WEEKEND ROUNDUP: WWU's McDermott, Davis, and women's 4x4 race to conference lead at Vernacchia...
In Bellingham, Western Washington put on a show on its senior day at the Ralph Vernacchia Invitational at Civic Stadium Saturday, two weeks before the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championships return to the same venue.
For the Vikings, Kevin McDermott (Paul Merca photo) ran a school-record 4:02.32 in the outdoor mile, breaking the previous record of 4:03.64 by Mac Franks in 2022. En route, he crossed 1500 meters in 3:45.35, though in the TFRRS list, the mark is entered at the converted mile mark of 3:44.37.
Ila Davis ran a personal-best time of 4:30.42 in winning the 1500m to take the conference lead.
Western's 4 x 400 meter relay team of Kennedy Cook, Annabelle Heiman, Caitlyn Cheney and Bec Bennett lowered their school (and GNAC) record for the third consecutive week with a winning time of 3:40.20 to jump into the national top 10.
Other top five GNAC marks came from Central's Jacob Hall in the 100 (10.57) and All-American Johan Correa in the mile (4:05.61, and 3:49.07 en route; 3:47.41 converted); Seattle Pacific's Annika Esvelt in the 1500 (4:33.92); and Western Washington's Ryan Clough in the 5000 (14:25.30).
GNAC COMBINED EVENTS START MONDAY IN BELLINGHAM...
Western Washington will host the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Combined Events championship meet starting Monday at Civic Stadium.
Central Washington is sending a group of ten athletes, with NCAA indoor triple jump champ Emy Ntekpere (photo courtesy Central Washington Athletics) the most notable entry, even though she hasn't completed a heptathlon this season.
Ntekpere was fourth in last year's conference championship with a score of 4335 in the lone heptathlon she's competed in.
Central's Carley Huber, who was sixth last year, and Western's Nicole Avery, who was seventh in 2024, are in the field.
În the decathlon, Western Washington's Kaden Miller goes into the championship with the second best score this season with 5632 points set at the Central Washington Wildcat Opener last month. He'll be joined by Owen Windrope.
Central will send six decathletes to Bellingham, led by freshman Josh Boast, who is seeded fifth with a score of 5325 points.
Alaska Anchorage's Vivien Liessfeld, who is the defending champion, and Western Oregon's Macy Clemens, who has the top score this season with 4639 points, are the two favorites.
UAA's Tobin Schmidtke has the top score going into the meet with 5917 points, ahead of Kaden Miller's 5632.
Multi event competition gets underway Monday at 10 am with the decathlon 100, and 10:15 with the heptathlon 100 hurdles.
Tuesday's competition starts at 9:30 am with the decathlon 110 hurdles, and 10:30 with the heptathlon long jump.
Seattle Pacific and Saint Martin's will not send athletes to the combined events championship meet. The Falcons' Hannah Chang, who was third last year, is opting to concentrate on individual events.
As of Sunday afternoon, the link to live results and the complete start lists have not been posted.
NOTE: The sports information offices of Western Washington, Central Washington, Seattle Pacific, and the Great Northwest Athletic Conference contributed to this report.
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