Central's Kodiak Landis and HarLee Ortega atop GNAC Multi-Events leaderboard at the break...
Landis, who entered the meet ranked third in Division II the men’s decathlon, finished the first five events with a 262-point lead over teammate Michael Forster with 3,806 points. Forster stands second with a score of 3,544 points. Concordia’s Giovanni Brown is in third with 3,477 points and Western Washington’s Seren Dances is close behind in fourth with 3,468 points.
Ortega, meanwhile, sits first in a close women’s heptathlon that sees just 74 points separate the top three. Ortega leads after four events with a score of 2,957 points. Seattle Pacific’s Scout Cai, the GNAC leader entering the championship, is in second with 2,896 points while the Falcons’ Renick Meyer sits third with 2,883 points.
Landis built his decathlon lead by winning two of the five first-day events and finishing in the top-three in two others. He opened the competition by setting a conference multi-event meet record in the 100 meters with a time of 10.81 seconds and closed the day with a victory in the 400 meters in 49.02 seconds. Landis placed second in the long jump with a mark of 23 feet, 2.5 inches (7.07m) and took third in the shot put with a mark of 38 feet, 3.25 inches (11.66m).
Dances took first in the long jump with a GNAC multi-event record in the long jump, recording a leap of 23 feet, 3.5 inches (7.10m).
While Ortega did not win any single event in the heptathlon’s first day, she built her lead with three top-three finishes. She opened the day running 14.89 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles, placing third. She followed that up with second-place finishes in the third event of the day, the shot put, with a mark of 33 feet, 9.25 inches (10.29m), and in the 200 meters with a time of 25.77 seconds.
Meyer won two of the first day’s four events. She opened the competition by winning the 100-meter hurdles in 14.22 seconds and closed with the victory in the 200 meters in 25.13 seconds. Meyer’s Falcon teammate, Geneva Lehnert, won the high jump with a leap of 5 feet, 7 inches (1.70m).
With Ortega, Cai, and Meyer expected to battle for the crown on Tuesday, it may come down to the javelin for Ortega, as Cai has thrown 130-0 (39.63m), as opposed to Ortega’s lifetime best of 113-8 (34.65m), which gives Cai a 95-point advantage based on the points tables.
Meyer is the slightly better long jumper of the three, and Cai the better at the 800 of the trio.
Complete results of day 1 of the GNAC Multi-Events Championships are available here.
NOTE: The Great Northwest Athletic Conference, and the sports information offices of Central Washington and Seattle Pacific contributed to this report.
Comments