BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Northwest Nazarene track & field took on the 2025 GNAC Outdoor Championships from May 9-10 at Civic Stadium in Bellingham, with the men placing fourth as a team and the women seventh.
 
The men totaled 104 points at the meet, just a single point behind Central Washington's 105 for third place. Western Oregon took second with 116 points behind Western Washington's 302.5.
 
The Nighthawks won three individual GNAC titles over the weekend, with two coming from senior Gerohm Rihari. He won gold in both events he competed in, taking the long jump on Friday with a mark of 7.22 meters and the high jump on Saturday with a clearance of 2.02 meters. Following the championships, Rihari was named the 2025 GNAC Outdoor Field Athelte of the Meet.
 
The other individual title went to senior Destany Herbert, who won the shot put on Friday for her fifth career GNAC gold medal. Herbert's toss of 15.25 meters was also a new NNU record and No. 10 in Division II this season.
 
NNU had 11 total podium finishes, with seven runner-up placings and one third-place finish to join the three titles.
 
Six of the seven runner-ups were on the men's side. Laurenz Waldbauer took silver in the javelin for his third career GNAC medal, achieving a throw of 69.96 meters that is No. 6 in Division II this season.
 
Other silvers went to Ian Stockett in the 1500m with a time of 3:50.49, Grady Mylander in the 5000m with a time of 14:28.94, Brody Kemble in the 10,000m with a time of 30:07.64, and the men's 4x400m relay squad of Anderson Kron, Luke Johansson, Trevor Ames, and Dylan Breuer with a time of 3:15.61.
 
The final men's runner-up finish went to Alex Shields in the high jump, who cleared the same 1.97 meters as teammate Jonah Groce but earned second place due to clearing an earlier height on less attempts. As a result, the trio of Rihari, Shields, and Groce swept the high jump podium at the meet.
 
The other runner-up came on the women's side, as Emily Powers took second in the javelin with a throw of 41.21 meters to improve on her bronze medal from last year.
 
Carter Alberts also earned a bronze medal, breaking out to take third in the men's shot put with a toss of 14.65 meters.
 
Other top eight finishes to score points at the meet came from Kemble (4^th in the 5000m), Alejandra Gomez (4^th in the 400m hurdles), Miya Koch (4^th in the high jump), Emma Kwok (4^th in the discus), Kron (4^th in the 400m hurdles, 5^th in the 110m hurdles), Johansson (5^th in the 400m hurdles, 6^th in the 110m hurdles), Jordan Eldridge (7^th in the discus), Maddie Weatherford (7^th in the 400m hurdles), Rylee Klitgaard (8^th in the triple jump), and Breuer (8^th in the 400m).
 
With the conference meet in the books, NNU will now have a select group of athletes competing at the National Championships from May 22-24 in Pueblo, Colorado. The official selections will be released on Tuesday, May 13^th on NCAA.com. Nighthawks with a great chance to qualify for nationals include Destany Herbert in the shot put, Laurenz Waldbauer in the javelin, and Gerohm Rihari in the high jump.