WWU junior Maddie Taylor and coach Pee Wee Halsell have been honored by the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. PHOTO: WWU Athletics
WWU's Taylor & Halsell Earn GNAC Honors
March 27, 2019
TAYLOR NAMED GNAC INDOOR TRACK & FIELD
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR
BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Western Washington University junior high jumper Maddie Taylor has been selected as the 2019 Great Northwest Athletic Conference Indoor Track & Field Female Newcomer of the Year.
Taylor (Seattle, WA/Auburn Mountainview) won the high jump at the GNAC Indoor title clearing 1.69m/5-6.5 at the conference championships. She went on to place 11th at the NCAA II Indoor Championships to earn Second Team All-America honors. Earlier in the 2019 season, Taylor set a PR and recorded the second-best mark in WWU indoor history and the 6th-best mark in GNAC history at 1.73m/5-8.
Taylor, a transfer from the University of Montana, is the first Viking to earn the GNAC Women’s Indoor Newcomer of the Year award.
Taylor is off to a great start in her senior year of eligibility in the outdoor season, breaking the 35-year-old school record in the high jump at 1.74m/5-8.5. Her mark is currently the top performance in NCAA Division II this season.
WWU’S HALSELL EARNS GNAC MEN’S INDOOR
COACH OF THE YEAR HONOR
BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Western Washington University Track & Field and Cross Country head coach Pee Wee Halsell has been selected as the 2019 Great Northwest Athletic Conference Indoor Track & Field Men’s Coach of the Year.
Halsell earned his fifth GNAC Men’s Indoor Track & Field Coach of the Year award after leading the Vikings to the conference indoor title. He also earned the award in 2005, 2006, 2013 and 2014, all years that WWU won the title at the conference indoor championships.
This is the 17th GNAC Coach of the Year award in Halsell’s illustrious career, taking home now five men’s indoor awards, seven outdoor awards (6 men, 1 women) and five cross country honors (4 men, 1 women). He began his WWU head coaching career in 1987 and has now won 34 Coach of the Year awards at the conference and regional level.
The Vikings won the fifth men’s indoor title in program history, scoring 138.5 points in the two-day meet held Feb. 15-16 at Jacksons Indoor Track in Nampa, Idaho. Four WWU student-athletes won individual titles and an overall team performance that scored points in all 17 events. WWU finished well ahead of second-place Alaska Anchorage (114.5) after entering the meet with a projected fourth-place finish.
The dominating performance was led by individual victories by senior Kyler Sager in the 800 meters, junior Cordell Cummings in the 60-meter hurdles, senior J.T. Konrad in the pole vault and redshirt freshman Seren Dances in the long jump. The Vikings also had six men earn All-GNAC honors for finishing in the top three in their event.
-- WWU Track & Field --
WWU’s 32nd-year head coach Pee Wee Halsell was named a GNAC Coach of the Year of the 17th time. PHOTO: WWU Athletics
Maddie Taylor was a unanimous selection as the 2019 GNAC Track & Field Female Newcomer of the Year. PHOTO: WWU Athletics
