By: Burke De Boer Sports Editor
For the second time this year, junior David Ribich is a national champion.
After anchoring the indoor distance medley relay team that won the indoor national championship, Ribich added more hardware to the trophy room with an outdoor 1,500-meter title.
It was the first outdoor track title in Western Oregon history.
On May 27, the finals were held at the NCAA Division II outdoor track and field championships IMG Academy in Bradentown, Florida. Ribich ran the race alongside sophomore Dustin Nading. Sophomore Olivia Woods also ran the championship race of the women’s 800-meter.
All three earned All-American honors.
The first day of competition was Thursday May 25. Nading and Ribich qualified for the championship race with times of 3:50.76 and 3:51.85, respectively.
The second day featured the final contest of the triple jump, with senior Wesley Gray taking his last leap for the Wolves. His distance of 14.93 meters earned him 17th place.
The middle distance trio of sophomore Olivia Woods and juniors Megan Rose and Suzanne Van De Grift have represented Western Oregon consistently in the 800-meter this season. The 800-meter preliminary was also held on the second day of the meet.
Woods broke her own school record, as she finished in first place of the third heat with a time of 2:07.82. Her previous record was 2:08.46.
Rose and Van De Grift ran the first heat of the race but failed to qualify for the championship race. Rose’s time of 2:09.94 took her to 13th place. Van De Grift soon followed her across the finish line with a time of 2:10.64 for 16th place.
Sophomore Sheila Limas De La Cruz was the first of the Wolves team to compete on championship Saturday, representing in the javelin contest. She threw for a distance of 38.4 meters, coming in 21st place.
Olivia Woods came in third to make it to the podium for the 800-meter race.
She had fallen to seventh place at the 400-meter mark, but after passing the halfway point she dialed up the intensity and passed four runners in front of her.
Her final time was 2:07.38, and for the second day in a row she broke her own school record.
Ribich and Nading then competed in the men’s 1,500-meter.
Ribich took the lead halfway through and held on to finish 0.22 of a second ahead of the second-place runner. To seal the victory, Ribich finished in 3:49.64.
Nading came in sixth place with a 3:51.50 finish.
The only two runners competing for the Wolves men’s team on title day, Ribich and Nading picked up a total of 13 total points to earn Western Oregon men the 17th place finish on the day. Woods’ solo effort earned 6 points for the women’s team to earn 37th place overall.
Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu
