ELLENSBURG, Wash. ? Three Seawolf athletes and two men's relay teams won conference titles, while senior Michael Madrid was named the meet's Most Outstanding Male Performer, as Alaska Anchorage wrapped up its best-ever outing at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships here today at Tomlinson Stadium.
UAA's men finished a program-best second overall in the tightly contested team standings, while the women also registered a program-best result of fifth in the final standings.
Madrid (Anchorage), sophomore Kim Brady (Odessa, Texas) and junior Laura Carr (South Bend, Ind.) combined to win four individual conference titles, while UAA also won titles in both men's relay events. Overall, the Seawolves earned a program-best 17 individual all-conference accolades combined Saturday.
UAA's two-day haul at the seventh annual event produced a program-best nine conference titles and 20 all-conference performances.
Just 15 points separated the top four men's teams as the Seawolf men amassed 157 points, finishing 9.5 behind team champion Western Oregon (166.5), while Western Washington grabbed third (152) and Central Washington fourth (151.5).
WOU competed with 30 athletes at GNACs while UAA participated with a squad of 16 men.
Western Oregon made it a sweep by also claiming the top women's spot with 162 points, edging defending champion Seattle Pacific by only four points. Western Washington placed third (142), followed by Northwest Nazarene (138) in fourth. UAA scored 105 points to round out the top 5.
The highest the Seawolf men had placed at GNACs prior to this season was fourth (2007, 2006), while the women's best team result was sixth (2007, 2006).
Madrid swept the 100 and 200 meter events for the second consecutive season, and also ran legs on UAA's winning 4x100 and 4x400 relay squads. The former East High standout clocked a 10.84 in the 100 and a 21.82 in the 200 to collect the third and fourth individual league titles of his career. The four individual titles are the most by either a Seawolf men's or women's athlete.
Madrid anchored the 4x100 squad (Eric Walsh {Fairbanks}, Brandon Grant {Anchorage}, David Registe {Palmer}) to a winning time of 41.59, and ran the first leg on the 4x400 team's (Levi Sutton {Kenai}, Grant, James McLaughlin {East Bethel, Minn.}) winning effort of 3:17.30.
The 4x100 relay team set a new GNAC meet record with their outing, while the 4x400 squad set a new school record with their performance. The league titles are the first by a UAA relay team.
Collecting her second title of the meet and third of her career was Brady, who bettered her own GNAC record in the triple jump by registering a booming leap of 39-3 ?. Brady, who also won the long jump title Friday, becomes just the second UAA women's athlete to earn multiple titles at the same meet.
Earning her second career league championship was Carr, who defended her title in the women's 5000 meters with a winning run of 17:44.74. Carr edged teammate Elizabeth Chepkosgei (Kapsabet, Kenya), who finished runner-up with a time of 17:45.17.
Chepkosgei also picked up all-conference accolades in the women's 1500 by placing third (4:36.42).
Five other Seawolves recorded runner-up efforts, led by junior David Kiplagat (Kapsabet, Kenya), who placed second in both the men's 5000 and 3000 steeplechase and Registe, who was second in both the 100 and 200 dash events.
McLaughlin broke his own UAA record in the 400 meters (48.15) while placing second, while freshman Shaun Ward (Anchorage) bettered his own school standard in the 400 hurdles (54.22) with his runner-up effort.
Senior Jessica Houston (Anchorage) earned her first-career all-conference honor by taking second in the women's shot put.
Other all-conference performances were given by Grant in the men's 400 (3rd), Kiplagat in the men's 800 (3rd), Ward in the 100 hurdles (3rd) and sophomore Peter Doner in the 3000 steeplechase (3rd).
A handful of Seawolf athletes will try to either improve their established provisional NCAA marks or attempt to reach provisional marks over the next couple weeks at a few different “last chance” meets prior to the 2008 NCAA Championships (May. 22-24).
