Freshmen Braydon Maier and Renick Meyer take GNAC multi-event titles...
The freshman from Selah, Wash. has now captured two conference championships in his inaugural season at Central Washington, which includes winning the heptathlon earlier this year at the GNAC Indoor Championships. Maier tallied a total of 6,751 points in the event to complete his sweep of the multi-events, which is the eighth best total in GNAC history.
Accompanying Maier on the podium was junior Michael Forster, who earned second overall. Forster finished the meet with a total of 6,732 points, which was the ninth-best performance by a GNAC athlete. Forster used a third-place finish in the final event of the meet, the 1,500-meter, to propel himself into second-place.
First-day leader Kodiak Landis of Central Washington finished seventh with a final score of 6140, as he was hampered with an injury, rendering him all but ineffective for the rest of the competition. The injury was most evident in the pole vault, one of his best individual events, as he only cleared 8-0.5 (2.45m).
Western Washington’s Seren Dances finished eighth with a final score of 6071 points.
In the women’s heptathlon, Seattle Pacific freshman Renick Meyer rode the momentum of the furthest long jump recorded under any conditions in GNAC history, soaring 20-5 (6.22m) on her third attempt with a +2.6 meter per second wind, to win the overall title with a final score of 5114 points.
Meyer got on a roll to start day 2, going 19-9.75 (6.04m) in the first round, with a +2.1 meter per second wind.
While both marks are wind-legal for multi-event competitions, they are just over the allowable for open competition.
Meyer then took second overall in the javelin, throwing a personal best 122-9 (37.42m), while her teammate Scout Cai threw 111-5 (33.97m), and first day leader HarLee Ortega of Central Washington threw 103-4 (31.49m).
Entering the final event, Meyer, who was in third after day one with 2883 points, behind Ortega’s 2957 points, had a 216 point lead over Ortega, 4419 to 4203.
In the final event, Cai finished second overall in 2:18.54, while Ortega was fifth in 2:26.14, and Meyer seventh in 2:29.85. Cai scored 843 points in the 800 to Ortega’s 742, allowing Cai to overtake Ortega for second with a final score of 5017 to Ortega’s 4945 for third overall.
The GNAC Track & Field championships resumes May 11-12th in Monmouth, Oregon on the campus of Western Oregon.
Complete results 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.
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