Friday's complete results (PDF)
NAMPA, Idaho – Katy Gross will be the first to admit that the running long races isn't her track and field strong suit.
So the Seattle Pacific sophomore made sure to give herself plenty of leeway with solid performances in the other pentathlon events at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference indoor championships on Friday.
Gross started out with a personal-best time in the 60-meter hurdles, then came up victorious in the shot put and long jump, and ultimately wound up with nine more total points than Falcons senior teammate Jenifer Pike as they forged a 1-2 finish on the first day of the meet at Jackson's Track in the Idaho Sports Complex.
“Especially with the 800 at the end of the day, that's all I was thinking about,” said Gross (Everett, Wash./Cascade HS), who finished with 3,297 points, while Pike had 3,288, and junior Natalie Nobbs (Yakima, Wash./Riverside Christian HS) was eighth with 2,851. “My focus for the day was to get a pretty good lead in the first four events, and I had about a 200-point lead.” (It was 206, to be exact.)
Gross wasn't alone on the podium for SPU on the first day of the two-day meet. Junior Ali Worthen (Coos Bay, Ore.) captured the long jump title for the second time in three years. And junior Terra Schumacher (Sublimity, Ore.) took third place in the pole vault to pace a 3-4-7 SPU finish in that event.
For the Falcons, it all added up to 48½ points, an 8½-point edge on Central Washington. Northwest Nazarene has 38½. Simon Fraser, with plenty of power still to come in Saturday's events as it tries to keep Seattle Pacific from winning an eighth straight GNAC team title, is fourth with 26.
“It's hard to tell too much now,” SPU coach Karl Lerum said. “I know it's going to be tight on the women's side.”
Saturday's competition begins at 8 a.m. PST, and live stats will be available on this link. A free live Webcast from the meet begins at 10 a.m. PST, and can be accessed on this link.
For Gross, Friday's title was her first of any kind in college, indoors or outdoors. Her total was 52 points more than her previous personal best of 3,245, which she established on Jan. 28 at the UW Invitational. Falcons teammate Crystal Sims (Portland) had the GNAC's best total of 3,364, also from the UW Invitational. But when Sims opted to focus on four individual events, that made Gross the top seed coming into Friday's action.
I'm just really happy and really relieved,” she said. “I PR'd in the 60 hurdles, and that really started off the day on a good note. I had that momentum to carry me through the rest of the day.”
Pike (Vancouver, Wash./Skyline HS) was literally just a step behind Gross with 3,288, which topped her previous PR by 245 points. Pike finished the event on a winning note, combining with junior teammate Natalie Nobbs (Yakima, Wash./Riverside Christian HS) for a 1-2 finish in the 800 meters.
Gross opened the pentathlon with a 9.37 in the 60 hurdles, a full two-tenths of a second better than her previous best of 9.59, and good for third place and 834 points.
She followed up by finishing second in the shot put (5-3¼ / 1.61 meters, 747 points), then winning the shot put (34-2¾ / 10.42 meters, 557 points) and the long jump (a PR of 17-2 / 5.23 meters, 623 points). Gross finished by placing ninth in the 800 meters in 2:43.22, worth 536 points.
Pike was steady all day. She was fourth in the 60 hurdles, tied for seventh in the high jump, was second in the shot put and third in the long jump before winning the 800. Nobbs finished strong with a fourth in the long jump before her runner-up finish to Pike in the 800.
Worthen flew 18 feet, 2½ inches / 5.55 meters in the long jump. She went head to head all day with Western Washington sophomore Tanya Bjornsson, who was in the same second flight and wound up with the same mark as Worthen. But Worthen earned gained first place because her second-best jump was farther than Bjornsson's second-best jump.
Worthen also won the long jump in 2009. She went 18-6½ that year.
Sophomore Trinna Miranda (Tigard, Ore.) added two points for SPU by finishing seventh on Friday at 17-6 (5.33 meters).
Worthen and Bjornsson will link up again on Saturday – this time in the 60-meter hurdles finals. Bjornsson had Friday's fastest preliminary time of 9.01 seconds; Worthen had the No. 2 mark of 9.05 – a personal-best. Worthen is doing four individual events, plus the 4x400 relay. She is the defending high jump champion, and will be the top seed (with Gross the No. 2 seed) when that event takes place on Saturday morning.
Schumacher and senior teammate Melissa Peaslee (Fox Island, Wash./Gig Harbor HS), the defending pole vault champion, both cleared 11-6 ½ (3.52 meters). Schumacher got there on her first try; Peaslee made it on her third. Junior Brittany Aanstad got into the points by going 10-6 ¾ (3.22 meters) for seventh place.
One of Saturday's best races figures to be the 60-meter dash. Seattle Pacific freshman Kishia Mitchell (Puyallup, Wash./Rogers HS) had Friday's second-fastest prelim time of 7.92. That was just .01 behind the mark logged by Madison McClung of Western Oregon. Falcon freshman BryAnne Wochnick also is in the picture after her 7.97 on Friday made her the fourth seed, and Sims made the finals at 8.02.
NCAA WOMEN'S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD
GNAC Championships
Friday, February 18, 2011
Jackson's Track at Idaho Sports Complex/Nampa, Idaho
Team scores (through 5 of 16 events) – 1, Seattle Pacific 48.5; 2, Central Washington 40; 3, Northwest Nazarene 38.5; 4, Simon Fraser 26; 5, Western Washington 24; 6, Montana State Billings 10, 7, Western Oregon 5; 8, Saint Martin's 3.
4000 distance medley relay – 1, Simon Fraser 11:46.64. SPU placer – 4, Seattle Pacific (Alli Cutting, Lisa Weaver, McKayla Fricker, Heidi Laabs-Johnson) 12: 19.24.
Pole vault – 1, Becca Clark (CWU) 12-0 ½ /3.67m. SPU placers – 3, Terra Schumacher 11-6 ½ / 3.52m; 4, Melissa Peaslee 11-6 ½ / 3.52m; 7, Brittany Aanstad 10-6 ¾ / 3.22m.
Long jump – 1, Ali Worthen (SPU) 18-2 ½ / 5.55m. Other SPU placers – 7, Trinna Miranda 17-6 / 5.33m; 9, Aanstad 17-4 / 5.28m; 10, Crystal Sims 17-0 ¾ / 5.20m; 12, Athena Nye 16-10 / 5.13m.
Weight throw – 1, Torrie Self (CWU) 53-7 ½ / 16.34m. No SPU competitors.
Pentathlon – 1, Katy Gross 3,291. Other SPU placers – 2, Jenifer Pike 3,288; 8, Natalie Nobbs 2,851.
Pentathlon 60 hurdles – 1, Marie Smith (NNU) 9.30 (848 points). SPU placers – 3, Gross 9.37 (834 points); 4, Pike 9.51 (806); 8, Nobbs 9.97 (718).
Pentathlon high jump – 1, Rachelle Barnett (SFU) 5-4 ½ / 1.64m (783 points). SPU placers – 2, Gross 5-3 ¼ / 1.61m (747 points); 7, (tie) Pike 4-10 ½ / 1.49m (610); 11, Nobbs 4-8 ¼ / 1.43m (544).
Pentathlon shot put – 1, Gross (SPU) 34-2 ¾ / 10.42m (557 points). Other SPU placers – 2, Pike 33-9 ½ / 10.33m (549 point); 8, Nobbs 26-4 ¼ / 8.03m (401).
Pentathlon long jump – 1, Gross 17-2 / 5.23m (623 points). Other SPU placers – 3, Pike 16-9 ¼ / 5.11m (589 points); 4, Nobbs 16-0 ¼ / 4.88m (527 points).
Pentathlon 800 – 1, Pike 2:26.78 (734 points). Other SPU placers – 2, Nobbs 2:32.60 (661 points); 9, Gross 2:43.22 (536).
