Monday, April 30, 2018

NAMPA, Idaho – Central Washington multi-event standouts Kodiak Landis and HarLee Ortega are halfway to conference titles as the two Wildcats lead their respective events after day one of the GNAC Combined Event Championships, held Monday at the Brian & Nichole Bohner Track.

Landis, who entered the meet ranked third in Division II the men’s decathlon, finished the first five events with a 262-point lead over teammate Michael Forster with 3,806 points. Forster stands second with a score of 3,544 points. Concordia’s Giovanni Brown is in third with 3,477 points and Western Washington’s Seren Dances is close behind in fourth with 3,468 points.

Ortega, meanwhile, sits first in a close women’s heptathlon that sees just 74 points separate the top three. Ortega leads after four events with a score of 2,957 points. Seattle Pacific’s Scout Cai, the GNAC leader entering the championship, is in second with 2,896 points while the Falcons’ Renick Meyer sits third with 2,883 points. Also in the mix is Concordia’s Chelsea Bone, who is fourth with 2,804 points.

Landis built his decathlon lead by winning two of the five first-day events and finishing in the top-three in two others. He opened the competition by setting a conference multi-event meet record in the 100 meters with a time of 10.81 seconds and closed the day with a victory in the 400 meters in 49.02 seconds. Landis placed second in the long jump with a mark of 23 feet, 2.5 inches and took third in the shot put with a mark of 38 feet, 3.25 inches.

Dances took first in the long jump with a leap of 23 feet, 3.5 inches. Northwest Nazarene’s Micah Tranch was the winner in the high jump with a clearance of 6 feet, 4.75 inches.

While Ortega did not win any single event in the heptathlon’s first day, she built her lead with three top-three finishes. She opened the day running 14.89 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles, placing third. She followed that up with second-place finishes in the third event of the day, the shot put, with a mark of 33 feet, 9.25 inches, and in the 200 meters with a time of 25.77 seconds.

Meyer won two of the first day’s four events. She opened the competition by winning the 100-meter hurdles in 14.22 seconds and closed with the victory in the 200 meters in 25.13 seconds. Meyer’s Falcons’ teammate, Geneva Lehnert, won the high jump with a leap of 5 feet, 7 inches, and Concordia’s Chase Stephens won the shot put with a mark of 34 feet.

The second and final day of the GNAC Combined Events takes place on Tuesday. The decathlon will commence at 9 a.m. with the 110-meter hurdles and the heptathlon will begin at 10 a.m. with the long jump.