Contact: Bob Guptill (503-305-8756/www.gnacsports.com)
May 7, 2015
22 Past Champions Competing This Weekend In GNAC Championships
THIS WEEK: Friday-Saturday – GNAC Outdoor (at Monmouth).
UPCOMING: May 21-23 – NCAA Outdoors (at Allendale, Mich.)
Myers will have to defeat teammate Travis Milbrandt who
has run a GNAC-record 14.30. Myers is the No. 2 seed
with a best this spring of 14.56.
PORTLAND, Ore. - A total of 22 past champions will
compete in the 14th annual Great Northwest Athletic
Conference Track and Field Championships Friday and
Saturday at McArthur Stadium on the campus of Western
Oregon University in Monmouth.
Watson will be up against GNAC Indoor and Outdoor
record holder Mikel Smith of Saint Martin’s who has an
outdoor best of 6-10 ¾. Watson’s best this spring is 6-8 ¼.
Donigian, Milbrandt and Smith are among four male
athletes to set GNAC records this spring. WWU’s Ryan
Macdonald, the defending discus champion, has also
established a GNAC record this spring in his event (177-5).
Based on entry marks, Alaska Anchorage is a narrow
favorite to win its third straight women’s team title over
six-time champion Seattle Pacific.
UAA edged both Western Washington and Northwest
Nazarene by four points and SPU by 16 last season.
Projected scores have the Seawolves, who scored 23
points last week in the heptathlon, six points ahead of
SPU, which netted nine points in the multi-event
Other past men’s champions include Simon Fraser’s Scott
Commandeur (800) and Oliver Jorgensen (steeplechase);
Alaska Anchorage’s Dylan Anthony (5,000) and Victor
Samoei (10,000); Saint Martin’s Joseph Keeton who was
the 2013 pole vault champion; and CWU’s Luke Plummer
(triple jump) and Kevin Stanley (hammer).
Both the Seawolves and Falcons are projected to score
twice as many points as any other team in the field.
Three women will be seeking to repeat in two different
events. Alaska Anchorage’s Jamie Ashcroft is the defending
champion in both the 100 and 200. UAA’s Haleigh Lloyd
won the 100 hurdles in 2012 and the 400 hurdles in 2013
and Katelyn Steen of Western Washington swept the
5,000 and steeplechase last year.
On the men’s side, Alaska Anchorage – on paper - has a
projected 45 1/2 point lead over three-time defending
champion Western Washington.
Central Washington trails WWU by 24 ½ points and Simon
Fraser trails CWU by seven in the pre-meet team scores.
Both Lloyd (59.20 in 400 hurdles) and Steen (10:13.01 in
steeplechase) have set GNAC records this spring and
Steen’s time ranks second in NCAA Division II.
Five men are already multi past champions including
Northwest Nazarene’s Rimar Christie who will be seeking
his fourth straight 100 meter title.
Two other women also rank among the best in Division II.
Simon Fraser’s Lindsey Butterworth is the national leader
in the 800 (2:04.11 last Saturday at Stanford) and ranks
second in the 1500 (4:18.34).
No man in meet history has accomplished that feat,
though Western Oregon’s Mike Hinshaw won two
PacWest titles in 2000 and 2001 before taking titles in the
first two seasons of the GNAC in 2002 and 2003.
She won the latter event in the 2012 GNAC meet, but will
skip the 1500 and concentrate on the 800 this weekend.
Seeking their third wins in the same event are WWU’s
Logan Myers in the 110 hurdles, UAA’s Elliott Bauer in the
400 hurdles, WWU’s Brett Watson in the high jump and
Franz Burghagen of Alaska Anchorage in the javelin.
WWU’s Katie Reichert, who is the defending champion in
the javelin, ranks third in Division II with a season-best of
165-7.
Christie, Myers and Watson will have to get by athletes
who have set GNAC records this spring to win their events.
Other past champions include GNAC heptathlon champion
Karolin Anders of Alaska Anchorage in the high jump,
Alison Silva of Northwest Nazarene in the pole vault,
Corrie Holm of MSU Billings in the discus and Rebecca
Laible of Western Oregon in the triple jump.
WWU’s Alex Donigian has run a 10.22 wind-aided mark in
the 100 and ranks third on the Division II TFRRS
performance list with a 10.27. Christie is the fourth seed
with a time of 10.65.
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