WWU Sophomore Cordell Cummings wins 110m hurdles conference title among strong Saturday performances.
Photo Credit: Bryan Rubio/GNAC via WWU Athletics
WWU Track: Men Place 2nd, Women 4th at GNAC Outdoor Championships
May 12, 2018
MONMOUTH, Ore. – The Western Washington University men’s track & field team placed 2nd while the women’s team finished 4th at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships, held Friday and Saturday at McArthur Field on the campus of Western Oregon University.
The Viking men finished with 127 points, 11 points back of conference champion Concordia with 138 points. Central Washington scored 123 points in 3rd, as only 15 points separated the top 3 teams. The WWU women totaled 105 points in 4th behind champion Seattle Pacific (154.5 points) as well as Central Washington and Concordia in a tie for 2nd with 121 points apiece.
“They did well, they fought hard,” 31st-year head coach Pee Wee Halsell said of the Vikings. “Both (WWU) teams scored more points than what they were expected to score and the men gave Concordia a good battle.”
The WWU men moved up a spot from 3rd at the end of the day Friday, while the women were 4th at the end of Friday and remained 4th on Saturday.
“The women moved up a spot from 5th to 4th based on the projections and scored quite a bit more than what they were projected to,”Halsell said. “Both teams battled hard – two good, quality teams and I’m very proud of them.”
The Vikings concluded the conference meet with a pair of GNAC individual champions among 12 All-GNAC (top-3 individual event finish) performances. Junior Maddie Taylor (Seattle, WA/Auburn Mountainview/Montana) become the high jump champion on Friday while sophomore Cordell Cummings (Arlington, WA) claimed the 110m hurdles title on Saturday.
WWU Men Saturday Highlights
After qualifying with the 5th-fastest time in Friday’s preliminaries (15.44), Cummings won the 110m title in a personal-best time of 14.97 ranking No. 10 on the WWU top-10 list. It was the second career GNAC title for Cummings, who was the 400m hurdles champion as a freshman in 2017.
He became the third Viking (fifth overall title) to win the event at the outdoor championships, joining a pair of two-time champions in former Vikings Logan Myers (2013, 2014) and Travis Milbrandt (2015, 2016). With the title for Cummings on Saturday, WWU has won five of the last six 110m hurdles titles at the outdoor conference meet.
Cummings also recorded an NCAA II provisional-qualifying and personal-best time in the 400m hurdles, placing 2nd in a time of 52.88 for the No. 5 time in GNAC history and No. 3 time on the WWU top-10 list. He was 2nd to Simon Fraser’s Vladislav Tsygankov, who claimed 1st in 52.12.
Junior Reid Lovercamp (Wenatchee, WA) finished 3rd in the 400m hurdles to give the Vikings two All-GNAC finishes in the event, recording a personal-best time of 54.07 as the No. 9 time on the WWU top-10 list. Sophomore Aaron Bosscher (Lynden, WA/Cornerstone Christian) was 7th in a time of 58.44 as the Vikings scored 16 points in the event.
Between his 110m hurdles title and placing 2nd in the 400m hurdles, Cummings scored 18 points at the meet to tie for 6th-most points by a GNAC individual on the men’s side.
“Cordell (Cummings) coming in and winning those 110m hurdles, it was very close, and then to push Vlad (Vladislav Tsygankov) like he did in the 400m hurdles – he battled hard just like the whole team did,” Halsell said.
Junior Alex Barry (Sequim, WA) led three Vikings in the javelin with a 2nd-place finish for All-GNAC honors, unleashing a personal-best throw of 65.63m (215-4). The provisional-qualifying mark improved upon his previous provisional qualifier and personal best (64.77m/212-6). The throw ranks No. 2 in WWU history, No. 9 in GNAC history and among the top 15 nationally as of Saturday.
Freshman Mason Salley (Bremerton, WA/Central Kitsap) joined Barry among the top 8 with a provisional-qualifying and personal-best throw of 60.30m (197-10) to place 4th as the Vikings picked up 13 points in the javelin.
WWU Women Saturday Highlights
The WWU women’s 4x100m relay team of sophomore Kelsey McLean (Kirkland, WA/Juanita), sophomore Hannah Bradley (Bellingham, WA), junior Savannah Smith (Renton, WA) and junior Emily Sytsma (Lynden, WA/Lynden Christian/Concordia) placed 2nd on Saturday with a time of 47.24, trailing only Seattle Pacific (46.60). The season-best time for the Vikings is No. 2 on the WWU top-10 list.
Smith earned All-GNAC honors in the 200m, placing 3rd with a time of 25.17 during the final on Saturday. Bradley followed in 4th with a personal-best time of 25.20, ranking No. 5 on the WWU top-10 list. Smith’s personal-best time (24.83) is No. 2 in WWU history.
The WWU women scored 22 points in the pole vault and 13 in the javelin, led by a pair of All-GNAC 2nd-place finishes.
In the pole vault, senior Anna Paradee (Tacoma, WA/Decatur) finished 2nd (3.68m/12-0 ¾) after a jump-off with Central Washington’s Halle Irvine. WWU claimed places 4-5-6-7 as well, with sophomore Jewels Oliquiano (Kaneohe, HI/Castle) in 4th (3.53m/11-7), junior Rachael Roberts (Woodinville, WA/Bellevue College in 5th (3.38m/11-1), freshman Hannah Dodson (Seattle, WA/Nathan Hale) in 6th (3.23m/10-7) and sophomore Amanda Andersen (Richland, WA/Hanford) in 7th (3.23m/10-7).
With the 2nd-place finish, Paradee became a four-time All-GNAC honoree in the outdoor pole vault after placing 3rd twice (2015, 2017) and winning the conference title in 2016.
Sophomore Raquel Pellecer (Sandy, OR/Portland State) placed 2nd in the javelin to lead four Vikings competing with a personal-best throw of 48.01m (157-6), improving upon her previous NCAA II provisional mark of 47.91m (157-2).
Her throw is a top-5 national mark as of Saturday and trailed only Ellie Logan of Northwest Nazarene with a mark of 49.45m (162-3) at the meet. Pellecer’s effort ranks No. 8 in GNAC history as well as No. 7 in WWU history.
Freshman Natalie Vetto (Kirkland, WA/Lake Washington) was 4th in the javelin with a personal-best throw of 46.38m (152-2), improving upon her previous provisional-qualifying mark of 44.94m (147-5) to give the Vikings 13 points in the event. Vetto’s throw is a top 15 national mark as of Saturday.
The field for the NCAA II Outdoor Championships will be posted on Tuesday, May 15. The national championships will take place May 24-26 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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