Eastern Washington's Kyle King wins 10000 at Big Sky...

At the Big Sky Conference championships in Bozeman, Montana, Eastern Washington senior Kyle King (#133, photo courtesy EWU sports information) made school history by becoming the first Eagle to win a conference title in a distance race above 800 meters.

King took the men's 1000 in 30:52.23 to take the crown by nearly 16 seconds.

King, who is set to transfer to Oklahoma after the season and compete as a graduate student, will be running in the 5,000 meters on the final day of the meet on Saturday. He was champion in that event at the Big Sky Conference Indoor Championships in February.

“Kyle just ran a very sound, tactical race,” said men’s head coach Stan Kerr. “He didn’t realize he was just one second away from setting the stadium record, which would have been the icing on the cake.

“But winning a championship is a rare feat,” added Kerr. “Kyle had some outstanding competition and he rose to the occasion. It’s good when the team leaders step up.”

Mari Bingham was the only other Eagle to earn all-conference honors (top three finish) during the first day of the championships, as her discus distance of 148-7 cemented her in third place.

Results from the Big Sky championships are available through the meet's home page.

The final day of the Big Sky championships is Saturday.

In Humble, Texas, Kaytie Bateman of Chehalis and Katie Tougas of Edmonds from Seattle University found their way onto the medal stand with top three finishes as the second day of the 2012 Great West Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships took place Friday.

Starting the day in sixth place in the heptathlon after Thursday's four events, Bateman posted a mark of 4.91 meters (16' 1.5") in the long jump, followed by a top effort of 31.21 meters (102' 5") in the javelin throw to move into fifth place. She then posted the fastest time in the 800 meter run among the competitors, a personal-best mark of 2:30.56, to finish with a school-record 4,042 points and a third-place finish in the event.

Tougas finished second in the women's long jump with a top leap of 5.45 meters (17' 10.75"), just over an inch further than the third place finisher.

The Great West meet concludes Saturday. Results are available through this link.

NOTE: The Great West Conference, Big Sky Conference, and the sports information offices of Seattle University and Eastern Washington contributed to this report.