Monday, May 14, 2018

PORTLAND, Ore. – In a week full of postseason action, it is the trio of Seattle Pacific women’s and Concordia men’s track and field along with Western Oregon baseball that are the year’s final Red Lion/GNAC co-Teams of the Week.

Over the weekend, the Seattle Pacific women claimed its ninth GNAC outdoor track and field championship while Concordia earned its first-ever GNAC men’s outdoor track and field title. Western Oregon, meanwhile, claimed its second-consecutive conference title after going 3-1 at the GNAC Baseball Championships in Ellensburg, Wash.

On Saturday, Seattle Pacific’s Renick Meyer paced the Falcons 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. Teammate Grace 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 individual 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.

On the men’s side, it was the throws that paced Concordia to a healthy lead heading into Saturday. Led by a pair of conference titles by Josh Koch and Jakob Chamberlin, the Cavaliers scored 56 of their 63 first-day points in the throws, taking the top-three places in the discus and the top-two places in the shot put. Chamberlin won the discus with a mark of 174 feet, 5 inches. Caleb Bridge was second with a mark of 166 feet and Koch placed third at 163 feet.

Koch, who was the GNAC champion in the shot put in 2016, reclaimed his crown as he finished with a mark of 58 feet, 7.25 inches in the shot put. Bridge placed second with a mark of 52 feet, 1.75 inches. Entering the final day of the meet, Concordia held a 15-point advantage over second-place Western Washington.

Concordia’s Carlos Ortiz won both the 100 and 200 meters and Jacob Slate won the hammer, helping Concordia sew up the team title with a score of 138 points. The Cavaliers also claimed the men’s indoor track and field team title in February.

Coming down to the final game of the tournament, No. 2 seed Western Oregon outlasted No. 1 seed Montana State Billings for an 8-4 win to claim the 2018 GNAC Championships title, the Wolves second in as many years.

The Wolves claimed a 4-3 walk-off win over Central Washington on the opening day of the tournament after Griffey Halle lifted a one-out home run over the right-field fence. On Thursday, WOU continued its dominance by defeating GNAC regular-season champion Montana State Billings 14-8 to advance to Friday’s championship game. After falling to the Yellowjackets’ 6-4 in Friday’s opener, Western Oregon limited the MSUB offense to just four runs on six hits as the Wolves’ Jacob Fricke tossed nine innings for his first complete game of the year in the tournament finale.

Western Oregon’s Jacob Martinez was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player after finishing the tournament by going 9 for 16 with two RBIs and a .750 on-base percentage as the leadoff hitter. The title was the Wolves’ 15th in program history.