SALEM, Ore. – The Whitworth women's and men's track and field teams each won three events on Saturday and both squads finished as runners-up in the 2023 Northwest Conference Championships hosted by Willamette University.
The women's team held on to second place after the Pirates moved into second following two event wins on Friday. With three more on Saturday the Bucs equal their five wins last season. The final team scores were: George Fox 257, Whitworth 164.5, Pacific Lutheran 89, Willamette 82, Lewis & Clark and Pacific (Ore.) 65, Linfield 58, Puget Sound 33.5, Whitman 2. The Bruins won their sixth straight title.
Renee Tiumalu and Amelia Hewson defended wins in their respective events while the Whitworth women won the 4x100 relay.
The Pirate women had another strong day in the field. Tiumalu defended her title in the shot put with a mark of 42'-4.75". Amblessed Okemgbo finished fifth with a personal record of 38'-11.5" and Logan Spencer was sixth in 38'-8.75". Lauryn Rawls took eighth place (35'-8.75").
Eva Millan broke her personal record by nearly six feet to finish third in the javelin (137'-9"). Emily Mauch was sixth in 122'-7" (PR) and Ashlyn Hanson was seventh with a distance of 121'-8" (PR).
Devyn Cope was the runner-up in the triple jump with a personal record distance of 35'-8.75". Bree Rawls was fourth with a distance of 34'-9".
Whitworth won the 4x100 relay for the first time since 2015. Jordyn Lungo, Hewson, Margaret Byle and Alison Ball crossed in 48.05.
Hewson won the 100 hurdles in 14.43, her third straight win in that event. Ball was the runner-up in the 100 dash in 12.50, while Lungo was third (12.55) and Hewson was fifth (12.62). Ball took third in the 200 dash with a time of 25.42 and Hewson was sixth in 26.74. Byle finished sixth in the 400 dash with a PR of 1:00.67.
Madelyn Buckley posted a pair of personal records on Saturday. She finished third in the 1,500 run with a 10-second PR of 4:37.99. She was fourth in the 800 run in 2:18.77.
Carmen Gonzales-Aller Winslow took sixth in the 400 hurdles in 1:08.50.
Whitworth closed the women's meet with a sixth-place finish in the 4x400 relay with a season-best time of 4:08.71.
The Pirate men improved to second place in the final standings after sitting in third following Friday's events. Solo Hines swept the 100 and 200 dashes, while Cody Wheeler came up huge in his final javelin throw.
Hines posted personal records in both events. His time in the 100 was 10.62, which broke the NWC meet record of 10.65. His time in the 200 was 21.60. Both were improvements by a tenth of a second.
Adam Callahan had two third place finishes for the Pirates on Saturday. He was third in the 1,500 with a personal record of 3:52.44 and third in the 800 in 1:56.13. Kainoa Figueira was sixth in the 800 in 1:57.11.
Daniel Watts posted a PR in the 400 hurdles to finish fourth in 55.86. Zaanan Bane was fifth in the 110 hurdles (16.10) and JJ Martin was eighth in 18.39. Cameron Lantagne took fifth in the 400 dash with a time of 51.37.
Whitworth finished fifth in the 4x400 relay (3:23.21) and sixth in the 4x100 relay (42.62).
Wheeler was in second place most of the way through the javelin event until he uncorked a throw of 216'-2" in his final attempt. He established an 11-foot PR and his mark ranks among the top five in all of NCAA Division III. Cameron Ditter also hit a PR with his eighth-place throw of 173'-2".
Luke Davis was fourth in the shot put (46'-11"), while Reed Hurst was fifth (46'-9.5").
Martin cleared a personal record 6'-4.75" to finish second in the high jump. Watts was sixth with a height of 6'-0.75".
Bane went 45'-0.5" to establish a new PR and finish fourth in the triple jump. Samson Irish-Lodge was fifth (44'-4.25") and Martin was sixth (43'-7.25", PR).
The final men's team scores were: George Fox 221, Whitworth 142, Pacific Lutheran 133.5, Pacific (Ore.) 104.5, Linfield 83, Lewis & Clark 77.5, Willamette 31, Puget Sound 23.5, Whitman 0.
