up of Ruth Cvancara, Vanessa Aniteye, Danielle McCormick and Caroline Kurgat won with a time of 11 minutes, 23.47 seconds. The performance not only set a GNAC record, bettering the 11:28.28 by Simon Fraser in 2015, but also is the sixth-fastest DMR in NCAA Division II history.

Two other meet records and one other conference record were also broken on the first day of competition.

Seattle Pacific’s Scout Cai won her third consecutive pentathlon title, scoring 3,815 points to erase the old meet record of 3,761 set by Alaska Anchorage’s Karolin Anders in 2015. Cai won the high jump (5-6.5) and the shot put (37-4.5), was second in the 60 hurdles (9.15), and third in the long jump (17-8.25) and the 800 (2:21.38).

Cai’s teammate Peace Igbonagwam broke a long-standing record in the long jump, leaping 19-7.5 to break the old mark set in 2014 and the GNAC record of 19-5.5 set by the Falcons’ Danielle Ayers-Stamper in 2005. The mark was nearly a personal best of two feet and is the fifth-best mark in the country this year. She also has the fastest 200 time at 25.11 seconds, edging out teammate Grace Bley’s 25.14.

The two titles allowed Seattle Pacific a narrow first-day lead in the team competition with 54 points, one ahead of second place Central Washington. Alaska Anchorage sits in third place with 32 points and Western Washington is fourth at 31.

The Concordia women continued their dominance in the weight throw as Kori Sprague made it four consecutive titles for the Cavaliers. Sprague won the event with a throw of 54-6.5.

Alaska Anchorage almost matched the Cavs in the 5,000 meters, winning for the third time in four years. This time it was freshman Nancy Jeptoo finishing in 17:48.46.

In the running event preliminaries, Anchorage’s Vanessa Aniteye made her first open 400-meter race of the season count running the top time in 56.62 seconds.

Concordia’s Macie Allen ran a season-best time of 7.63 to for the top qualifying time in the 60 meters, while Simon Fraser’s Addy Townsend was the top qualifier in the 800 in 2:14.55. Northwest Nazarene’s Lexi Tubbs was the fastest qualifier in the 60-meter hurdles in 8.82 seconds.