Ntekpere doubles up with win in the triple jump as Central finishes 7th in NCAA champs...
PUEBLO, Colorado--Central Washington rode the wave of two individual victories by Emy Ntekpere (photo courtesy CWU Athletics) to finish seventh at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships Saturday afternoon at the CSU-Pueblo ThunderBowl.
For the Wildcats, who were the Great Northwest Athletic Conference runner-ups, the seventh place finish, scoring 31 points, was the highest in school history, with its previous high a 20th place finish in 2019.
It ties a seventh place finish by Alaska Anchorage in 2013 and 2019, and by Seattle Pacific in 2007 as the highest placing by a GNAC team.
The meet, which was originally scheduled to finish around 8 pm local time, was moved up several hours due to a potential threat of a storm towards the end of the meet. Competition finished just after 5 pm, local time.
Grand Valley State won the women's national title with 60 points, with Adams State second at 59.
Defending national champs Pittsburg State won the men's team title with 111, with West Texas A&M second at 66.
One day after winning the high jump, Ntekpere, the reigning NCAA indoor triple jump champion, completed the indoor/outdoor sweep with her win, jumping a wind-aided 43-8.75 (13.33m).
Ntekpere went to the lead early with a wind-legal first round jump of 43-5.25 (13.24), just off her personal best of 43-6 (13.26m).
She jumped a wind aided 43-6 (13.26m) in round 3, but still wasn't clear, as Janara Bryant of Mount Olive, who jumped 43-1.5 (13.14m) in round 2 to move into second, was waiting to pop a big one.
Bryant did just that in round 5, bounding 43-6.5 (13.27m) to take a 1-centimeter lead going into the final round.
Bryant did not improve on her fifth round jump, so it was up to Ntekpere as the final jumper of the competition.
In that final jump, Ntekpere rode the wind (+4.2) and landed at 43-8.75 (13.33m) to take the victory.
With that victory, Ntekpere became the first GNAC woman to win the title in the triple jump, with the previous highest placing a sixth place finish by Emily Warman of Western Washington in 2012.
"After (Bryant's) jump to take the lead, I could sense that Emy was a bit down, so I had the team run down to the front row and tell her, 'you got this!' I felt that she needed to hear that from her teammates," CWU head coach Jonathan Hill said afterwards.
Ntekpere became the first field event athlete in GNAC history to win two individual events at the NCAA championships, and the second all-time, behind Caroline Kurgat of Alaska-Anchorage, who won the 5000/10000 double twice in 2018 and '19.
The Wildcats 4 x 100 relay team of Elise Hopper, Zoe Gonzales, E'lexis Hollis, and Ashlyn Nielsen were disqualified in the 4 x 100 meter relay, in their quest to become the first team from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference to score in that event.
Central, who was running on the outside in lane 9, originally finished fifth in 44.40, but were disqualified for a lane violation for steps on the inside.
The points they could have earned in the 4 x 100 were potentially the difference between a seventh place finish and a spot on the podium, as West Texas A&M and Fresno Pacific tied for fourth with 35 points.
Hollis bounced back to finish second in the 100 meters, setting a personal best of 11.25, as Alexis Brown of Lenoir-Rhyne set an all-time Division II best of 10.93.
In the 200, Hollis came back to finish sixth in 23.27, as Brown of Lenoir-Rhyne won her second individual team title of the meet, running 22.37.
Hollis' second place finish is the highest placing by a GNAC athlete, with Canadian Olympian Marie-Eloise Leclair of Simon Fraser's fifth place finish in 2023 the previous high.
"E'lexis ran angry after the DQ, as the team had already been given their awards," said Hill.
Johan Correa, Central Washington's lone men's competitor, finished sixth in the 800 meters, after running the fastest time in Friday's preliminary heats.
Correa ran 1:50.11, as Josue Le Cadre of Indianapolis won in 1:48.16.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS:
--Western Washington's Maurice Woodring finished ninth in the men's 400 hurdles in a time of 51.63;
--Central Washington's Lauryn McGough finished in a tie for tenth in the women's pole vault with a clearance of 12-10.25 (3.92m). Former Washington Husky Sarah Ferguson, who transferred to Roberts Wesleyan, finished sixth with a best of 13-8.25 (4.17m).
Tokyo Olympian Brynn King of Roberts Wesleyan, the former NCAA outdoor record holder at 15-7 (4.75m) before Amanda Moll of Washington broke it, won with a jump of 14-10 (4.52m). She took three unsuccessful shots at reclaiming the collegiate record at 15-9 (4.80m).
--Western Washington's Jessica Polkinghorn finished tenth in the women's shot put with a best of 48-4.5 (14.74m). In the men's javelin, WWU's Jakob Braunstein was 19th with a best throw of 198-2 (60.41m).
--Seattle Pacific's Annika Esvelt, returning after running the 10000 Thursday night, finished ninth in the 5000. She ran 17:01.85 after having a 1200 meter stretch towards the end of the race where she ran laps of 84 and 85 seconds to knock herself out of a spot on the podium.
In the men's 5000, Western Washington's Kevin McDermott, who perhaps may have been affected by the altitude of 4692 feet above sea level, finished 21st in the men's 5000 in 15:28.67.
NOTE: The NCAA, Great Northwest Athletic Conference, and the sports information offices of Central Washington, Western Washington, and Seattle Pacific contributed to this report.
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