Monday, February 26, 2024
by Thomas Lal

PORTLAND, Ore. –  Western Washington locked up a pair of indoor track and field conference titles at The Podium in Spoake, Wash., last week to win GNAC Team of the Week honors for the second time of the 2023-24 season.

The Vikings swept the men’s and women’s titles at the GNAC Indoor Track & Field Championships to open last week, following up on the program’s success at the 2023 GNAC Cross Country Championships where they also captured a pair of titles. The women’s title was the first in program history as they finished with 143 points while the men’s was the eighth in program history and came courtesy of a record 187.66 points.  

The twin triumphs marked the third time in conference history that a school has swept both titles at the same meet. It is just the second time that a program has swept the GNAC Cross County and Indoor Championships in the same season. The only other program to accomplish the feat was Alaska Anchorage in the 2015-16 season. Western Washington will have to wait a few more months to see if they can become the first program in GNAC history to sweep the cross country, indoor track & field and outdoor track & field championships.

The Viking women were led to victory by a trio of distance wins that were headlined by junior Ila Davis. The Spokane, Wash., native put on a show in her hometown, picking up her first gold medal of the meet as a member of WWU’s distance medley relay team. Davis ran the anchor leg of the event and was joined by teammates Mia Crocker, Marian Ledesma and Evelyn Collins-Winn as the team turned in a winning time of 11:50.82, almost 20 seconds clear of the second-place Simon Fraser team.  

Davis also earned individual champion honors in the women’s mile, turning in a time of 4:52.81 to set a personal record and an NCAA provisional mark. Along with her two wins, Davis finished second in the women’s 3,000 meters, crossing the line in a time of 9:59.45 to secure another valuable eight points for the Vikings.

Sophomore Ashley Reeck continued her assault on the GNAC distance world by winning the women’s 5,000 meter race on Monday with a time of 17:30.87. After a closely contested first half of the race, Reeck pulled out a nearly three-second advantage over second-place Nell Baker of Alaska Anchorage. Reeck also came through with five points in the 3K race courtesy of a fourth-place finish. Junior Caitlyn Cheney was the top sprinter for WWU at the meet, finishing fourth in the women’s 60 meters and sixth in the 400 meters while also helping the Vikings to a third-place finish in the 4x400 meter relay.

Two of the best field performances for the Western Washington women came in the shot put on Tuesday as junior Katie Potts took second place with a throw of 45’ 0.25” (13.72 meters) and was followed by sophomore Mara Parks’ throw of 41’ 8.5” (12.71 meters) in third place. Potts also notched a podium finish in the women’s weight throw, finishing third with a mark of 51’ 11.25” (15.83 meters) on Monday to earn six points for the Vikings.

The Western Washington men claimed titles in seven different events on the way to their historic title. Almost half of those titles came courtesy of junior Kevin McDermott as he swept the men’s 5,000 meter, mile and 3,000 meter races en route to being named the Male Track Athlete of the Meet. McDermott is just the third man in GNAC history to come away with three individual gold medals from a championship event. Utterly dominant at the meet, McDermott ran a 4:06.63 in the mile, an 8:25.11 in the 3K and a 14:30.28 in the 5K.

Junior Hunter Flick delivered the Vikings their first title in the 60-meter hurdles since 2020 as he turned in a time of 8.11 seconds to beat 2023 champion Justin Conklin of Western Oregon by just over a tenth of a second. The time is equal to Flick’s best of the season and good for an NCAA provisional qualifier. Western Washington also notched a pair of victories on the field as freshman Troy Roberson won the men’s long jump with a PR leap of 23’ 3.5” (7.10 meters) on his final attempt of the day and freshman Noah Turner took the shot put title with a throw of 50’ 0” (15.24) for his own final-attempt PR.

The Vikings men also claimed the final victory of the meet, winning the 4x400 meter relay in a time of 3:17.11. The team consisted of junior Brian Le, freshman Owen Windrope, senior Lucas Brenek and senior Ryan Greenwalt. The time is the best for a Western Washington team this season and tops the GNAC indoor performance list for the year as well. Along with his role in the relay victory, Greenwalt picked up eight points with a second-place finish in the men’s 60 meters and four more points with a fifth-place effort in the long jump on Monday.

After competing at the Ken Shannon Last Chance invite to end last week, Western Washington will be back in action at the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships in Pittsburg, Kansas on March 8-9 for the final indoor action of the year.