ELLENSBURG, Wash. - Northwest Nazarene track & field ended their 2022 outdoor season with a bang this weekend at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships. Competing against eight other teams, the Nighthawks produced 28 personal records, eight GNAC Runner-ups, and six GNAC Champions during the two-day meet. The men's team placed second overall — their highest ever finish at GNACs.
"Everyone was excited to compete — we had seventeen PRs the first day and it was neat to see everyone show up after the long drive," said Head Coach Danny Bowman.
Steven Schmidt has been a stand-out freshman this year. He secured the win in the GNAC Indoor Heptathlon in February, became the GNAC Decathlon Champion on May 3rd, and snagged the GNAC title in the high jump on Friday. To wrap up his stellar freshman season, he was voted GNAC Male Field Athlete of the Meet this weekend.
"He's a goofball but also works so hard and takes his events seriously," said Bowman. "He started the day with javelin and did fairly well. He immediately ran over to the long jump and did that with zero breaks. Then, he went over to the high jump and won the conference title! His hard work and commitment is so impressive."
"I expected myself to place highly but I knew that it wasn't going to be given to me," said Schmidt. "I knew that I was going to have to fight for the win."
Schmidt barely beat teammate Gerohm Rihari in the high jump with a clearance of 2.04 meters.
"It was fun to go 1st, 2nd, and 5th with both Gerohm and Jacob Steele. They jumped really well and it was fun to see them do so well for the last meet of the year!"
When asked about his GNAC Decathlon win at the beginning of May, the freshman said it was a mix of emotions. "On one hand I was stoked to win, but as a decathlete, there's always something to improve on so you can't really ever be satisfied. It was a good way to finish the season for the multis."
Rihari, GNAC Runner-Up in the high jump event, was another member of the powerful freshman squad NNU saw this year.
"Gerohm started the meet off in the long jump on Friday, but he didn't quite do what he was hoping he would do," said Bowman. "But, that evening, he tore it up in the high jump. He came in this season with not super high marks so it was amazing to see him improve so much this season. He was definitely battling with Steven for that first spot!"
Laurenz Waldbauer, another extraordinary freshman and national leader in the javelin, claimed the GNAC title in the event this weekend with a throw of 65.62 meters. "He's been battling a little injury ever since the ISU meet two weeks ago and has hardly thrown since then," mentioned Bowman. "The goal was to take it a throw at a time and see how it goes, and he totally did it. It was great to see him get the win!"
"To be honest, I'm happy with my placement and my contribution to the team's success, but not quite with my personal performance," said Waldbauer. "The competition was hard and I had to mentally cope with pain in my ankle that prevented me from having good form. The facility was very nice and I would have loved to throw further.
"However, I'm thinking positively towards Nationals and am sure that I will be able to throw at 100% there. I recovered quickly after my ankle tweak two weeks ago and am hoping to throw at Nationals completely free of injury for the first time in this season," said Waldbauer.
Freshman Will Koenig became the GNAC Runner-Up in the pole vault event, reaching a height of 4.63 meters. Koenig's efforts bested his previous personal record by over a foot.
Sophomore Kinsey Yenor took gold in the women's pole vault, becoming GNAC Champion with a height of 3.65 meters. "Kinsey is a fighter!" exclaimed Bowman. "I love watching her compete. She wanted to beat the girl who beat her last year and she successfully did that. It wasn't the height she was going for but she snagged the W and that was great to see."
"I felt confident going into the competition and I was very determined to win for my team," said Yenor. "I trusted all the hard work I had put in over the year and it paid off! I'm really happy with my performance and had so much fun watching my teammates this weekend."
Freshman Miya Koch was the GNAC Runner-Up in the high jump event, diving over the bar at 1.64 meters.
Colton Burr had a picture-perfect ending to his collegiate track and field career during the GNAC hammer throw event this weekend. The senior claimed the GNAC title and a shiny new personal record of 55.51 meters.
"I opened up with my best opening throw ever but a Western Oregon guy opened with 54.80 meters," Burr said. "After he threw that, I realized I had to go big right out of the gate. Historically, I wait to be clutch in the last throw, so I knew I needed to get a high mark to get ahead of the Western guy before then.
"I was winning by the second round by just a little. The Western guy never threw farther than his first throw, so going into the last throw I knew I had won. I started the slow clap for the crowd and that was a surreal experience."
Burr then threw 55.51 meters, PRing by a foot.
"All the adrenaline and all the calm and peacefulness at the same time. It was my best throw ever and it was an amazing way to end my career. It's a little bittersweet for sure."
Sophomore Laine DeJong made some incredible improvement this season in the 400m dash. "Conference overall was really fun with a lot of great performances by the whole team," said DeJong. "My focus for this weekend was to have fun, since this is the last big meet until next season, and I have already worked so hard to get here.
"I personally was not expecting to have such a huge PR in the 400. My goal was to break 59, so when I broke 58 and ran a 57.84 in the 400 final, I was in shock," explained DeJong.
"I have been able to get to this goal mostly because as a sophomore I was more adjusted to the team environment and training, which allowed me to excel both physically and mentally throughout this season. I am so thankful to my coaches who have guided me and supported me throughout this whole season and to my wonderful teammates who I am blessed to run alongside. I am so excited for next year!"
Senior Tyler Shea got a double GNAC Runner-Up in the 10k and 5k races this weekend. He approached this meet with a few strategies to take down an Alaska Anchorage runner who he knew was going to be a worthy opponent in the battle for the GNAC distance titles.
"In the 10k, it came down to the last lap. They battled it down the back straight but it just wasn't enough to get past him," said distance Coach Ben Gall. Shea missed first place by one second, crossing the line in 31:12.82.
"In the 5k we changed our tactics," said Gall. "He wanted to make a really hard move with 400 to go, but unfortunately that didn't work. Both close races, same guy, different tactics." Shea crossed the line in 14:35.82, three seconds behind first place. Nevertheless, it was a valiant effort by the well-decorated Nighthawk.
"Going into my last conference meet, my main focus for both the 10k and 5k was to put myself in a position to be in contention for the win over the last lap," said Shea. "I knew both fields would be very competitive, so I wanted to make sure I was near the front when it came down to the last part of the race. Although I am a little disappointed I ended up in 2nd place in both races, I am happy that I was able to put myself in the right spots, and score high points for the team.
"The guy's team getting second place in the conference is a big deal, and I'm glad I was able to contribute to that total! Overall, this season went about as good as I could have hoped, and I'm proud of the performances I was able to achieve in my last track season."
Kalen Belton ran the 10k in 38:19.73, good enough for GNAC Runner-Up. Thanks to a solid race strategy cooked up by Belton and distance coach Ben Gall, the senior was able to pull off a long-awaited achievement in her track and field career.
"She did so great," said Gall. "The first girl was probably not going to be caught, so we had a plan for her to try to get second. She executed the exact race we talked about and outsprinted the girl the last 100 meters. Kalen was third last year and she wanted to make a plan to get up there this year, and she totally did it."
"As far as the 10k goes, I knew I was capable of ending up in the second place spot if I could execute the plan Coach and I had put together," said Belton. "The plan was to just let the first four miles go by without too much mental effort, which ended up working out perfectly because I was able to tuck in behind the two Western Oregon girls and just shut my brain off and have fun.
"With about six laps to go, I was debating on when to make a move to split up the pack a little bit. It was so hard to stay patient and not make a move too early. But once I did make a move with a couple of laps to go, I knew it was going to come down to the last 200m with the one girl that went with me and that's what happened. She came flying by me with her kick and I knew if I wanted to get her I'd have to find another gear and miraculously I did!
"I think Coach Gall's reminders to stay relaxed and also all of the pacing and 400m repeat workouts throughout the season allowed me to run the last lap the way that I did. It's funny because I didn't really realize the significance of those workouts until it all came together in the race," said Belton.
"Overall, it is a bittersweet ending to a wild ride of these four years of college running! Sad because it had come to an end, but very thankful for the way that it did end. There were definitely highs and lows in the years but I'm so thankful to have Jesus and my teammates and my coaches who have made it all so worth it."
Freshman Hunter Braseth became GNAC Runner-Up in the 200m with a time of 21.73 seconds. The freshman was also a member of the NNU men's 4X100m relay team that snagged the GNAC title as well in 41.77 seconds. Along with Braseth, the relay team was composed of Nick Wong, Cameron Willey, and Sylvanus Hunt.
"The meet overall was a fantastic time," said Braseth. "I really appreciated getting to see some of my friends that I've made this year from all over our conference as well as spend a memorable final weekend with our crew.
"I'm very pleased with my finish in the 200m. Obviously, I would've loved to win that but I have a lot of opportunities still to come in that regard so I'm happy to celebrate this huge milestone! For the men's team, I knew coming in that we were going to do something great but I had no idea that we would achieve as much as we did. It's really not that often that you see everyone come together in a sport like track just given how independent it can be, but I saw our men's team all over the place cheering for each other.
"I loved the environment and the feel down on the track with everyone going crazy for Will, Colton, Steven, and so many others. Specifically on the sprints, I had one goal and that was to get Cam his first-place finish in the 4x100. I'm so happy that we pulled that out for him because he's done so much to bring us into the program and make our team into a tight-knit family," said Braseth.
"I'm really just glad that us freshman could give back to him with the first 4x100m GNAC title in school history."
The NNU men's 4X100m team won that title by just two hundredths of a second.
"They have worked extremely hard all spring for this opportunity," said Bowman. "They were really optimistic about doing well and they went out and had a lot of fun doing it. The handoffs were incredibly clean. Senior Cam Willey has been working for four years for this one opportunity to win the 4X100m, and it was amazing to see those dreams come to fruition."
"Looking back on everything all I see is the outstanding potential of this team," said Braseth. We'll be losing a few great guys but we have so much momentum going into next year that it's hard to be bitter. We've all come a long way and there's no doubt we'll go much further."
