Seattle Pacific's Katy Gross wins third GNAC pentathlon title...


NAMPA, Idaho--Seattle Pacific senior Katy Gross (left/photo courtesy Great Northwest Athletic Conference), who went into the GNAC indoor championship meet without a score due to not getting into the UW Invitational pentathlon last month, took her third straight conference title at Jacksons Track Friday to become the ninth woman to win the same event three times.

Gross broke her own meet record in the event scoring 3,505 points.  She also tied the meet record for the best high jump mark in a pentathlon with a leap of 5-4 1/2 (1.64m). 

On the day, Gross won four of five events, taking the 60 hurdles (9.19), high jump (5-4 1/2, 1.64m), shot put (36-5 1/2/11.11m) and long jump (17-9 1/2/ 5.42m), and ran 2:40.04 in the 800 for sixth.

Becki Duhamel of Central Washington set a meet record with a winning throw of 54-2 (16.51m)  in the weight throw, while Emily Warman of Western Washington tied the meet record of 18-9 3/4 (5.73m) in winning the long jump.  It was Warman's second career win in the long jump.  She also won the event in 2010.

Duhamel and Warman's records broke and tied two of the three oldest remaining women's meet marks.  Duhamel eclipsed the record of 53-9 1/4 set by Kristin Hepler of Western Oregon in 2004, while Warman tied SPU's Danielle Ayers-Stamper's 2005 record.

The Viking women, who got wins from Warman and Karis Anderson in the pole vault (12-4), lead Alaska Anchorage by 15 1/2 points, 63 1/2-48.  Northwest Nazarene is third with 33 points and nine-time defending champion Seattle Pacific is fourth with 31.

Western Washington leads five-time champion Western Oregon 46-39 in the men's division.  Alaska Anchorage is just 10 points back in third place with 36 points.

The Vikings got wins Friday from Logan Meyers (6-7)in the men's high jump and Kevin Yates (23-4) in the long jump.

In qualifying, the Falcons' Kishia Mitchell ran the fastest time in the 60, running 7.80, to lead three Falcons and three Vikings into Saturday's finals; the Vikings' Tanya Bjornsson had the leading time in the 60 hurdles at 8.84, as two Vikings and one Falcon are in the finals.

In men's qualifying, Western's Alex Donigian led runners along with Northwest Nazarene's Rimar Christie in the 60 dash, clocking 6.91. Kent McKinney of Central Washington (7.04) and Western's Anthony Do (7.11) also advanced to Saturday's final.  

The Vikings will have three men in the finals of the 60 hurdles, while the Wildcats will have one.


DREW JORDAN LEADS COUGS IN MILE VICTORY IN KIBBIE DOME

In Moscow, Washington State junior Drew Jordan won the men's mile in a lifetime-best time and led four additional Cougars to lifetime or season-best times Friday at the Idaho Collegiate II meet at the Kibbie Dome.

Jordan's winning time was a PR of 4 minutes 4.64 seconds followed by Todd Wakefield's runner-up time of 4:05.13, a season-best for the Aussie junior. Lee George finished third with a PR time of 4:05.99 and Justin Englund finished fifth in a PR time of 4:08.98.

Shaquana Logan, a senior from Tacoma, won the women's 60m hurdles with a season-best time of 8.72 with Morgan Clem, running unattached, second in 8.90 and Andrea Smith third in a season-best time of 9.11.

The Huskies' Hannah Sherrill finished fourth in the discus (139-11/42.66m) and freshman Alyx Toeaina was sixth with a toss of 125-10 (38.36m).

Whitworth's Carter Comito took a shot/discus double, winning the shot with a toss of 54-6 3/4 (16.63m) and spinning the disc 184-6 (56.25m) at one of the few venues in the country where the discus is thrown indoors.

In the men's 3000, Gonzaga's Conor McCandless led seven of the first ten Bulldog runners across the line, winning in 8:35.59.

It was yet another erratic performance by NCAA indoor scorer Keisa Monterola in the pole vault, as the Eastern Washington senior no-heighted yet again.


NOTE:  The media relations office of the GNAC, and the sports information office at Washington State University contributed to this report.

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