Vikings repeat as GNAC men's indoor track & field champs...
Western Washington compiled a total of 137 points to finish well ahead of second-place Concordia’s 87 points. Central Washington finished third with 86 points.
Saint Martin's finished in a tie for seventh with 39 points, and Seattle Pacific was ninth with 21.
The team title was the sixth all-time for Western Washington in indoor competition. The Vikings also won the 2019 cross country championship, giving them two-thirds of the GNAC’s team title triple crown.
For the Vikings, senior Cordell Cummings won his second consecutive 60-meter hurdles championship in 8.31 seconds as the Vikings scored 16 points in the event with Koby Okezie's third place finish in 8.38. The men’s 4x400-meter relay team of Bryant Welch, Mark Daniels, Jon Oglesby and Myles Smith closed the meet with the win in a time of 3:17.76.
Central Washington senior Aidan Cain earned the Performance of the Meet award for winning Friday’s weight throw with a meet-record mark of 61 feet, 2 inches (18.64m).
Central Washington senior Zach Whittaker closed out his indoor career as a two-time champion, winning the triple jump with a leap of 48 feet, 4.5 inches (14.74m). Sophomore Tyren Campbell joined him on top of the podium as he won the pole vault with a clearance of 15 feet, 7 inches (4.75m).
Saint Martin's Tyler Cronk, who won the high jump Friday night with an NCAA D2 auto qualifier of 7-1 (2.16m) was named field event athlete of the meet, as he also scored for the Saints in the long and triple jumps.
On the women's side, Concordia (OR) went out in style to win its first conference title weeks after the school announced that it will close at the end of the current semester.
Concordia finished with 128.33 points, outlasting Seattle Pacific in second place with 121. It is the Cavaliers’ first-ever women’s indoor track and field team title. Central Washington was third at 102.
Western Washington finished sixth with 61.66 points, while Saint Martin's was eighth with 26 points.
Saint Martin’s sophomore Keshara Romain set the meet and conference record in the triple jump with a mark of 41-8 (12.70m). She bettered the meet and GNAC mark of 41 feet, 7.25 (12.68m) set by Western Washington’s Jasmine McMullin in 2018. Combined with a second-place finish in the long jump, the performance earned Romain the Field Athlete of the Meet award.
Central Washington’s Erykah Weems won the 200 in 24.56 seconds, the 400 meters in 56.69 seconds and anchored their 4x400 relay to a win in 3:49.73. Weems’ time in the 200 was the sixth fastest in GNAC history.
Seattle Pacific senior Kate Lilly rounded out Saturday’s champions, winning the 3,000 meters in 9:44.88. It is her first conference title.
All four Washington D2 schools will send selected athletes to Saturday's Seattle Pacific Last Chance meet at the Dempsey Indoor at the University of Washington following the conclusion of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship meet.
Complete results of the GNAC championships are available here.
NOTE: The Great Northwest Athletic Conference and the sports information offices of Central Washington, Saint Martin's, Seattle Pacific & Western Washington contributed to this report.
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