Monday, December 15, 2014

PORTLAND, Ore. – Payton Lewis of Northwest Nazarene and Mikel Smith of Saint Martin’s had the second best marks in GNAC history in their respective track & field events Saturday to share GNAC Men’s Field Athlete of the Week honors.

Lewis won the pole vault at the Jacksons Open at Nampa with a school record and NCAA Division II automatic qualifying vault of 16-9 ¼.  In the process, he broke the NNU school record set by his cousin Preston Lewis in 2005 by more than a foot.

Smith shattered the Saint Martin’s school record in the high jump in finishing third at Nampa with a leap of 6-9.  The previous record was just 6-1 ¼.

The two were among seven athletes to earn GNAC Athlete of the Week honors. 

Also earning the weekly award were track athletes David Durden of Saint Martin's, Chelsey Knott of NNU and Becki Duhamel of Central Washington and basketball players Mitch Penner and Maddey Pflaumer of Seattle Pacific.  Both Durden and Knott had GNAC All-Time Indoor Top 10 marks.

Following is a recap of this week’s honorees and a list of honorable mention selections:

Men’s Indoor Track & Field:  Track –  David Durden, Saint Martin’s (So., Olympia, WA – Tumwater) finished third in the 60 hurdles at Nampa with a school-record time of 8.35.  That time ranks sixth in GNAC history. Field – Payton Lewis, Northwest Nazarene (Fr., Nampa, ID – Nampa Christian) and Mikel Smith, Saint Martin’s (Jr., Muskogee, OK).

Women’s Indoor Track & Field:  Track – Chelsey Knott, Northwest Nazarene (Fr., Parma, ID) finished second in both the 60 hurdles (8.93) and 200 meters (26.41) in the Jacksons Open.  Her  time in the hurdles is the eighth fastest in GNAC history and was just .09 seconds off the Crusader school record.  Field – Becki Duhamel, Central Washington (Sr., Wenatchee, WA) finished fourth in the shot put (43-4 1/3) and  fourth in the weight throw in a provisional national qualifying mark of 53-7 ½.

Honorable Mention: Luke Plummer, Central Washington (So., Vaughn, WA – Peninsula); Lisa Petersen, Saint Martin’s (Jr., Missoula, MT – Lindbergh); Kirby Neale, Saint Martin’s (Jr., Coos Bay, OR – Marshfield).

Men’s Basketball – Mitch Penner, Seattle Pacific (F, 6-5, Jr., Seattle, WA – Kennedy) scored 26 points and also had 11 rebounds, three steals and two blocks to lead the Falcons to a 100-67 win over George Fox.  Penner, who made 7-of-12 field goal attempts, was perfect from the foul line connecting on 11-of-11.

Honorable Mention –  Kalidou Diouf, Alaska Anchorage (F, 6-9, Fr., Heidelberg, Germany); Jordan Schriber, Western Oregon (G-F, 6-6, Jr., Tillamook, OR); Kendall Denham, MSU Billings (G, 5-11, Fr., Malta, MT);  Aubrey Ball, Northwest Nazarene (G, 6-3, Sr., Dallas, TX).

Women’s Basketball - Maddey Pflaumer, Seattle Pacific (F, 5-11, Jr., Issaquah, WA) scored a career-high 27 points in the Falcons’ 79-58 win over 7-3 Northwest University. Pflaumer was the key to the offense early as she had 14 of the Falcons first 18 points of the game. She also added eight rebounds and three blocks.

Honorable Mention –   KeKe Wright, Alaska Anchorage (F, 6-0, Sr., Las Vegas, NV – Gillette); Courtney Johnson, Central Washington (F, 6-0, Sr., Kent, WA); Kayleen Goggins, Montana State Billings (F, 6-1, Sr., Shepherd, MT); CoCo Gall, Northwest Nazarene (G/F, 5-11, Fr., Pasco, WA); Megan Wiedeman, Saint Martin’s (F, 6-0, Jr., Sammamish, Wash.); Katie Colard, Western Washington (G, 5-9, Sr., McCleary, WA).