Past GNAC multis champs Braydon Maier & Renick Meyer emerge victorious in Ellensburg...

ELLENSBURG--Central Washington's Braydon Maier (photo courtesy CWU Athletics) and Seattle Pacific's Renick Meyer, both of whom were past NCAA D2 All-Americans, came back from first day deficits to win the Great Northwest Athletic Conference decathlon and heptathlon at Central Washington's Recreation Sports Complex Tuesday.

A pair of strong second-day performances provided the duo their first titles since 2018. Maier won the decathlon with a score of 6,776 points. He used first-place finishes in three of the five second-day events, the 110-meter hurdles, the pole vault and the 1,500 meters, to pull ahead well ahead of first-day leader and freshman teammate Ryan Thoma.

Western Oregon junior JJ Walker finished second with 6,584 points while Thoma placed third with 6,580 points.

Much like Maier in the decathlon, Meyer won two of the three second-day events to pull clear of first-day leader Elena Cano of Alaska Anchorage to win the heptathlon with a score of 4,903 points. Meyer won both the long jump and javelin and closed the day with a fourth-place finish in the 800 meters.

Cano placed second with 4,855 points with Western Oregon freshman Jenelle Hurley finishing third with 4,519 points.

Maier won both of his second day specialties, the 110 hurdles and the pole vault, before adding the exclamation point by winning the 1500.

In the 110 hurdles, Maier ran 15.26 to score 818 points. He took fourth in the discus with a mark of 101-8 (30.99m). then vaulted 15-5 (4.70m) to separate himself from the rest of the field. 

Maier, who is ranked number 12 on the NCAA D2 descending order list with a score of 6849 from earlier this season, then finished second in the javelin at 159-7 (48.64m), before salting it away with a 4:39.37 clocking in the 1500.

First day leader Thoma won the javelin with a throw of 169-6 (51.66m).

Western Washington's Cooper Cummings finished fifth with 5916, while Viking teammate Ryan Kenny was seventh at 5697.

In the heptathlon, Meyer, who was an All-American in 2018, opened the day with her specialty, the long jump, and didn’t fail on providing a winning mark with her leap of 19-2 (5.84m). She then threw a personal best in the javelin on her final attempt to win at 108-10 (33.17m). Meyer finished the day with a fourth-place time of 2:27.30 in the 800.

McCall DeChenne of Central Washington was fourth with 4383 points, while teammate Hailey Holsey was fifth at 4321.

Kellie May of Seattle Pacific was seventh at 3944, and Leanne Kibbee of Western Washington finished eighth with 3840 points.

Complete results of the GNAC Combined Events Championships are available here.

FINAL REGULAR SEASON MEET FOR EASTERN WEDNESDAY AT WHITWORTH...

Eastern Washington will send a number of athletes to compete in Wednesday's Whitworth Twilight meet at Whitworth University in Spokane, as those athletes look to improve their standing in the conference descending order list ahead of next week's Big Sky championships in Ogden, Utah.

Gonzaga will also send a number of athletes to the meet.

Events get underway at Whitworth's Boppell Track starting at 3 pm.

Start lists and live results are available here. 

NOTE: The Great Northwest Athletic Conference and the sports information offices of Seattle Pacific University, Western Washington, Central Washington, Eastern Washington and Gonzaga contributed to this report.

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