Emy Ntekpere of Central Washington wins GNAC heptathlon title...
BELLINGHAM--Central Washington sophomore Emy Ntekpere (photo courtesy GNAC), who ended Monday's competition with the lead at 2928 points, maintained her advantage to win the heptathlon at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Combined Events championship that concluded Tuesday at Civic Stadium.
Out of the gate, Ntekpere, the reigning NCAA Division II indoor triple jump champion and high jump sixth place finisher, won the long jump with a best of 18-11.25 (5.77m) to open a 3708-3480 lead over Western Oregon's Macy Clemens, who overtook Central's Carley Huber for second.
In the long jump, Clemens went 18-0.25 (5.49m), while Huber's best was 17-0.5 (5.19m).
In the javelin, Ntekpere, who is not a strong thrower, managed a personal best of 90-2 (27.49m) to finish tenth, while Huber went 77-7 (23.65m), off of her personal best, and finished 11th.
Clemens threw 101-10 (31.04m) to finish fifth, and cut the lead to 161 points going into the 800.
Ntekpere, whose personal best in the 800 was 2:44.97, needed to stay within 13 seconds to Clemens, whose best in the 800 was 2:26.49, in the final event to win the heptathlon title.
Huber, who is a 400 hurdles specialist, won the 800 in 2:18.40. Clemens finished fourth in 2:29.67, while Ntekpere set a personal best of 2:35.02, almost 10 seconds off her previous best to preserve the heptathlon title with a final score of 4768 to Clemens' 4673.
Huber finished third with 4610.
Western Washington's Nicole Avery was sixth with 4072 points.
Entering the GNAC meet, Ntekpere did not have a score, but did score 4335 points in finishing fourth at last year's championship meet.
Ntekpere's score falls outside of the national top 25, with only the top 16 in the combined events advancing to the national championships in Colorado at the end of May.
Western Oregon will go into next week's GNAC track & field championships with a 17-16 lead over Central Washington, while Western Washington, the defending women's team champions, will start next week with 3 points.
Central Washington's Josh Boast, the first day leader with 3329 points, had a strong start to day 2, winning the 110 hurdles in 15.19.
Though he only threw 92-6 (28.19m) in the discus, he finished fifth. Boast lost what had been a 225 point lead at the end of the first day to Alaska Anchorage's Tobin Schmidtke.
Boast only vaulted 10-2 (3.10m) and threw the javelin 113-2 (34.49m) to find himself behind by 181 points going into the 1500.
In the 1500, Boast finished fourth with a time of 4:50.36 to Schmidtke's 4:53.20, as Western Washington's Owen Windrope won the race in 4:33.16.
Schmidtke won the decathlon comfortably, scoring 6110 to Boast's 5945, a winning margin of 165 points.
Kaden Miller of Western Washington was third with 5860, while Windrope was fifth with 5608 points.
Logan Easley of Central was seventh with 5137, and teammate Matthew Bender was eighth with 4865 points.
Central Washington goes into next week's championships with a 11-10 lead over defending team champion Western Washington and Western Oregon, who are tied for second.
All team points scored in the GNAC Combined Events meet will go towards the outdoor conference championships, which will be contested next weekend in Bellingham.
WASHINGTON SQUADS MAINTAINS HOLD IN DIVISION I TOP 25...
Despite its distance squads competing last week at the Penn Relays, both Washington squads lost ground in the latest USTFCCCA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Rating Index released Tuesday.
The relay events the Huskies contested at the Penn Relays: 4 x 800, 4 x 1500, 4 x mile, and distance medley relays, do not factor into the rating indexes, as only NCAA championship events are factored into the rating index.
The few who competed in individual events at Penn did not factor into the scoring index.
Washington's women dropped two spots to number 13 in this week's index.
The nation's top five women's teams are in order: Georgia, USC, Texas A&M, Arkansas & South Carolina.
Big Ten teams in the top 25 include number 11 Oregon, number 16 Illinois, number 19 Nebraska, and number 21 UCLA.
The men's team drops three spots to number 23 in the rating index.
USC, Texas A&M, Tennessee, Georgia, and Nebraska are the nation's top five men's teams this week.
Other Big Ten teams include number 6 Minnesota, and number 17 Iowa.
In Division II, the Central Washington women moved up one position to number 14, while Western Washington moved two spots to number 21 after last weekend's competitions at the Pee Wee Halsell and Ralph Vernacchia Invitationals in Bellingham.
The only top 20 mark registered by the Wildcats last weekend was by sprinter E'lexis Hollis, who ran 23.41 in the 200 at the Halsell meet on Friday, which is the number 11 mark in Division II.
Western's top 20 marks last week came from the 4 x 400 relay, which set a school and conference record 3:40.20 to end the Vernacchia meet on Saturday to put them number 12 in the country.
Maddy Grandbois threw the shot 47-10 (14.58m) for the number 16 mark in the country, while Katie Potts threw the discus 158-0 (48.15m) for the number 18 mark in Division II.
The top five women's teams are in order: Pittsburg State, Grand Valley State, West Texas A&M, Adams State, and Minnesota State.
No men's teams from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference are in the national top 25, with Western Washington the closest at number 29 in the index.
Pittsburg State, West Texas A&M, Wingate, Grand Valley State, and Missouri Southern are the nation's top five Division II teams.
NOTE: The USTFCCCA and the sports information offices of Western Washington, Central Washington, and the Great Northwest Athletic Conference contributed to this report.
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