Vikings' Raquel Pellecer named GNAC women's field event athlete of the week for third time this season...

PORTLAND—The Great Northwest Athletic Conference named Western Washington javelin thrower Raquel Pellecer (above/photo illustration courtesy WWU Athletics) as its women’s field event athlete of the week for her performance at the Stanford Invitational.

Pellecer, a native of Sandy, Oregon, who transferred to Western Washington from Portland State, finished second in the collegiate section of the javelin at Stanford with a personal best throw of 157-2 (47.91m), making her the number one javelin thrower in the conference, and the fourth best in NCAA Division II so far this season.

The Vikings’ long tradition of excellence in the javelin includes recent national champions Monika Gruszecki and Bethany Drake, as well as four-time NCAA All-American Katie Reichert.  All three qualified for the 2016 US Olympic Track & Field Trials.

This is Pellecer’s third women’s field event athlete of the week honors, having won it twice for the week ending March 4th and March 11th.

The conference’s other track & field honorees for last week were David Ribich (men’s track) and Alani Troutman (men’s field) of Western Oregon, along with Caroline Kurgat (women’s track) of Alaska-Anchorage.

The GNAC release is available here.

NOTE:  The GNAC and the sports information office at Western Washington University contributed to this report.