NAMPA ID - School records fell. National provisional marks were established and expectations of some great races were realized. When it was all said and done, the NNU Crusader Track & Field team had bettered 5 school records and saw 4 National Provisional marks Saturday at the Johnson's Track complex.
Northwest Nazarene hosted the 7th annual GNAC Conference championship in style this weekend as they saw some great individual performances and solid team performances. Highlighting the Championships for the Crusaders was Joy Warrington's (So. Colorado Springs, Co) impressive double in the Shot put and 20# Weight throw. Double, as in double Conference champion. Double as in double School record, and she nearly pulled off a triple double as her Shot put mark of 45'9.25” bumped her NCAA Provisional Qualifier up to a ranking of 14th but her Weight Throw victory of 49'10.5” was just off the qualifying mark of 52'10”.
National Provisional performances were also set in 2 other races by 3 different Crusaders. In the Women's 5,000m Jordan Powell (Fr. Nampa, ID) shattered the existing school record by 1 minute 50 seconds by running 17:46.33. What makes it even better is that it was the first time she had run that distance indoors this year because she was able to qualify for conference by running a 3,000m race. Her time was 2 seconds under the National provisional mark and currently ranks her 39th in the nation for 5k.
The other race that lived up to the billing was the women's 800m run that saw the top 5 athletes drop below the National provisional mark of 2:16.20. NNU's Michelle Phillips (Sr. Meridian, ID) placed 4th in a time of 2:15.49 and Christine Harwood (Fr. Pendleton, Or.) placed 5th in 2:15.87. Both performances were faster than the winning time from just 5 years ago, and place them 26th and 30th on the National list respectively.
School records fell in three other events Saturday, The Women's 60m was broken by Melissa Grammer (Fr. Valdez, AK) in a time of 8.02, breaking the previous school record of 8.07 by Latoya Tidwell (Jr. Tacoma, Wa). the Men's 60m record was broken by Cameron Colby (Fr. Tualitin, Or.) by 0.01 seconds over previous record holder Maurus Hope (So. Adrian, Or.). Colby ran 7.19 and moves from 2nd all time in the 60m to 1st, switching places with Hope on the list. Hope, however didn't feel sorry losing the school record in the 60m as he set another school record in the 400m only a few hours later. Maurus ran 49.25 but was just edged out of 1st by Western Oregon's Matt Kaino who broke the conference indoor record running 49.17.
Barak Watson didn't disappoint either Saturday running to a 3rd place finish in the 5,000m (15:05.67), where the winner set a new conference record in 14:51.53 (old meet record, 15:01.67, John Riak, SMU, 2007), a time Barak will certainly challenge next year. Watson also ran to a 2nd place finish in the mile run clocking 4:15.44, again placing behind a new conference record by Anthony Tomsich, WWU, 4:14.08 (meet record, old, 4:15.27, Ethan Barrons, WOU, 2005).
Overall, the NNU Crusaders placed 3rd on the women's side and 4th on the Men's side completing the 2010 indoor season. The Crusaders will host the 8th GNAC conference championship at the Jackson's track next year where Simon Fraiser (Vancouver, B.C.) will be entering the NCAA Division II ranks and will be competing in the GNAC Conference next year. They will be eligible for conference next in 2011, but not the National meet as they will be provisional members.
The Crusaders begin the Outdoor track and field season on the same date (March 12-13) as the NCAA Indoor National Championships in Albuquerque, NM. Final rankings for the indoor championships will be set after next weekend, and will determine which Crusaders will attend.
