Complete women's and men's results (PDF)
        PHOTO GALLERY
 
MONMOUTH, Ore. – For Tasia Baldwin, there was just one more thing left before her college track career came to an end.
 
On Saturday afternoon, the Seattle Pacific senior finally had her chance: She stood on the top step of the awards stand at Western Oregon University's McArthur Field and hoisted the Great Northwest Athletic Conference team trophy.
 
"I never got to do this before," Baldwin said as she lifted the prize high over her head. Later, she added. "It was amazing. We all had a team meeting and we all just kind of put it together and said we're all going to put in this work and cheer each other on. So to be able to hold it up and know that I was a part of something special was awesome."

The Falcons made that moment in the blazing sun possible by stepping up their performances in one event after another. It all led to a 29-point margin against pre-meet favorite Alaska Anchorage, 183-154. SPU began the meet on Friday seeded for 169 points, while the Seawolves were coming in seeded for 175.
 
The crown was Seattle Pacific's first outdoors since 2012, with Anchorage having won the last two. It also gave the Falcons a sweep of the GNAC indoor and outdoor titles for the sixth time.





After winning three events on Friday, SPU came up with three more on Saturday.
 
The Falcons started by hanging onto their top-seeded position in the 4x100 relay, as freshman Becca Houk, junior Jahzelle Ambus, sophomore Kyra Brannan, and senior Baldwin came through in a season-best and NCAA Division II provisional qualifying time of 46.82.
 
Top-seeded Ambus (Portland, Ore.) then went out and held serve in the 400 meters, and did it in a career-best time of 55.91 seconds, edging Simon Fraser's Chantel Desch by nine-hundredths for first place. Her previous best was 56.06 twice this year, and it also was an NCAA provisional time.
 
"I'm actually really happy with it," Ambus said. "I didn't feel that first 200. I felt (Desch) start to pick up on me, and I knew I had to go. She helped my drive there."
 
Ambus now has college crowns in all three sprints. Last year, she won the 100 and 200 while a sophomore at Lane Community College in Eugene, Ore.





In between those races came a stirring performance from junior Lynelle Decker in the 1,500 meters. Decker (Vancouver, Wash. / Mountain View HS) was the top seed at 4:30.08 from last month's Bryan Clay Invitational, but she was not the overwhelming favorite. Indeed, Western Washington's Haley O'Connor made a big surge into the lead with about a lap and a half left.
 
But Decker answered, took the lead on the final lap, then outsprinted O'Connor to the finish line, 4:29.60 to 4:29.74.
 
"At the 300 mark to go, I went, 'I want this, I want it bad,'" said Decker, who came back barely an hour later and ran a very strategically-sound 800 to come from fifth place in the early going all the way up to a solid second behind Simon Fraser's Lindsey Butterworth.

"So I made a move. She was still there, so I said, 'Lynelle, just get ahead of her, she'll see your arms and legs and she'll feel downtrodden and will slow down'. Didn't happen. So I just said, 'I want this, I want it more.'"
 
MORE THAN JUST THE WINNERS
But while the six event titles counted for 60 points, the other 123 of SPU's total came from its depth and athletes scoring higher than they were seeded to score.
 
-- In the 1,500, freshman Jessica Rawlins was seeded ninth – one place out of the points – but moved up to fifth with a 4:36.55. It was nearly three seconds better than her old PR of 4:39.43 that she ran just last Saturday in the Saint Martin's Invitational -- a time she needed just to qualify for conference.
-- Sophomore Cheryl Hong wasn't seeded to score in the 400 meters. Yet on Friday, she got into finals as the No. 7 seed, then moved up two more places to fifth on Saturday by lowering her previous PR by nearly a full second to 57.89.
-- Maliea Luquin, Jalen Tims, and Maddi Hommes were seeded 4-5-8 in the 400 hurdles finals, but finished 2-3-4. So instead of scoring 10 points in that event, the Falcons wound up with 19.
--There was no catching Anchorage's Jamie Ashcroft in the 100 or 200. But the Falcons still went 2-4-5 in the former with Houk, Baldwin, and senior Kelsey Chase, then went 2-3-4-5 in the latter with Houk, Ambus, Baldwin, and Brannan.
 
"Going into this and knowing where we were and to win this convincingly was pretty special," head coach Karl Lerum said. "They came in ready to go on Friday and never let up for two days, and all the way through that last relay."





BUSY DAY FOR LOPEZ
SPU freshman Mario Lopez raced to sixth place in the 200, eighth in the 400, and was on both of the relays on Saturday, helping account for 10 of the Falcons' 21 points.
                                 
Lopez (Chino, Calif.) moved up from his No. 7 seed in the 200, stopping the watch in 22.41. Senior David Ferguson (Inverness, Ill.) capped his career with a seventh-place finish in that race, led off the fifth-place 4x100 and anchored the seventh-place 4x400.
 
The 200 was the first individual final of Ferguson's career. The 4x400, with freshmen Chris Moreton and Lopez, and senior RJ Straker carrying the baton ahead of Ferguson ran to a season-best time of 3:22.51. It was the first time together for that particular group, and their time easily beat Seattle Pacific's previous season best of 3:24.01.
 
The Falcons' point total was more than triple the six they scored last year, and they moved up one spot to eighth in the final team standings. Western Washington stunned pre-meet favorite Alaska Anchorage, defending its title by the closest margin in conference history, 176-174.
 

NCAA WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD
GNAC Championships
Saturday, May 9, 2015
McArthur Field / Monmouth,Ore.
                     
Team scores – 1, Seattle Pacific 183; 2, Alaska Anchorage 154; 3, Central Washington 90; 4, Western Washington 88; 5, Western Oregon 82; 6, (tie) Northwest Nazarene 74 and Simon Fraser 74; 8, Saint Martin's 59; 9, Montana State Billings 13.
 
SATURDAY FINALS
100 – 1, Jamie Ashcroft (UAA) 11.84. SPU – 2, Becca Houk 11.99#; 4, Tasia Baldwin 12.37; 5, Kelsey Chase 12.41.
200 – 1, Jamie Ashcroft (UAA) 24.45. SPU – 2, Becca Houk 24.70; 3, Jahzelle Ambus 24.89; 4, Tasia Baldwin 25.20; 5, Kyra Brannan 25.54.
400 – 1, Jahzelle Ambus (SPU) 55.91#. Other SPU – 5, Cheryl Hong 57.89.
800 – 1. Lindsey Butterworth (SFU) 2:06.67#. SPU – 2, Lynelle Decker 2:09.43#.
1500 – 1, Lynelle Decker (SPU) 4:29.60#. Other SPU – 5, Jessica Rawlins 4:36.55.
5000 – 1, Jennifer Johnson (SFU) 17:04.46#. SPU – 6, Anna Patti 17:14.84#; 12, Hannah Calvert 18:31.78.
4x100 relay – 1, Seattle Pacific (Becca Houk, Jahzelle Ambus, Kyra Brannan, Tasia Baldwin) 46.82#.
4x400 relay – 1, Simon Fraser 3:45.64. SPU – 2, Seattle Pacific (Becca Houk, Lynelle Decker, Jalen Tims, Jahzelle Ambus) 3:48.75
100 hurdles – 1, Rosie Smith (UAA) 14.18#. SPU – 5, Maliea Luquin 14.82.
400 hurdles – 1, Haleigh Lloyd (UAA) 1:00.29#. SPU – 2, Maliea Luquin 1:03.54; 3, Jalen Tims 1:04.41; 4, Maddi Hommes 1:04.75.
High jump – 1, Karolin Anders 5-5 ¾ / 1.67m. SPU – 7, Naphtali Ward 5-1 ¾ / 1.57m; T8, Luisa McInnis 5-1 ¾ / 1.57m; T10, Maddi Hommes 5-1 ¾ / 1.57m.          
Triple jump – 1, Rebecca Laible (WOU) 38-8 ¼ / 11.79m#. No SPU.
Hammer – 1, Caitlin Curtis (NNU) 169-3 ¼ / 51.59m#. No SPU.
Javelin – 1, Kathryn Walker (StM) 148-3 ½ / 45.19m#. SPU – 6, Michaella Farner 133-11 / 40.81m#.

FRIDAY FINALS
10,000 – 1, Anna Patti (SPU) 37:00.02. Other SPU – 7, Sarah Macdonald 39:25.80; 11, Mary Charleson 43:56.41.
3000 steeplechase – 1, Katelyn Steen (WWU) 10:14.16+. SPU – 3, Jessica Rawlins 10:55.10#.
Pole vault – 1, Michaella Kahns 11-9 ¾ / 3.60m. No other SPU.
Long jump – 1, Kyra Brannan 18-4 ½ / 5.60m. Other SPU – 3, Maliea Luquin 18-3 / 5.56m; 5, Tasia Baldwin 17-10 ¾ / 5.45m.
Shot put – 1, Emmi Collier (WOU) 45-7 / 13.89m#. SPU – 12, Sammi Markham 38-11 ½ / 11.87m.
Discus – 1, Megan Mortensen (WWU) 142-10 ¾ / 43.55m. SPU – 11, Sammi Markham (SPU) 120-7 ½ / 36.76m.

+ NCAA automatic qualifying.
# NCAA provisional.


NCAA MEN'S TRACK & FIELD
GNAC Championships
Saturday, May 9, 2015
McArthur Field / Monmouth,Ore.
                     
Team scores – 1, Western Washington 176; 2, Alaska Anchorage 174; 3, Central Washington 109 ½; 4, Western Oregon 88, 5, (tie) Northwest Nazarene 85 and Simon Fraser 85; 7, Saint Martin's 54 ½; 8, Seattle Pacific 21; 9, Montana State Billings 17.
 
SATURDAY FINALS
100 – 1, Alex Donigian (WWU) 10.44#. No SPU.
200 – 1, Alex Donigian (WWU) 21.56. SPU – 6, Mario Lopez 22.42; 7, David Ferguson 22.43.
400 – 1, Daniel Kelloway (SFU) 47.62#. SPU – 8, Mario Lopez 49.34.
800 – 1, Baldane Sultessa (WOU) 1:52.31#. No SPU.
1500 – 1, David Ribich (WOU) 3:50.58#. No SPU.
5000 – 1, Dylan Anthony (UAA) 14:39.17. SPU – 9, Turner Wiley 15:09.44.
4x100 relay – 1, Western Washington 41.79. SPU – 5, Seattle Pacific (David Ferguson, Mario Lopez, RJ Starker, Clifford Paulk) 42.89.
4x400 relay – 1, Simon Fraser 3:13.84#. SPU – 7, Seattle Pacific (Chris Moreton, Mario Lopez, RJ Straker, David Ferguson) 3:22.51.
110 hurdles – 1, Travis Milbrandt (WWU) 14.38#. No SPU.
400 hurdles – 1, Elliott Bauer (UAA) 52.90#. No SPU.
Pole vault – 1, Payton Lewis (NNU) 16-4 ¾ / 5.00m#. No SPU.
Triple jump – 1, Luke Plummer (CWU) 48-2 ½ / 14.69m#. No SPU.
Hammer – 1, Kevin Stanley (CWU) 194-1 ¾ / 59.17m#. No SPU.
Javelin – 1, Franz Burghagen (UAA) 220-10 ¼ / 62.31m#. No SPU.

# NCAA provisional qualifying.
 
 
FRIDAY FINALS
10,000 – 1, Victor Samoei (UAA) 31:46.09. SPU – 6, Turner Wiley 31:51.73; 11, Brian Comer 33:41.17.
3000 steeplechase – 1, Oliver Jorgensen (SFU) 9:08.42#. No SPU.
High jump – 1, Brett Watson (WWU) 6-7 / 2.01m. No SPU.
Long jump – 1, Brett Watson (WWU) 24-1 ¾ / 7.36m#. SPU – 4, Peyton Harris 22-9 ¼ / 6.94m.
Shot put – 1, Kevin Stanley (CWU) 56-11 / 15.52m. No SPU.
Discus – 1, Ryan Macdonald (WWU) 166-1 ½ / 50.63m#. No SPU.