Salem, Ore. – The Boxer men and women's track teams competed in day two of the 2023 Northwest Conference Track and Field Outdoor Championships. All events contested today were final rounds. For the Boxers today, Emily Rutkowski, Andrew Reid, Lucas Dahl, Annie Berry, Henry Tierney, Dominic Funk, Romel Moreland, Tyler Vargas, and Zion Booker earned First-Team All Conference Honors, which is given to athletes who finish in the top three of their event(s).
The Boxer's men's x100m relay team started off the day with a new school record! The team of Rome Moreland, Tyler Vargas, Zion Booker and Lucas Dahl ran 41.78, which was good for a second place finish to George Fox's 41.51. George Fox's team set a new NWC Meet Record. The Boxers took down a 47-year-old record from 1976. The record that stood for so long was a time of 41.80, set by the team made of Singer, Casey, Penny and Burt.
Two Boxers took first place today in their event. First, Henry Tierney executed a great 800m final race to finish in first place with a time of 1:55.32. Next, EMily Rutkowski dominated the women's 400m hurdles to come away a champion with a time of 1:05.00.
The Boxers also had 7 athletes finish in second place in their event(s), including the men's 4x100m team. Henry Tierney and Annie Berry both achieved second place finishes in the men and women's 1500m races. Tierney's race came down to the wire against defending champion Ben Kerr of Puget Sound, and Tierney finished in a close second at 3:52.04 to Kerr's 3:51.54. Annie Berry followed and ran a solid second place finish with a monster kick for a new PR of 3:37.20, second to Brenna Sclair of George Fox, who ran 3:34.36. Lucas Dahl had two runner-up finishes today; first, Dahl ran a new PR of 10.77 in the 100m for a close second behind Solo Hines' 10.62 out of Whitworth. Then, Dahl ran to another 2nd place finish in the 200m, running 21.90 to Hines' winning time of 21.60. In the field events, Andrew Reid had a great day, finishing in second in the men's shot put with a big toss of 14.58m (47-10.00). He was second to Masum Real of Pacific Lutheran, who had an incredible final toss of 15.87m (52-00.75). Finally, Dominic Funk took second place in the men's javelin with his throw of 62.75m (205-10). He took second to Cody Wheeler of Whitworth, who had a great final throw of 65.90m (216-02).
Also scoring points for the Boxers today were Drew Reyburn and Jayden Fordham in the men's high jump with Reyburn taking 5th (1.85m, 6-00.75) and Fordham taking 8th (1.75m, 5-08.75); the women's 4x100m team of Dina Altuhovs, Itzel Vazquez, Alexis Lowery and Ally Hammond took 5th (51.26); Will Wada took 5th in the men's 1500m (3:57.78) with an impressive win in the first of two sections that carried over into the combined timed final; Liz Bradley took 6th in the women's 1500m (4:50.42); Ally Hammond was 5th in the women's 100m hurdles (15.43) and 6th in the women's 100m (12.77); Alex Heinze was 4th in the men's 400m (50.90); Zion Booker was 7th in the men's 400m (52.09) and 6th in the men's 200m (22.84); Angelica Gatica Gomez was 4th in the women's 400m (58.61) and 8th in the women's 200m (27.08); Rome Moreland was 7th in the men's 100m (11.16) and Brody Bantolina was 8th (11.27); and Annie Berry was 5th in the women's 5k (18:38.76). The men's 4x400m team of Lucas Dahl, Cooper Rolfs, Kamron Shields and Henry Tierney took 4th in 3:22.3, and the women's team of Dina Altuhovs, Emily Rutkowski, Liz Bradley and Angelica Gatica Gomez took 7th in 4:09.66.
The men's team took 4th place in the overall team finish with 104.5 points. George Fox won the men's title with 221 points. The women's team tied with Lewis and Clark for 5th place in the overall team finish with 65 points. George Fox won the women's title with 257 points.
The Northwest Conference Meet awards some athletes special recognition for outstanding achievements. Lucas Dahl was the overall third-highest point scorer on the men's side of the whole conference meet. He scored 23.25 points. Grady Lemma of PLU was the highest point scorer on the men's side with 29.5 points. Dahl was also tied for the second-highest male point-scorer in the track events - he tied with teammate Henry Tierney, as they both scored 19.25 points. Solo Hines was the highest male point-scorer in the track events, as he scored 20.75 points.
Lastly, freshman Ally Hammond won the award Rookie of the Year! This award is given to the best newcomer in the Northwest Conference Championships for both men and women.
After a full two days of great competition, there was some movement on Pacific's Top Ten Lists!
Men's 4x100m Relay
Moreland, Vargas, Booker, Dahl - #1, 41.78
Men's x400m Relay
Dahl, Rolfs, Shields, Tierney - #10, 3:22.36
Women's 4x400m Relay
Althuovs, Rutkowski, Bradley, Gatica Gomez - #8, 4:09.66
Men's 100m
Lucas Dahl - #4, 10.77
Men's 1500m
Henry Tierney - #2, 3:52.04
Will Wada - #7, 3:57.78
Men's 3k Steeplechase
Carlos Masuko - #9, 10:02.44
Up Next
Some of the Boxers will head to the Oregon State High Performance meet next Friday and Saturday in Corvallis to chase some school records and potentially some NCAA qualifying marks. For the latest information on Pacific Athletics, make sure to check out GoBoxers.com. You can also find the Boxers on social media at @GoBoxers and @BoxerTFXC, and on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
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