Willamette Women Earn Sixth Consecutive NWC Title

Bearcat men finish second at the 2007 Northwest Conference track and field championships.

Andrea May was selected Athlete of the Meet. Photo: Willamette Univeristy Athletics

TACOMA, Wash. - Willamette University won its sixth consecutive Northwest Conference women's track and field championship on Saturday, while the Bearcat men's team finished in second place, on the final day of the 2007 NWC Track and Field Championships.

Willamette was led by Andrea May who was selected Athlete of the Meet.

WU Head Coach Matt McGuirk was named NWC Women's Track and Field Coach of the Year.

In the final women's team standings, Willamette had 257.33 points for a margin of victory of 133.33 points.

George Fox University was second with 124 points and was followed by Linfield College in third with 114 points, Whitworth College in fourth at 87, the University of Puget Sound in fifth at 76.33, Pacific Lutheran University in sixth at 71.33, Pacific University in seventh at 45 and Lewis & Clark College in eighth with 36 points.

Linfield College won the men's team title with 211.83 points.

Willamette trailed by just 16.83 points, as the Bearcats finished with a total of 195 points for second place.

Whitworth was third at 157, while Puget Sound was fourth at 124.5, George Fox was fifth at 69.66, Lewis & Clark was sixth at 23, Pacific Lutheran was seventh at 19 and Pacific was eighth with 15 points.

May won two events for the Bearcats. She took first place in the 100-meter dash in 12.80 seconds. She also finished first in the100-meter hurdles in 14.97 seconds.

Her time in the hurdles would have been an NCAA Division III provisional qualifier, but the hurdles were not set at the correct height.

Julio Vieyra also won two events on Saturday. He outran the field in the 800-meter run, finishing in 1:55.05, then won the 1,500-meter run with a time of 3:57.21.

Other winners for Willamette on the second day of the championships were:

Jennifer Luecht in the women's 200-meter dash, leading a 1-2-3-4-5 sweep by Willamette after clocking in a 25.95 seconds.

Mariah Hanson in the women's 400-meter dash with an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 57.38 seconds, as she helped WU take first through third in the event.

Sarah Zerzan in the women's 1,500-meter run, as she improved her NCAA provisional time with a result of 4:33.87. The Bearcats finished first and second in the event.

Jordyn Smith in the women's 400-meter hurdles. She recorded an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 1:02.95. She also recorded an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 1:03.36 in the preliminaries on Friday, April 20.

The Willamette women's 4 x 100-meter relay team of Autumn Schmeck, Lydia Marsalli, Kaitlin St. John and Katie Klein, which won their event in 49.33 seconds.

Willamette's 4 x 100-meter women's relay team of Hanson, Klein, Sascha Larsen-Helbing and Luecht, who won the their event by nearly 11 seconds with an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 3:53.20.

Ian Batch in the men's 5,000-meter run. Batch, who won the 10,000-meter run on Friday, led a 1-2-3-4-5 sweep by the Bearcats in the 5,000.

Individual champions for the Bearcats on the first day of competition were:

Jena Winger in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, as she earned an NCAA Division III provisional qualifying time and Baker Stadium record at 10:52.71.

Melinda Fahey in the discus throw with a toss of 131’10”.

Batch in the 10,000-meter run in a time of 31:52.95.

Overall, Willamette won eight women's events and three men's events during the NWC Championships. Willamette's next action will be at the Western Oregon Twilight Meet on Friday, April 27th, starting at 2:30 PM.

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