Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

The Wolves garnered three titles in the long jump, 800 and 1500 meters from May 11-12 of the 2018 Track and Field GNAC championships. The women’s and men’s teams played host to nine other conference teams in their final home meet of the outdoor season.

Though each of Western’s teams did not have the highest point total of the event, two title winners in David Ribich, senior, and Alani Troutman, sophomore, helped accumulate points towards a score of 100 for the men.

In day one of the meet, Troutman made his way to Western’s first podium win, after measuring at 22-5 (6.83m) in the long jump.

Ribich started day two with a second podium win in the 1500, placing a time of three minutes and forty-nine point twenty-two seconds. Right behind him were teammates Dustin Nading, junior, and Josh Dempsey, senior, for an all Western finish. Seventy minutes later, Ribich guided his pack to seven out of the top nine finishes in the 800-meter.

Ribich mentioned of the goal to place all of his team members in the top nine of the 800: “We have so many guys on the bubble for Nationals, that I wanted to make sure I could try to help out these guys in the 800 meters. That was kind of our mentality going into this weekend; Dustin (Nading) and I would try and get AJ (Holmberg) and Josh (Dempsey) and them qualifying marks for the national meet.”

Several other athletes reached the podium to help their team score. In the women’s long jump, first-year Darian Wilson landed at 18-0 ½ (5.50m), good for third. Wilson also threw to third place in the javelin to a distance of 154-5 (47.07m), a personal record.

Over the last few years, Western has been a middle distance power house. Multiple All-American winner in the 800-meter, Suzanne Van De Grift, senior, recently moved up a few hundred meters to the 1500 for a third place podium stand. Her timed run in the 1500 of 4:25.85 is a school record.

“I’ve had goals for what I wanted to run, and this was one of my goals of running four twenty-five,” said Van De Grift. “I wanted to run a good time today. My mentality was just to stick with the top people and not let there be a gap created.”

Van De Grift soon paired with junior Olivia Woods, also an accomplished All-American in the middle distances, and the two tagged with sophomore Grayson Burke and senior Megan Rose to run the 1600-meter relay. The team finished in second place, and nabbed a school record time of 3:45.82, just four seconds ahead of the previous mark.

Individually, Western’s runners were all over the board with new personal recorded times, and had several athletes to look forward to. The visiting teams, however, included formidable individuals of their own.

2017 GNAC outdoor champion Alaska-Anchorage, for both men and women’s teams, took to the track with Caroline Kurgat — an outdoor and indoor champion. Kurgat beat out senior Kennedy Rufener for first in the 5000-meter. The Seawolf outpaced all runners by several hundred meters and increased her distance throughout the 13 laps. Rufener was half a bell lap behind Kurgat, but kicked faster in the last 200 meters to push just ahead of Simon Fraser for second place in a time of 17:08.51.

While Western runners made their strides on the track, it was not enough to outscore Concordia and Seattle Pacific for the overall team titles: Concordia’s men’s team laid claim to the sprinting and discus events, and championed to 138 points; the Seattle Pacific women’s teams were number one in events such as sprinting and relays which assisted to the Falcon’s 154.5 points.

Western has nine qualifying athletes who’ll now turn to the NCAA DII Championships, which will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina on May 24-26.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu