Falcons claim GNAC women's indoor title #10, while Viking men fall short; Lagat sets yet another masters WR...

NAMPA, Idaho—Seattle Pacific’s women’s squad (above/photo courtesy GNAC) claimed its tenth Great Northwest Athletic Conference indoor track and field title Saturday at Jackson’s Track, with strong performances by its sprint corps.

Seattle Pacific scored 146 points to finish 12 points ahead of defending champ Alaska Anchorage.  Central Washington was fourth with 87, while Western Washington was sixth with 44, and Saint Martin’s tied for seventh at 32.

The Falcons got victories from 400 meter runner Jahzelle Ambus, who ran a personal best and school record of 56.18 to finish ahead of Simon Fraser’s Chantel Desch, along with a win by their 4 x 400 meter relay team of Ambus, Tasia Baldwin, Jalen Tims, and Jasmine Johnson, as the quartet ran an NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 3:50.68.

In addition to Ambus’ win in the 400, they scored big points in the 200, led by Becca Houk’s second place finish in a school record 24.89, leading three other Falcons to go 2-3-4-5 and score 23 points.

The 400 got the Falcons 17 points, as Johnson and Tims went 5-6 behind Ambus.

In the 60, Houk finished second in 7.66, while Kyra Brannan was fifth in 7.99.

Central’s Becki Duhamel won her second event of the meet, taking the shot put at 44-8 (13.61m), while Jasmine McMullin of Western Washington won the triple jump at 38-2.75 (11.65m).  The Vikings took a big hit in the 3000 as conference leader and reigning cross country champ Katelyn Steen fall started out of the race.

Western’s bid for a third straight GNAC indoor crown fell six points short, as Alaska Anchorage got a second place finish in the meet’s final event, the 4 x 400 meter relay to earn its first conference crown, scoring 142 to the Vikings’ 136.

Central Washington was fifth with 65 points, while Saint Martin’s was seventh at 42.5, and Seattle Pacific was ninth with 12.

The Vikings got wins from Travis Milbrandt in the 60 hurdles, Alex Donigian in the 60, and Brett Watson in the high jump.

Milbrandt won the hurdles in a school, conference and meet record time of 8.08.  Donigian won his third straight 60 crown in 6.82, but couldn’t defend his title in the 200, losing out to Western Oregon’s Cody Warner, 21.60 to 21.66, as both broke the old meet record.

Central Washington got a 1-2 finish from Kevin Stanley and Armando Tafoya in the weight throw, as Stanley won his second event of the meet with a toss of 55-9.25 (17.00m) to outdistance Tafoya (53-5.5/16.29m).

The Wildcats’ Luke Plummer won the triple jump with a conference and meet record mark of 49-5 (15.06m).

Heptathletes Jayden Yoro and David Durden highlighted Saint Martin’s efforts Saturday with their 2-4 finish, with Yoro scoring 4870 to finish behind Alaska Anchorage’s Cody Thomas, who scored a meet record 4985 points, breaking his old mark of 4904 from last year.  Durden finished the two-day competition with 4635 points.

Complete results from the GNAC championships are available here.

In Birmingham, England, Washington State alum Bernard Lagat finished third in the 2 mile at the Sainsbury’s Indoor Grand Prix meet, as reigning Olympic and world 5000/10000 champion Mo Farah of Great Britain, who trains in Portland as part of the Nike Oregon Project set a world best of 8:03.40, beating the previous world best of 8:04.35 set by Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele at this same meet in 2008.

Lagat’s efforts netted him a time of 8:17.05, which gave him his second world over-40 masters best in a span of seven days.

Results from the Sainsbury’s Indoor Grand Prix meet are available here.

In Montreal, Mark Wieczorek of the Seattle-based Brooks Beasts finished second in the 600 in a special race set up in conjunction with the Canadian indoor championship meet.

The race was billed as an attempt to go after the world best of 1:15.12 set by Nico Motchebon of Germany in 1999.

Luguelin Santos of the Dominican Republic took the win in 1:16.01, with Wieczorek second in 1:17.04, and Dai Greene of Great Britain third in 1:17.59.

Video of the race is available here, courtesy of trackie.ca.  Results of the race are available here.

At the Alex Wilson Invitational in South Bend, Indiana on the campus of Notre Dame University, Washington State's Jesse Jorgensen finished second in the 800, running a season best 1:49.83 to finish behind Iowa State's Will Teubel, who ran 1:49.65 for the win.

The Cougars' Abby Regan was sixth in the mile, as she clocked 4:47.96.  Last week, Regan set a new school record in the mile at the Husky Classic, running 4:43.91.

Results from the Alex Wilson Invitational are available here.