by Athletic Communications
The Northwestern Oklahoma State track and field team wrapped up the Great American Conference Championships inside of the Mosier Indoor Facility Saturday, breaking eight school records, setting 35 new personal best and collecting 15 all-GAC finishers.
“Obviously we rose to the occasion for the GAC Championships,” head coach Jill Lancaster said. “I cannot count the number of personal best and school records we had; they were numerous. Every race we were in, we competed hard and put up quite a few PRs.”
Northwestern finished in sixth place as a team, beating Arkansas Tech, while did not score a single point. The Rangers finished with 32 points, three points less than East Central, 3.5 behind Southern Nazarene and 8.5 points fewer than Southwestern. Oklahoma Baptist took the overall team crown.
In the running events, there was a new record set in the 400-meters, the 800-meters, the one-mile run, the 3,000-meter and the 4×400-meter relay. During the field events, records were set in the high jump, weight throw and the shot put. All finishers in the top-eight secured an all-GAC honor Saturday.
The all-conference honorees are the distance medley team, the 4x400m relay team, in the pentathlon Gina Wilson, in the weight throw Jenny Martinez, apart of the triple jump was Raven Pridgen-Spearman, Destiny Chew and Rosaria Milton claimed the honor in the shot put, Wilson, claimed her second honor in the long jump and in the high jump Selena McDonald,
McDonald continues to best her own school record in the high jump, this time jumping 1.57m, while Destiny Gardner matched her third-best jump in school history at 1.47m and Hayden Duvall joined Gardner to tie for third best. In the conference meet, McDonald placed fourth, while Gardner and Duvall tied for seventh place.
Martinez takes over the top spot in the weight throw gaining a distance of 12.55m, to finish in seventh place, while Kelsey Swindle placed ninth with a distance of 10.65m and Milton threw for 10.23m to place 10th.
During the shot put event, Chew placed fifth with a record-setting throw of 11.83m. Milton, moved into the second spot in the record books with a throw of 11.77m, she finished in seventh place and Martinez threw 10.48m to finish in 10th place.
In the long jump Wilson finished in eighth place with a leap of 4.86m, Rebecca Wasson climbed to the fourth spot in the record books with a jump of 4.68m, Pridgen-Spearman took over the fifth slot reaching 4.50m, while Zarin Goodrich now holds the sixth spot with a 4.47m, Natasha Stocks jumped 4.46m to take over the seventh spot, Duvall jumped 4.33m and Rachel Wilson moved into 10th place with a finish of 4.18m.
Pridgen-Spearman used her triple jump to take over the third spot with a jump of 10.28m, placing seventh. Duvall turned in a ninth-place finish jumping 10.08m, while Stocks turned in a finish of 9.23m to move into the sixth spot and Wasson jumped to the seventh spot with a jump of 9.03m.
“This team has grown over the last year and we are excited about what level we can get to in the outdoor part of the season,” said Lancaster. “The coaching staff is excited about the progress our team is making, but we left some points handing. I am really happy about the efforts that our coaching staff and athletes put forth in the competition.”
In the 4×400-meter relay, Ladasheray Bell, Jaya Barnes, Abrianna Orona and IceLei Duke placed third with a time of four minutes and 11.82 seconds to set the new Northwestern record.
Camille Lear beat her old personal best time by 4.26 seconds, finishing with a new record time of 11:41.41 in the 3,000-meter race. In the one mile run Kayla Gourley set the new Ranger record with a finish of 5:52.07, taking over the top spot by 0.70 seconds better than the previous record-holder Jasmin Garcia. Garcia finished with a time of 5:53.66 in the GAC Championships Saturday and Zoe Moorman moved into fifth in the record books with a time of 6:12.81.
In the 800-meter race, Briley Yunker improved her school-record time by 1.28 seconds. She placed 10th in the event with a time of 2:27.11, Mariah Malloy moves up to fifth with a time of 2:36.85, Madison Meyer had a time of 2:44.02 to climb into the ninth spot and Jean Dodds turned in a personal best time of 3:03.71.
Barnes set the new time to beat in the 400-meters, with a finish of 1:03.28. She improved her PR by 2.89 seconds on Saturday. Duke improves her PR in fourth place in the record books with a new time of 1:04.59. Abigail Cole improved her time to 1:09.38 to hold the ninth spot in the ranks and Angel Marshall had a time of 1:11.21.
Both Northwestern runners in the 200-meters run improved their PR and made a move in the record book. Jasmine Bowen climbed to third with a time of 27.84 seconds, while Kianna Dickey had a finish of 28.99 seconds to move into ninth.
During the 60-meter hurdles Gina Wilson turned in a time of 10.07 seconds, not able to better her school record she set on Friday and Elizabeth McMahan moved into second place with a time of 10.44 seconds, 0.02 better than her previous best time.
During the 60-meter race Orona used a finish of 8.29seconds to score the second-best time in NWOSU history and Dickey’s time of 8.67 seconds, is good enough for eighth.
“We saw a lot of progress, with this group this winter,” stated assistant head coach Craig Binkley. “There are greater expectations with what can be done during the outdoor season. We can see the progress during each meet so far. Obviously, we want to carry that momentum over to the last couple of months we have left.”