Western Washington races to early team lead after day 1 of GNAC championships...

ELLENSBURG--As expected, Western Washington's men's and women's track and field squads jumped out to an early lead after the first day of competition at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championships at the Recreation Sports Complex on the campus of Central Washington University Monday under sunny skies that brought the temperature into the 80s.

After eight of 21 events in the men's competition, Western has 97 points, with Northwest Nazarene second with 52 points, and Central Washington third at 46.75. Seattle Pacific is in sixth with 18 points, while Saint Martin's is ninth with 5 points..

Meanwhile in the women's team race, the Vikings have a 76.5-67 lead over the Wildcats. Seattle Pacific is sixth with 18 points, and Saint Martin's eighth with 10 points after seven events.

WOMEN'S RECAP...

Western earned two wins Monday from conference leader Jessica Polkinghorn (Nathan Herde/GNAC photo) in the javelin, as she threw a personal best 152-11 (46.61m) in the second round and never looked back. Her mark currently stands at number 15 on the NCAA D2 descending order list, pending the results of other conference championship meets this week.

Their other win came from Sydney Mohlman in the pole vault, who cleared 12-1.25 (3.69m) on fewer misses over Central's Addy Claybrook.

Central collected 21 points from Madeline Harrison in the 10000, who ran 37:38.90, and led Payton Conover to a 1-2 finish. The Wildcats also got a seventh and eighth place finish from Hannah Pidduck and Lillian Neff.

Seattle Pacific's Maya Ewing won the 3000 steeplechase in 10:51.23, while Saint Martin's Janess Blackburn scored a mild upset in winning the discus with a throw of 146-0 (44.52m). Blackburn's win made her the first in school history to win the discus.

MEN'S RECAP...

Seattle Pacific's Tawaf Aboudou (Nathan Herde/GNAC photo) leaped 24-6.25 (7.47m) for the sixth-longest outdoor long jump in GNAC history. That made him the third man in program history to take home the gold medal, joining David Njeri (2023) and Peyton Harris (2016). He came up just shy of the meet record of 24-8.25 (7.52m) set by David Registe of Alaska Anchorage in 2008. 

Taking home his second-career gold medal in the men’s discus was Western Washington’s Liam Wall, who threw 178-3 (54.34m). Wall also won the event in 2024, the last time it was hosted by Central Washington.

The Vikings got 21 points out of the discus, as they had three other scorers--Connor Inman in fourth (158-6/48.31m), Alex Pytte in fifth (155-8/47.46m), and Liam Brewer in seventh (153-7/46.82m).

While not putting a winner on the podium, Western scored 19 points in the steeple and javelin, and 15 in the shot put.

The meet concludes on Tuesday with the remainder of the track and field event finals on tap. Field events begin at 10 am with running-event finals kicking off at 2 pm. The link to live results is available here.

NOTE: The GNAC and the sports information offices of Saint Martin's, Seattle Pacific, Western Washington, and Central Washington contributed to this report.

paulmerca.blogspot.com may receive a commission for any purchases made from links clicked. Please support this site and our sponsors by clicking on the links. You can also support the site by clicking the yellow "Buy Me A Coffee" link below.