Contact: Bob Guptill (503-305-8756/www.gnacsports.com)
March 11, 2015
Seven GNAC Teams In Inaugural NCAA Division II Outdoor Top 25
THIS WEEK: Friday - Lewis & Clark Invitational (SMU).
Saturday - Eastern Oregon Team Challenge at Hermiston
(CWU, NNU); Lewis & Clark Invitational (SMU); Rose City
Preview (SPU, WOU, WWU).
PNQ in the men’s javelin and the Saints’ Kali Walker had a
141-11 PNQ in the women’s javelin.
Chalkey is the 18th javelin thrower in GNAC history to pass
the 200-foot barrier. His distance ranks 12th.
Seawolves, Viking Men 4th, 6th in USTFCCCA Poll
Four GNAC athletes currently have the No. 1 performance
nationally in Division II – Notz in the men’s 5K and Porter
in the women’s 10K and Katie Reichert of Western
Washington in the javelin (159-2 on March 7 at the UPS
Five-Way) and Franz Burghagen of Alaska Anchorage in the
men’s javelin (224-10 on March 7 at Las Vegas).
PORTLAND, Ore. – Led by Alaska Anchorage and Western
Washington, seven GNAC teams are in the Top 25 in the
first USTFCCCA Outdoor Track and Field national rankings.
The computer rankings put UAA’s men fourth right in back
of three CCAA teams – Chico State, Cal Poly Pomona and
UC San Diego.
Early season action continues this weekend as Saint
Martin’s competes Friday in the Lewis & Clark Invitational;
Seattle Pacific, Western Oregon and Western Washington
visit Portland Saturday to compete in the Rose City
Premier and Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene
head to Hermiston for the Eastern Oregon Team
Challenge.
Puerto Rico Rio Piedras is fifth, while Western Washington
is sixth. Also in the Top 25 is Western Oregon at No. 18.
At No. 12, Western Washington is the top-ranked GNAC
women’s team.
Computer Nails Simon Fraser National Finish
The top seven ranked women’s teams are all from either
California or Puerto Rico. GNAC teams Alaska Anchorage,
Western Oregon and Central Washington are 17th, 19th and
20th, respectively.
Simon Fraser was ranked seventh in the final USTFCCCA
computer rankings taken prior to the NCAA Division II
national meet and that is exactly where the Clan finished
at last week’s meet at Birmingham, Ala.
GNAC athletes produced eight new national qualifying
marks in Weekend #2, four of them by Alaska Anchorage
at the Occidental Distance Carnival last Friday in Los
Angeles.
SFU scored 24 points in the meet in earning its highest
finish ever in the NCAA Indoor.
UAA qualifiers at the Carnival included Nathan Kipchumba
in the men’s 800 (1:51.25), Dominik Notz (14:15.61) and
Henry Cheseto (14:18.61) in the 5,000 meters and Amy
Johnston in the women’s 5,000 (17:13.92).
The Clan earned seven All-American awards in the meet.
Overall, GNAC athletes claimed 18.
Lindsey Butterworth who won the women’s 800 national
title in a time of 2:08.44 was a two-event All-American as
she and her teammates Rebecca Bassett, Monique Lisek
and Paige Nock also finished second in the distance
medley relay in a GNAC-record time of 11:28.28.
Kipchumba’s time ranks seventh in GNAC history, while
Notz and Cheseto’s times rank fourth and seventh on the
GNAC Top 10 list.
UAA’s 4x400 relay team also had a GNAC Top 10 time
recording the fifth-fastest mark in GNAC history (3:14.84).
Their time was .77 seconds off the NCAA standards.
SFU’s final two All-American came from Jennifer Johnson,
who finished third in the 3,000 meters, eclipsing a 30-year
old meet record with a time of 9:26.82, and from Travis
Vugteveen, who was sixth in the men’s mile in a time of
4:12.49.
Four other PNQs were established at the Pacific Lutheran
Invitational, three by Saint Martin’s athletes.
Alaska Anchorage had six All-Americans – four from its
eighth-place DMR team of Jessica Pahkala, Rosie Smith,
Haleigh Lloyd and Beatrice Decker – and two from multievent athletes Karolin Anders who placed seventh in the
women’s pentathlon and Codie Thomas, who was second
in the men’s heptathlon.
SMU’s Shannon Porter ran a 35:39.79 in the women’s
10,000. That’s the eighth quickest 10K in GNAAC history.
Dani Eggleston of Central Washington had a PNQ of
17:11.79 in the 5,000. SMU’s Brian Chalkey had a 205-4
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