Friday, May 11, 2018
MONMOUTH, Ore. – Concordia used its strength in the throws, led by a pair of conference titles by Josh Koch and Jakob Chamberlin, to take team lead after day one of the 2018 GNAC Men’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Western Oregon University’s McArthur Field.
The Cavaliers scores 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. Bridge placed second with a mark of 52 feet, 1.75 inches.
Central Washington is in second place with 59 points thanks to a pair of Friday champions. Freshman Braydon Maier added the men’s pole vault title to his decathlon win from a week ago, winning with a clearance of 15 feet, 6.25 inches. Josh Boston came alive in the final lap of the 10,000 meters, overtaking Western Washington’s Peter Butler in the final 200 meters to win with a time of 32:08.40.
Western Washington is in the title conversation, currently in third place with 48 points. Northwest Nazarene is fourth with 35 points.
Western Oregon sophomore Alani Troutman defended his championship in the long jump, finishing one-half inch ahead of Elijah Castro of Northwest Nazarene with a winning leap of 22 feet, 5 inches. The Wolves will enter Saturday with seven of the nine qualifiers in the 800 meters, led by Dustin Nading’s top qualifying time of 1:52.69. Castro, meanwhile, turned in the top time in the preliminaries of the 110-meter hurdles in a time of 15.04 seconds.
Montana State Billings’ Jorey Egeland outlasted Simon Fraser’s Oliver Jorgensen for the steeplechase title. His winning time of 8:55.30 moves him to No. 7 on the Division II best list. The Yellowjackets’ Sam Zook stands in position to repeat as 100 and 200-meter champion. He turned in the top times of the preliminary heats of 10.58 seconds and 21.45 seconds, respectively.
Northwest Nazarene’s Ebu Camara clocked a school record in the preliminaries of the 400 meters, clocking the top time of the day in 47.85 seconds. Simon Fraser’s Vladislav Tsygankov was the top qualifier in the 400-meter hurdles, turning in a time of 52.50 seconds.
The final day of the GNAC Men’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships begins Saturday at 10 a.m. (Pacific) with the hammer. Running events commence at noon.