Two More Champions Lead Banner Day At NWC Track Championships
Meet Results
SALEM, Ore. – Two more conference champions, massive personal best performances, another school record and the men's best team finish in four decades highlighted a banner day for the Pacific track and field teams as they concluded the Northwest Conference Championships Saturday at Willamette University's Charles Bowles Track.
The Boxer men had 17 individual event placers, led by the second conference title of the meet for
Tyler Shipley (Fr., Forest Grove, Ore.) and a title for
Kelson Kawai (Jr., North Kohala, Hawaii), to finish third in the team standings with 122 points. The Boxers were just 10 points short of perennial NWC power Willamette for second place in what is the Boxers' best finish at conference since 1977.
Pacific's women finished with seven individual event placers, topped by a school record effort for the 1,600-meter relay team, to place eighth with a total of 33 points.
Shipley completed an amazing long distance double, capturing the title in the 5,000 meters with a time of 15:10.26. The freshman cruised to beat Lewis & Clark's Samuel Smith by five seconds. After having won the 10,000 meters the night before, Shipley was selected by the conference's coaches as the Men's Track Athlete of the Meet.
Kawai, meanwhile, pulled out a lifetime best to win the triple jump with a leap of 44 feet, 6.25 inches. Kawai also tied for second place with teammate
Budweiser Hawkins (So., Las Vegas, Nev.) in the high jump, with both clearing 6 feet, 6.25 niches. The clearance was a lifetime best for Hawkins and moved him to No. 6 on the Boxers' all-time list.
The men were helped greatly by their depth in the jumps and hurdles, with a total of six placers in the jumps (four on Friday) and five placers in the hurdles.
Jeremy Parkinson (Fr., Hubbard, Ore.) finished fifth in the triple jump with an effort of 43 feet. 10.5 inches.
Daniel Wagner (So., Kailua, Hawaii) and
Ted Wogan (So., Klamath Falls, Ore.) placed in both hurdles races. Wagner placed third in the 400-meter hurdles in 56.64 seconds and added a fifth place finish in the 110-meter hurdles in 16.01 seconds. Wogan was seventh in both races, clocking 58.39 seconds in the 400-meter discipline and 16.59 seconds in the high hurdles.
Michael Hunker (Sr., Cornelius. Ore.) finished his final NWC meet with a third place finish in the 110-meter hurdles, clocking 15.57 seconds.
Michael Zane (So., Honolulu, Hawaii) led three Pacific scorers in the sprints, placing second in the 200 meters in 22.43 seconds.
Sean Valente (Jr., Ewa Beach, Hawaii) led three placers in the 400 meters as he crossed in third in a season best 50.06 seconds. The time moves Valente into No. 7 on the Boxers' all-time list.
Trey Oshiro-Atabay (So., Aiea, Hawaii) placed fifth in 50.65 seconds while
Stefan Lemak (Fr., Los Altos, Calif.) placed sixth with a season best 50.69 seconds.
Both men's relays secured top four finishes. The 400-meter relay placed fourth in 43.24 seconds, while the 1,600-meter relay placed third in a season best 3:23.40 to give Lemak, Oshiro-Atabay, Hunker and Valente all-conference distinction.
In the throws,
Taylor Hickson (So., Red Bluff, Calif.) threw for a 26-foot lifetime best in the men's javelin, placing fifth with his mark of 189 feet. 0.75 inches. The performance is No. 2 all-time for the Boxers and missed the school record by just two feet.
A record effort in the 1,600-meter relay led the way for the Pacific women. The team of
Emily Tuffey (So., Valencia, Calif.),
Sarah Tuffey (Jr., Valencia, Calif.),
Alexis Damo (Fr., Honolulu, Hawaii) and
Kelli Aken-Pagdilao (Jr., Makakilo, Hawaii) placed fourth in 4:05.10, cutting seven seconds off the record time of 4:12.58 set last year. The four opened the meet with a fourth place time of 50.23 seconds in the 400-meter relay, a time that ranks No. 2 all-time for the Boxers.
Aken-Pagdilao came through earlier in the day with a second place finish in the 100 meters, following up her school record in the preliminaries with a time of 12.68 seconds.
Sarah Tuffey added a fourth place finish in the 400 meters with a season best time of 1:00.33 that improved her No. 3 all-time mark.
Rachel Schreiber (So., Longmont, Colo.) finished fourth in the 1,500 meters. Her time of 4:43.28 moved her into No. 2 on the Boxers' all-time list.
Dannika Sullivan (Fr., Portland, Ore.) added an eighth place finish in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:10.26.
Britta LaVoie (Fr., Spokane, Wash.) was the Boxers' only placer in the women's field events, placing fifth in the pole vault with a clearance of 10 feet. 2.5 inches.
In all, Pacific finished the meet with three conference champions and 15 All-NWC performers based on top-three finishes.
Whitworth was a runaway winner in the men's team competition, finishing with a total of 287 points to claim their third straight NWC championship. George Fox held off a late surge by Willamette to win their third straight title, compiling 188.5 points to finish eight points ahead of the Bearcats.
Pacific will continue competition next weekend as they host their sixth annual Pacific Twilight. Competition begins on Friday afternoon at Lincoln Park Stadium at 4 p.m.
