Tuesday, April 5, 2016

PORTLAND, Ore.  – Episode 90 of the conference’s weekly radio show – GNAC Insider – aired Tuesday night at 7 p.m. Pacific time. The show featured Western Oregon baseball pitcher Darrien Moran, Western Washington javelin thrower Bethany Drake and Seattle Pacific distance runner Turner Wiley.

Moran is a senior left handed starting pitcher for the Western Oregon baseball team. He is a member of the top pitching staff in the GNAC that leads the conference with a combined 2.94 earned run average. Moran has made six starts for the Wolves this season and owns a 3.67 ERA and 2-3 record. He has also completed two games with 33 strikeouts in 41.2 innings pitched. Western Oregon is coming off its best series of the season, sweeping Central Washington in four games for the first GNAC sweep of the season. The Wolves jumped from fifth place to second place in the standings with the four wins. Moran pitched seven innings in game three, allowing four runs with seven strikeouts in the 9-5 victory. Moran spoke about the pitching staff's dominace this season, the sweep of Central Washington and the chance to play the Wolves first games on their home field this season.

Drake is a junior javelin thrower for the Western Washington track and field team and the 2014 national champion in the event. Drake was forced to redshirt her 2015 season after suffering a back injury, but is back in action this season and performing well. She took first place at the Texas State Bobcat Invitational last weekend with a season-best throw of 166 feet, nine inches (50.83 meters), ranking second in all of Division II this season. Her performance earned her the GNAC’s Women’s Field Athlete of the Week. Drake spoke about recovering from her injury last season, winning the national title as a sophomore and her work back this year to reach her top form.

Wiley is a senior distance runner for the Seattle Pacific track and field team, coming off his best career performance. Wiley broke his own outdoor school record in the 10,000 meters, putting himself on the NCAA Division II provisional qualifying list for the first time in his career. He finished the event in 30 minutes, 53.09 seconds at the San Francisco State Distance Carnival, breaking his record by about 10 seconds. Wiley also competes in other distance events such as the 5,000 meters, where he hopes to break the 46-year-old outdoor record this season. Wiley spoke about breaking two school records this season, his goal to break the 5,000 meters record and how he hopes to reach his goals for his senior season.

GNAC Insider is hosted by Rob Lowery airing live at 7 p.m. Pacific every Tuesday and is produced by the conference office. All episodes become available as free podcasts via iTunes. To listen to archived episodes go to GNAC.TV.