MCMINNVILLE, Ore. – The Pacific track & field teams had a strong first day at the Northwest Conference Track & Field Championships on Friday.  Of the 12 finals on Friday, four field events and two running events for each gender, Pacific was the only school to come away with three champions.  Eight additional athletes scored points including two additional podium (top three) finishes.  After the first day of competition and seven events scored per gender (including the combined events from Apr. 9-10), the women are in fourth place with 34.5 points and the men are in fifth place with 26 points.

Dianna Church (Bothell, Wash.) defended her title in the women's hammer, Jason Draper (Novato, Calif.) won the men's hammer after finishing second last year and Karen Du (Santa Clarita, Calif.) won the women's shot put after finishing third last year.  Church led the entire competition and won with a throw of 45.56m (149-6).  Draper threw a personal best of 52.23m (171-4) and missed the Pacific school record by just 2 cm.  Du was in second after the preliminaries, but took the lead on her first throw of the final with a winning mark of 12.82m (42-0.75).

Brian King (Los Angeles, Calif.) finished third in the men's hammer throw (48.84m [160-3]) and Josh Huffman (Puyallup, Wash.) finished third in the men's shot put (14.60m [47-11]).  Other scorers on the day included Chris Butcher (Portland, Ore.) fifth in the men's long jump (6.55m [21-6]), Brynna Close (Riverside, Calif.) tied for fifth in the women's pole vault (3.16m [10-4.25]), Church fourth in the women's shot put (12.37m [40-7]), Megan Wesel (Winchester, Calif.) sixth in the women's shot (12.21m [40-0.75]) and eighth in the women's hammer throw ([]) and Emily DeYoung (McMinnville, Ore.) seventh in the women's shot put (12.05m [39-6.5]).

Two athletes who finished ninth in their respective events moved up the Boxer top 10 lists.  Airel Farley (Glide, Ore.) ran 12:15.13 in the women's steeplechase which is sixth all-time at Pacific.  Jenna Hoiland (Happy Valley, Ore.) jumped 5.16m (16-11.25) in the women's long jump which is third best in Pacific history.

Eight runners qualified for Saturday's finals in Friday's preliminaries.  Garrett Price (Medford, Ore.) qualified in the men's 100 (11.30) and 200 (22.63) meters.   Audrey Lincoln (Hermiston, Ore.) qualified in the women's 100 meters (13.08).  Butcher and Megan Eberhardt (Gig Harbor, Wash.) qualified in the men's (49.91) and women's (60.70) 400 meters respectively.  Jess Knoll (Arlee, Mont.) and Riley and Garrett Stewart (Forest Grove, Ore.) qualified in the women's (2:20.66) and men's (1:59.05 and 1:59.36) 800 meters respectively.  Candice Nkoy (Salt Lake City, Utah) qualified in the women's 400 hurdles with a personal best of 68.81 which is tenth best in Pacific history.
 
The NWC Track & Field Championships continue Saturday beginning at 10:30 am with five field event finals.  Running events begin at noon.