Central Washington's HarLee Ortega wins GNAC heptathlon title & earns NCAA auto qualifier...
Ortega, who led after day one with a score of 3,118 points, had top-five finishes in each of the final three events to win with a heptathlon lifetime-best score of 5,212 points. The score not only automatically qualifies for the NCAA Division II Championships, but is the fourth-best score in Division II this season.
Seattle Pacific junior Scout Cai was second with a lifetime best score of 5,034 points. The total improves Cai to No. 6 in Division II.
Brown, meanwhile, won three of the five events on day two to move up from second place and win the decathlon with a score of 7,007 points.
Central Washington Braydon Maier, last year’s decathlon champion, was second with a score of 6,811 points. Wildcats’ senior Michael Forster placed third with a score 6,548 points.
Seattle Pacific junior Renick Meyer opened the day by winning the long jump with a leap of 18-3.25 (5.57m). Bone won the javelin by 15 feet with a mark of 123-11 (42.49m). Central Washington sophomore Sidney Trinidad won her third individual event of the competition, the 800 meters, in 2:14.39.
Trinidad finished fourth with a final score of 4783, while Meyer, last year’s conference champion, took fifth with 4764 points, and earn team points for their schools.
"I'm really happy and pleased that it has all come together at once," Ortega, a native of Payette, Idaho, said. "It's been a while. I feel like a long time coming. It's super exciting because it is my senior year. If you would have told me five years ago that I would have scored this, I wouldn't have believed you. It's kind of surreal. I simply went out and competed to my best ability. I didn't stress or overthink about anything. It feels really good to have the confidence I have right now. Hitting the auto-mark is a huge deal.
"HarLee coming through as a senior, with a new personal-record and reaching the national automatic qualifier is as good as you could have scripted it," said Central head coach Kevin Adkisson. "Especially here, on our home track. It was a great meet and will be a great memory for her."
Concordia’s Brown, who was second at the break, moved into the lead by winning the first two events of the day, taking the 110-meter hurdles in 15.08 seconds and the discus with a throw of 148-4 (45.22m). After placing fourth in the pole vault with a clearance of 13-5.25 (4.10m) and finishing 10th in the javelin, Brown secured the victory by winning the 1,500 meters in a time of 4:19.01 for his first GNAC championship.
Central Washington’s Braydon Maier, who was sixth after day one, made his charge by placing no worse than third in the 110 hurdles (15.39), discus (117-10/35.93m), pole vault (14-5.25/4.40m), and javelin (165-6/50.45m), before finishing seventh in the 1500 in 4:38.30.
Teammate Michael Forster took third with strong performances in the hurdles, javelin and 1500.
First day leader Seren Dances of Western Washington finished sixth at 6452, while Josh Schulz of Saint Martin’s was seventh at 5974.
Points earned from the GNAC Combined Event Championships will carry over to the GNAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which take place May 10 and 11 at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, Oregon.
Day 2 results of the GNAC Multi-Events Championship are available here.
NOTE: The Great Northwest Athletic Conference and the sports information office at Central Washington University contributed to this report.
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