SPOKANE, Wash. - Following a successful weekend in California, Alaska Anchorage swept the Great Northwest Athletic Conference outdoor track & field weekly honors as sophomore Miriam Kipngeno and junior Demietrius Preston were named the Athletes of the Week, the league announced today.

Kipngeno earned her first track & field Athlete of the Week accolade after posting a NCAA provisional time this past weekend. The Kenyan raced to victory at the Occidental Distance Carnival on March 12 in the 5000 meters with a time of 16 minutes, 59.24 seconds, just shy of the automatic time of 16:57.00. She became just the fifth runner in GNAC history to run under 17 minutes.

On March 13, Kipngeno finished fourth in the 1500 meters at the Northridge Invitational with a time of 4:42.00.

Preston just missed the auto mark in the long jump at the Northridge Invite with a career-best leap of 24-6 ¼. The Anchorage native needs to hit 24-7 ¼ for a trip to the 2010 NCAA Div. II Championships (May 27-29 in Charlotte, N.C.). Only two athletes have a better long jump in conference history. 

He also finished seventh in the 200 meters at Northridge with a GNAC season-best time of 22.17. The weekly honor is Preston's second of his career - his first was acquired after qualifying for the NCAAs in 2009.

The Seawolves will have this weekend off to prepare for the Stanford Invitational and San Francisco State Distance Carnival on March 26-27 in San Francisco, Calif.