GNAC Indoor Championships Preview
by Bob Guptill, GNAC Information Director

Defending champions Seattle Pacific and Western Oregon look to be the teams to beat in the sixth annual Great Northwest Athletic Conference Indoor track-and-field championships that will be held Saturday on Jackson's Track at the Idaho Center Sports Complex in Nampa, Idaho. (Click here to view meet program or "right click" to download a PDF of the program).

Seattle Pacific, which returns five previous individual champions and has the top seed in seven of 13 individual events, will be gunning for its sixth consecutive women's team title.

Back to lead the Falcons is Jessica Pixler, who won the 800 meters and mile in each of the past two seasons. Pixler, who holds GNAC records in every running event between 800 and 5,000 meters, is also the two-time defending national mile champion.

Also returning for SPU are Latasha Essien, Jessica Hinton, Jane Larson and Melissa Peaslee, who between them have won a total of six individual indoor conference titles.

Essien won the 60 meters each of the past two seasons and was the 200-meter champion two years ago. A year ago, Hinton, Larson and Peaslee won the 200 meter, 5000 meter and pole vault titles, respectively. Freshman Ali Worthen is the top seed in the high jump.

Western Washington, which finished a distant second 74 points behind SPU last season, has the best chance to challenge the Falcons' five-year title reign. The Vikings have four No. 1 seeds, including Michelle Howe, who won the 60 hurdles title a year ago.

Other top seeds for the Vikings include freshmen Emily Warman in both the long jump and triple jump and Ellie Siler in the 400 meters. The Vikings will also be a threat in both relays. WWU also returns Heidi Dimmitt, the 2007 400 champion. Dimmitt is competing in the 60 and 200 this year.

Other previous women's individual champions include Central Washington's Krissy Tandle, who won the weight throw in 2006 and the shot put in 2005, 2006 and 2007 before skipping the 2008 meet; Elisa Decker of Northwest Nazarene, who is the defending champion in the 400 meters, and NNU's Ashley Puga who won the 800 in 2006 prior to the arrival of Pixler on the scene.

Tandle could become the first athlete in meet history to win the same event four times and she could also become the leading point scorer in meet history. She currently ranks fifth in career points with 46 trailing all-time leader Terran Legard of Central Washington by 14. Legard won three straight 400 titles between 2004 and 2006.

Western Oregon scored 178 points in winning the men's team title last season. Western Washington was second with 113 ½. Central Washington, which won team titles the two previous seasons, likely has the best chance to dethrone the Wolves this season.

The Wolves have five top seeds including Zeke Van Patten in the 800 meters and mile; Andy Loscutoff in the 60 hurdles; Zeb Udell in the long jump and Gabe Aguilar, who is one of three athletes along with Bryan Mack of CWU and Augustine Agyei of WWU to run a 6.96 this winter in the 60 meters.

Central Washington has four top seeds including Mack in the 60, Rendel Jones in the triple jump, Cameron Bailey in the high jump and Tyler Fischer in the 35-pound weight.

Udell is among six defending champions. Also back to defend their titles are CWU's Matt Rogstad in the 400, Jordan Welling of Western Washington in the 5,000, the Vikings' Ryan Brown in the pole vault, Zach Barclay of Northwest Nazarene in the shot put and Anthony Marin of Western Oregon in the weight throw. Marin is a two-time champion in that event. Another past champion is Justin Felt of Seattle Pacific, the 2007 long jump winner

Rogstad is the third-leading point scorer in GNAC indoor meet history with 54 points, trailing only Chris Randolph of Seattle Pacific who scored 85 points between 2004 and 2006 and Greg Hamm of Northwest Nazarene who tallied 63 points over the past four seasons.

Bailey was the 2007 high jump champion before redshirting last season. Two other 2008 champions are also back – Western Oregon's Ashton Mott who won the 60 and 200 and John Riak of Saint Martin's who won the mile. Mott, however, will concentrate on the 400 this season, while Riak will challenge Welling, the GNAC's record holder in both the 3,000 and 5,000. in the 5K.

Saturday's meet begins at 9 a.m. (Mountain time) with the shot put and high jump. The first running event will be the prelims of the women's and men's 60-meter hurdle at 11 and 11:15 a.m., respectively.