GPAC Outdoor Championship

• PREVIEW
• RECAP/RESULTS

The Event... The Northwestern College track and field teams will compete in the GPAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships this weekend in Hastings, Neb. The Red Raiders will send over 50 athletes to compete in the conference meet which will get underway on Friday, April 30 around 1:00pm with the multievents. On Saturday, field events will get underway around 11:30 am followed by the running events at noon. The 2010 event will conclude around 8:05 pm with the running of the 4x00m relays. Click on the following links for the GPAC press release and complete schedule of events:  GPAC Release | Schedule of Events

Teams Competing...All 13 GPAC teams will be competing in both the women's and men's championships. Doane captured both championships last year, winning the women's title for the 11th straight year while taking home the men's championship for the second year in a row.

Last Year... Northwestern turned in 14 all-conference performances in individual events and four in the relay events in 2009.

The Raiders finished eighth out of 11 teams in the women's team competition with a total of 40 points. Emily De Weerd turned in the best performance for Northwestern on the day with a second place finish in the 100m hurdles, crossing the finish line in 15.2 seconds. Corrie Fautsch finished sixth in the 400m hurdles with a time of 1:07. Andrea Wedel earned all-conference accolades with an eighth place finish in the 100m dash with a time of 13.1. Three Raiders picked up points in the distance events. Ingrid Carlson placed fourth in the 10,000m with a time of 40:16 and Sara Hess finished fifth in the 5,000m with a time of 19:04. Steph Powell picked up points for NWC with a seventh place finish in the 3,000m steeplechase (12:16.3).

Northwestern turned in three all-conference performances in the women's field events. Danielle Fry placed fifth in the discus with a toss of 133-6 while Elizabeth Stevens placed sixth in the javelin with a toss of 107-07. Halee Wilken cleared 10-03.25 and placed eighth in the pole vault.

Two women's relay teams earned all-conference honors as the 4x800 finished third and met the provisional mark with a time of (9:40.08). Relay members include: Kristin Neth, Krystina Smith, Delainye Hardersen and Mary Maassen. The 4x400 relay team placed sixth with a time of 4:03.15. (Emily DeWeerd, Andrea Wedel, Delainye Hardersen and Krystina Smith).

The men's team finished the championship in 11th place out of 13 teams with 20 points. Both Kyle Sauter and Logan Ogden earned all-conference honors in two events to lead NWC. Sauter finished seventh in the 400m hurdles (56.3) and placed eighth in the 110m hurdles (15.5). Ogden turned in a fourth place performance in the discus (151-11) and placed sixth in the shot put (50-08) where he met the NAIA provisional standard. Mark Mineart was the other top finisher for the men's team with a sixth place finish in the high jump, clearing 6-03.2.

Two men's relay teams earned all-conference honors, led by the 4x100m team that placed fifth out of 11 teams. The team of Jordan Langer, Jameson Guthmiller, Parker Moore and Luke Hofmeyer crossed the line in 43.2 seconds. The men's 4x800m team placed seventh with a time of 8:04.5 (Ben Brown, Lee Stover, Eric Posthuma and Andy Norris).

NWC Outlook...The men's team has 12 individual entries and two relays seeded in the top 20 according to the final GPAC performance list. Kiley Murra, Paul Lundgren and Mark Mineart are each ranked in multiple events. Murra is seeded ninth in both the shot put (14.66m) and javelin (47.24m) and 16th in the discus (42.03) while Lundgren is ranked 11th in the shot (14.39) and 10th in the discus (44.73m). Mineart is currently ninth in the high jump (1.91m) and 16th in the javelin (44.31m). Five men's runners are seeded in the top 20, led by freshman Brandon Hammack who is seventh in the 100m with a time of 10.97. Another freshman, Taylor Hoekstra, is 19th in the 400m with a time of 51.2. Both runners will also compete in the 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams that are seeded ninth and seventh respectively. Sophomore Keagan Hicks is 19th in the 3000m steeplechase (10:47.76)  and Jordan Boekhout (110m hurdles) and Abe Klafter (400m hurdles) are seeded 19th in their respective events.

Charity Miles, Kendra De Jong and Danielle Fry lead a women's team that has 12 entries seeded in the top 10 and an additional 17 more ranked in the top 20. Miles is seeded first in the 5000m, having met the NAIA qualifying standard with a time of 17:47.53. Two other NWC runners, Sara Hess (18:43) and Allison Weeldreyer (19:04), are ranked 11th and 18th in the 5000m. De Jong is seeded first in the high jump with a NAIA qualifier mark of 1.76m. The freshman from Hospers, Iowa, is also seeded fourth in the 400m hurdles (1:05.56) and ninth in the 100m hurdles (15.9). Corrie Fautsch is seeded fifth in the 400m (1:06.47) and Stacey Dietrich is seventh in the 100m hurdles (15.6) along with Shannon Bowar (17th-17.04). Fry is seeded in the top 10 in four field events, including seventh in both the shot put (13.02m) and discus (41.97m). She has already qualified for nationals in the shot put and met the provisional standard in the discus. Fry is then seeded eighth in the hammer (46.04) and javelin (33.7). Elizabeth Stevens is ranked third in the javelin (36.65) and Bowar is third in the heptathlon (3,506 points). Ingrid Carlson is ranked 12th in the 10,000m with a time of 40:52.7. The women's 4x400 relay team is third and met the NAIA provisional mark with a time of 3:59.3, Relay members include De Jong, Dietich, Ana Morgan and Krystina Smith.

GPAC Performance List

Up Next...Northwestern will send a limited number of athletes to the Last Chance meet next Saturday, May 8, hosted by USF.