Saturday, May 12, 2018

MONMOUTH, Ore. – Seattle Pacific was in second place after day one, but knew that Saturday was truly their day.

The Falcons received two more individual titles from Renick Meyer and Grace Bley and set a meet record in the 4x100-meter relay to stake their claim to the program’s ninth GNAC women’s outdoor track and field title as the GNAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships concluded Saturday at Western Oregon University’s McArthur Field.

Meyer provided 18 more points for the Falcons on Saturday as she won the 100 meters in 12.16 seconds and finished second in the 100-meter hurdles in 14.13 seconds. The performances, combined with her heptathlon win last week and her win in the long jump on Friday, gave Meyer a share of the Field Athlete of the Meet Award. Bley, meanwhile, won the 200 meters with a surge over the final 15 meters to outlast Marie Ries of Alaska Anchorage with a time of 24.70 seconds.

Meyer and Bley opened the day with teammates Julia Stepper and Becca Houk in winning the 4x100-meter relay. Their meet-record time of 46.60 seconds surpassed the previous record of 46.60 seconds set by Alaska Anchorage in 2014.

The three titles helped Seattle Pacific win the team title with a score of 154.5 points. Central Washington and Concordia tied for second place at 121 points. Western Washington was fourth at 105 points and Alaska Anchorage placed fifth with 100 points.

Alaska Anchorage’s Caroline Kurgat was named the Track Athlete of the Meet after she scored 28 points in the meet. Kurgat won the 10,000 meters on Friday in a meet-record time of 34:49.33, cruised to victory in the 5,000 meters in 16:53.43 and came in a close second in the 1,500 meters.

Concordia’s Christina MacDonald shared the Field Athlete of the Meet award with Meyer. After winning the shot put with a mark of 48 feet, 4.5 inches on Friday, MacDonald won the hammer on Saturday with a meet-record of 195 feet, 7 inches. She passed the previous record of 190 feet, 9.25 inches, set by former teammate McKenzie Warren last year.

Meyer and Northwest Nazarene’s Ellie Logan shared the Performance of the Meet award. Meyer was recognized for her win in the heptathlon, while Logan was honored for her win in the javelin. Her mark of 162 feet, 3 inches, set an NNU record and moved her to No. 2 in Division II this season.

Joining the SPU 4x100 relay and MacDonald in the record books was Erykah Weems of Central Washington, who led a top-three sweep of the 400-meter hurdles in a time of 1:00.10. That eclipsed the previous mark of 1:00.29 set by Haleigh Lloyd of Alaska Anchorage in 2015.

Weems was one of four Central Washington individual event winners on the day. Mariyah Vongsaveng repeated as 100-meter hurdles champion as she won in a time of 13.98 seconds. HarLee Ortega captured the triple jump title with a mark of 39 feet, 8 inches, while Halle Irvine survived a jump-off with Western Washington’s Anna Paradee to win the pole vault championship. Both Irvine and Paradee cleared 12 feet, 0.75 inches.

Alaska Anchorage’s Danielle McCormick, the reigning indoor national champion at 800 meters, collected her first GNAC outdoor title in the event in a time of 2:08.25. Vanessa Aniteye repeated as the 400-meter champion as she won in a time of 55.22 seconds.

Simon Fraser collected a pair of titles. Addy Townsend outlasted Kurgat in the 1,500 meters to win with a time of 4:24.59. Townsend then combined with Nicole Lindsay, Sophie Dodd and Renate Bluschke to win the Clan’s four consecutive 4x400-meter title in a time of 3:44.44.