Sprinters, Distance Runners Lead Boxers On Day 1 Of NWC Championships
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McMINNVILLE, Ore. – Samantha Lee (Sr., Fort Wayne, Ind.) finished third in the women's 10,000 meters and the women's 100-meter school record fell not once, but twice Friday as the sprinters and distance runners led the Boxers on the first day of the Northwest Conference Track & Field Championships, held at Maxwell Field.
Lee was the top placer for the Boxers in the 12 finals contested on the first day of competition. She proved competitive throughout the 10,000 meters, finishing third with a time of 38:24.24. Her effort allowed the Boxer women to enter into a tie for seventh place with Puget Sound with nine points.
The exciting point of the day, though, came in the double-record setting women's 100 meters. Nicole Smith (Sr., Wailuku, Hawaii) ducked under the record with her time of 12.89 seconds in the first of two preliminary heats. She held the mark for five minutes, though, as Kelli Aken-Pagdilao (Fr., Makakilo, Hawaii) shaved four-hundreds of a second off the mark as she clocked a time of 12.85 seconds in the second heat.
Both women will run in Saturday's finals in both the 100 meters and the 200 meters, where Smith and Aken-Pagdilao ran 26.66 seconds and 26.74 seconds, respectively.
The Pacific men finished the first day in sixth place, scoring 8.5 points thanks to the field events. John Fredericks (Sr., Forest Grove, Ore.) captured fourth place in the pole vault, clearing 13 feet, 8.25 inches. Taylor Hickson (Fr., Red Bluff, Calif.) tied for sixth place in the long jump with a season best leap of 21 feet, 5.5 inches and
Aaron Koford (Fr., Wilsonville, Ore.) placed eighth in the discus with a season best effort of 140 feet, 10 inches.
In all, Pacific will advance 10 athletes from Friday's preliminary heats in nine different events. The Boxers will have three entrants in the women's 400-meter hurdles. Jenna Matsumoto (Jr., Kailua, Hawaii) qualified fifth in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:09.66, Kori Bellwood (Fr., Yamhill, Ore.) qualified seventh in 1:09.94 and Jessica Head (Fr., North Bend, Ore.) was eighth in 1:10.85. Matsumoto also qualified in the 100-meter hurdles, clocking the seventh best time in 16.47 seconds.
Vince Mull (So., Beaverton, Ore.) led qualifiers on the men's side with a season best in the 100 meters of 11.02 seconds, the fourth fastest of 18 competitors. Michael Hunker (So., Cornelius, Ore.) qualified fifth in the 110-meter hurdles in 15.69 seconds and also earned a spot in the 400-meter hurdles final with the second fastest time of the preliminaries of 58.26 seconds. Nathan Gilpin (Sr., Oregon City, Ore.) will join Hunker in the 400-meter hurdles, qualifying sixth in 58.91 seconds.
Alex Florence (Tigard, Ore.) qualified eighth in the 200 meters in 22.90 seconds. Avery Neal (Jr., Los Alamos, N.M.) also qualified eighth in the 800 meters with a time of 1:58.17.
The second day of competition will begin with the first set of field events at 10:30 a.m., with the running events commencing at noon. In addition to the running events, field event finals will be contested in the men's and women's discus, men's and women's triple jump, women's pole vault, men's high jump and the men's and women's shot put.
