Central gets two wins from Emy Ntekpere to start GNAC indoor championships...
SPOKANE--The Central Washington women and the Western Washington men emerged after Monday's first day of competition at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference indoor track and field championships as the team leaders going into Tuesday's conclusion at The Podium.
Central Washington leads pre-meet favorite Western Washington by a 54-49 margin after 6 of 17 events finished, while Western Washington jumped to a 74.5-22 advantage over second place Northwest Nazarene, with Seattle Pacific only a point down in third.
WOMEN'S FINALS...
Twenty of Central's points Monday came from Emy Ntekpere (Loren Orr/GNAC photo), who won both the long jump and high jump.
Ntekpere took the long jump with a second attempt mark of 19-0.75 (5.81m), and overcame a sixth round jump of 18-10.75 (5.76m) by Alaska Anchorage's Vivien Liessfeld, who a few hours beforehand, won the pentathlon with a score of 3467 points to hold off Central Washington's Carley Huber, who scored 3424 points.
Ntekpere passed her sixth round long jump attempt after Liessfeld's jump was short of the distance needed to overtake her in order to prepare for the high jump, where she's the NCAA D2 outdoor champion.
The All-American was behind Western Washington's Kora Cook on misses leading up to the eventual winning height of 5-7.25 (1.71m), which she cleared on her first attempt.
Cook missed all three tries at that height to finish second with a best of 5-6 (1.68m).
Ntekpere qualified for Tuesday's finals in the 60 hurdles with the fifth fastest time of 8.94, and is entered in the triple jump.
Central Washington got a win from Maliyah Gordon in the weight throw as she threw a personal best 58-9.25 (17.91m) in the fourth round to overtake conference leader Kathryn Chapin of Western Washington, who threw 58-6 (17.83m) in the first round.
Seattle Pacific's Maya Ewing, the defending champion at 5000 meters, was caught by Northwest Nazarene's Morgan Erler on the final straightaway, winning in 17:23.38 to Ewing's 17:24.17.
Ewing's teammate Anna Prussian was third in 17:28.76.
MEN'S FINALS...
In a mild upset, Western Washington's Austin Seals (Loren Orr/GNAC photo) won the pole vault with a personal best clearance of 16-0.75 (4.90m) to beat conference leader Ryan Doidge of Saint Martin's, who cleared 15-9 (4.80m).
The Vikings got another win in the weight throw from Calvin Gutierrez as he threw 63-6.75 (19.37m) to beat teammate Angelo Ramos' 60-3.25 (18.37m).
Tawaf Aboudou of Seattle Pacific won the long jump with a best of 23-4.5 (7.12m) in the fifth round, as he was the only jumper over 7 meters.
Western Washington's Gabe Menicke was second with a best of 22-10 (6.96m) in round 2.
In the two finals contested on the track, Western Washington's foursome of Nathanial Rumberger, Evin Ford, Jonah Bloom and Eli Williams won the distance medley relay in 10:05.70.
In perhaps the most exciting final of the day, Northwest Nazarene's Brody Kemble somehow weaved his way past a group of three Western Washington runners and lapped traffic on the outside to win the 5000 meters in 14:45.14.
George Fernandez (14:45.20), Sten Brakstad (14:45.61), and Jonah Billings (14:45.89) of the Vikings went 2-3-4 in a race that any of them could have won.
QUALIFYING...
In the women's 60 hurdles, Seattle Pacific's Hannah Chang had the second fastest time of the day, running 8.65.
Tawaf Aboudou of Seattle Pacific ran the fastest time of the day in the 60, going 6.73.
Defending GNAC champion Bec Bennett of Western Washington ran 54.35 to lead two other Vikings into the finals of the women's 400.
After the first day of competition in the men's heptathlon, Anders Larsen of Alaska Anchorage holds a 2945-2875 advantage over Drew Klein of Central Washington.
Josh Boast of Central Washington stands third at the break with 2716 points, while Kaden Miller is in sixth with 2351 points.
The GNAC championships resume Tuesday at 8:30 am with the heptathlon 60 hurdles. On the field, the men's high jump kicks off action at 9:30 am.
The first final on the track is the women's mile at 11 am,
Media partner RunnerSpace.com ($) will stream day 2 of the GNAC championships.
NOTE: The Great Northwest Athletic Conference and the sports information offices of Central Washington, Seattle Pacific, Saint Martin's and Western Washington contributed to this report.
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