College of Idaho Wins Third Straight Title
TEAM SCORES – College of Idaho 180, Concordia 153, Eastern Oregon 106, Southern Oregon 96, Oregon Tech 80, Corban 68, Northwest Christian 51, Warner Pacific 41, Northwest 34.
ASHLAND – Not being the favorite didn’t stop College of Idaho from leaving little doubt about its third consecutive women’s title
Saturdayafternoon in the 21
st annual Cascade Conference Track & Field Championships presented by U.S. Bank at Raider Stadium.
Despite the closest one-two finish in meet history – C of I amassed 180 points and second-place Concordia had 153 – the Yotes’ title came comfortably as they entered the day with a 25-point lead and never relinquished it. Junior Nichole DeGrange helped them wrap it up with championship efforts in the 100- and 200-meter races, and the day ended with her anchoring a first-place 4x400-meter relay team that set a meet record.
C of I junior Tiana Thomas was voted co-CCC Field Athlete of the Meet, scoring in five individual events over the weekend – she was second in the 100-meter hurdles, third in the 400 hurdles, fourth in the 100 and high jump, and sixth in the long jump – and winning the heptathlon two weeks ago.
The other co-Field Athlete of the Meet was Concordia's McKenzie Warren, winner of the hammer and shot put and runner-up in the discus.
For the fourth year in a row, C of I’s pat McCurry was named Women’s Coach of the Meet.
Eastern Oregon placed third with 106 team points, SOU was fourth with 96 and Oregon Tech was fifth with 80. The same teams have occupied the top three spots in five consecutive seasons.
SOU’s Amelia Maguin garnered Track Athlete of the Meet accolades. She won her third consecutive 400-meter hurdles title
Saturday and placed second in the 200 after winning titles in the 100-meter hurdles and 400
on Friday.
Following are
Saturday’s events in the order they unfolded:
POLE VAULT: Eastern Oregon’s Talitha Fagen opened the day by defending her CCC title with a vault of 12 feet 5 ½ inches. Oregon Tech’s Katie Ingram placed second (9-8), Janelle Kono matched Ingram later to place third.
SHOT PUT: McKenzie Warren, who is No. 2 on the NAIA performance list, claimed her second title of the weekend with mark of 46-6 ¼. Warren also won Friday’s hammer. Her teammate, Jessica Mattos – who won Friday’s discus – was runner-up to become All-CCC in a third discipline at the meet with a throw of 41-10 3/4. EOU’s Marta Stangel was placed third (41-5 3/4).
100M: Nichole DeGrange, the defending champ from College of Idaho, went back-to-back by edging EOU’s Kendall Current in 12.34 second to 12.39. The Yotes had three of the top four as Brittany Beame (12.78) and Tiana Thomas (12.80) were next in, totaling 23 points in the race.
800M: C of I’s Amy Pfaff, who came in with an NAIA ‘A’ standard time and the No. 1 seed, separated from the pack with a season-best of 2:12.72. She was followed by Concordia’s Christa Collmer (2:13.79) and Oregon Tech’s Susie Garza (2:14.25). The Yotes have now the event three straight seasons.
400M HURDLES: SOU’s Amelia Maguin – the top 400 hurdler in the NAIA and the meet record-holder – allowed for minimal drama while gliding to a third straight CCC title in the event and third of the weekend in 1:00.62. EOU’s Ashanna Hodge was closest while breaking her own qualifying mark by nearly two seconds in 1:01.02. C of I’s Tiana Thomas became all-conference in a fourth event (including her heptathlon title) by placing third in 1:03.16 for an auto-qualifying mark. Corban’s Chelsea Reifschneider (1:03.53) and Concordia’s Molly Scoles (1:03.87) also became auto qualifiers, while Concordia’s Geneva Alvarez (1:04.37) broke into the ‘B’ category.
200M: DeGrange won her second title of the afternoon and stopped SOU’s Amelia Maguin from doing the same, topping her with a time of 25.08 to 25.17. DeGrange, who
on Friday was runner-up to Maguin in the 400, was runner-up in the 200 last year. In third place was Concordia’s Caitlyn Safley (25.36), who entered with the CCC’s No. 5 seed.
TRIPLE JUMP: After collecting Warner Pacific’s first title at the meet since 2011 of any kind by breaking the meet record in
Friday’s long jump, Alyssa Neal did it again in the triple with a mark of 38-7 1/2 that erased a 9-year-old meet benchmark. Concordia’s Rachel Siltman’s 38-6 3/4 went down as the second-best jump in the meet’s history, and EOU’s Ashanna Hodge placed third with a mark of 37-5.
JAVELIN: Three-time All-American Joelle Swanson of Oregon Tech broke through with her first career conference title on a throw of 153-3, just getting by Concordia’s Emma Buchholz (152-7), last year’s CCC champ. Those two easily cleared the field; Concordia’s Amber Corbett threw 122-3 for an All-CCC performance in third place.
5000M: Alyssa Harmon became Northwest Christian’s third 5K champion in the last four seasons with a time of 17:47.81. OIT’s Mary Matchett was the runner-up in 17:52.50, and Ruth Lewinski helped extend C of I’s points lead with an All-CCC performance in 18:10.66.
4x400M RELAY: With the title already wrapped up, the Yotes were able to enjoy their second 4x4 title in three years and a time of 3:49.95 that broke Concordia’s 2010 record by nearly half a second. The work was done by Hannah Lentz, Brittany Beame, Tiana Thomas and Nichole DeGrange. C of I’s previous best this season was 3:54.12. SOU placed second in 3:57.02, slightly outdoing Concordia (3:57.47) and Corban (3:57.55).