Friday, March 10, 2023

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Western Washington claimed All-American trophies, Seattle Pacific senior Vanessa Aniteye took one step closer to a championship and Northwest Nazarene sophomore Steven Schmidt impressed in the heptathlon to lead the GNAC on day one of the NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.

Competing in the final event of the opening day, the Vikings’ DMR squad of Drew Weber, Brian Le, Jonah Bloom and Will Henry were competitive from start to finish, moving into third after the third left before finishing seventh in a time of 9:51.19.

The Simon Fraser DMR team of Aiden Good, Felix Allen, Jordan Schmidt and Sebastian Brinkman placed 12th in a time of 10:00.80.

Aniteye, who entered the meet with the top time in Division II this season, cruised in her preliminary heat, winning with a time of 2:09.56 to earn one of six automatic qualifiers to Saturday’s final. It was the third-fastest time of the prelims, bettered the 2:07.79 of Helen Braybrook of CSU-Pueblo and the 2:08.30 of Aryelle Wright of Colorado.

Schmidt closed the first day of the heptathlon in seventh place with a score of 3,067 points. He sits just a point behind sixth-place Jacob Wadsworth of Lenoir-Rhyne and 150 points behind the current leader, Aaron Worrell of Azusa Pacific.

Schmidt only got better as the day progressed. He started with a 14th-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles in 7.41 seconds before placing ninth in the long jump at 22 feet, 1.25 inches and eighth in the shot put with a mark of 40 feet 2.25 inches.

He then put on another show in the high jump, surpassing the field by three inches to win with a clearance of 7 feet, 0.25 inches that matched the lifetime best that he had in the heptathlon at the GNAC Championships.

Simon Fraser sophomore Marie-Éloïse Leclair easily moved through to Saturday’s finals in both of her events. In the 60 meters, Leclair took second in the first heat and earned an automatic qualifier to the final in a time of 7.40 seconds. She then went through as a time qualifier in the 200 meters with a time of 23.87 seconds. Leclair had the fifth-fastest time of the day in both events.

Western Oregon junior Hunter Hutton captured a spot in Saturday’s finals in the men’s mile, taking the last time qualifier out of a fast second heat that six of the seven competing athletes advance. Hutton ran a time of 4:08.29, which was faster than two of the automatic qualifying times of the first heat. Simon Fraser sophomore Charlie Dannatt, who entered the No. 2 time in the event in Division II, did not start due to illness.

Alaska Anchorage sophomore Coleman Nash opened his meet by placing 12th in the men’s 5,000 meters in a time of 14:19.39. The cross country All-American will try for another trophy in the 3,000 meters on Saturday.

Prior to joining his teammates in the DMR, Weber placed 10th in the preliminary heats of the men’s 800 meters, clocking a time of 1:53.06. In the women’s mile, Simon Fraser junior Megan Roxby saw her indoor season close with a 17th-place finish in a time of 4:53.13. In the women's 60-meter hurdles, Central Washington sophomore Lauryn Chandler finished 13th in a time of 8.74 seconds while her teammate, junior E'lexis Hollis, finished 14th in the women's 60 meters preliminaries in 7.51 seconds.

The final day of the championships for the GNAC begins with Schmidt in the heptathlon pole vault at 11:30 a.m. (Eastern).