Eastern Oregon Wins First Outright Title Since 2003
TEAM SCORES – Eastern Oregon 165, Concordia 160, Southern Oregon 158, Corban 139, Oregon Tech 91, College of Idaho 63, Evergreen State 14, Warner Pacific 11, Northwest Christian 8, Northwest 7.
ASHLAND – The closest three-team men’s race in the 21-year history of the Cascade Conference Track & Field Championships presented by U.S. Bank went to Eastern Oregon
on Saturday afternoon at Raider Stadium.
The Mountaineers became the first team other than Southern Oregon or Concordia to win the title outright since winning their first one in 2003. EOU didn’t clinch until the final event of the day, placing third in the 4x400-meter relay to land at 165 points. Concordia placed second in that event to reach 160 points and jump defending champion SOU, which was fifth in the event and consequently ended up third in the standings at 158.
The top three teams had never before been separated by less than 12 points, and never less than 76 points over the last seven seasons. EOU tied Concordia for the title in 2007 and also had it to themselves the previous time SOU hosted the meet.
The CCC Field Athlete of the Meet was EOU senior Travis Simpson, who won the high-jump title
Friday, defended his triple-jump title
Saturday and also placed fourth in the long jump. EOU junior Ryan Rosenau was the Track Athlete of the Meet after scoring in four events – the decathlon (first place), 110-meter hurdles (second), 400-meter hurdles (second), and long jump (sixth).
Ben Welch, in his 22
nd year at EOU, was named Coach of the Meet for the second time.
The Mountaineers took the lead in the penultimate race of the day, going from third place first and up five on SOU with 18 points in the 5,000 meters. Isaac Updike placed second, DJ Flores was third and Lucas Updike was fifth.
Concordia’s day was highlighted by senior Jordan Reeher winning his fourth straight title in the 400-meter hurdles with a new meet record.
Corban’s fourth-place finish with 129 points was the best in school history. The Warriors had the top-three finishers
Saturday in the 200 meters and won the 4x400 relay with an ‘A’ standard time of 3:15.59.
Following are
Saturday’s events in the order they unfolded:
JAVELIN: Eastern Oregon’s Logan Reardon, the No. 4 seed, set the tone for the day by scoring an upset victory, a personal-best and a ‘B’ qualifying mark at 185 feet 5 inches on his first throw – also marking the Mountaineers’ first-ever javelin title. OIT’s Trevor Lundsten placed second (183-7), and defending champion Tyler Callahan of Concordia was third (180-08).
TRIPLE JUMP: EOU’s Travis Simpson, last year’s champion, had the No. 2 seed coming into the meet but won his second straight title with a mark of 47-5, and freshman teammate Julian Ford placed third at 44-6 1/4. Corban’s Jacob Ybarra, the No. 5 seed, was runner-up with a PR of 45-7.
POLE VAULT: Top-seeded Tyler Bolin of College of Idaho broke his own school record and hit the NAIA provisional qualifying mark on the dot at 15-5. Oregon Tech’s Seth Gretz, who was
Friday’s 110-meter hurdle champion, was runner-up 14-9, and OIT’s Cullen Hancock, the No. 7 seed, stole third with a vault of 14-5 1/4. The Owls scored 20 points in the discipline.
100M: SOU’s Gabe Derilo, the No. 5 seed, won the title by clocking 10.82 seconds, and teammate Hayden Saparto earned runner-up status at 10.87. Derilo became the sixth different Raider in seven years to win the event. Corban occupied the next three spots, as Brett Johnson became all-CCC in third place (10.96), Nathan Martin was fourth (11.00) and Michael Trofimchik was fifth (11.02).
SHOT PUT: Concordia was victorious in the shot put for the fourth year in a row thanks to top-seeded Josh Koch throwing 54-8, and the Cavs also locked down second place with Zach Lake (48-0 3/4). SOU’s Danny Parks – who
on Friday won the discus and was third in the hammer – shot to third place (47-1 3/4) from the No. 7 seed. The Cavs scored 20 points in the discipline and EOU picked up eight.
800M: In the most loaded race of the meet, EOU’s Hans Roelle, the defending NAIA champion, claimed his second consecutive CCC title in 1:51.58 by preventing 2013 NAIA runner-up Zach Boyd-Helm (1:52.13) of SOU from reeling him in. Concordia had the next four placers: Matthew Clowes (1:52.50), who placed fourth in the NAIA last season; Austin Collins (1:52.92), who was third in the 800 NAIA Indoor Championships; Demetrius Rhodes (1:52.92) and Brad Prettyman (1:53.65).
400M HURDLES: Concordia’s Jordan Reeher completed a career sweep in the event and brought down a seven-year-old meet record in the process by registering 52.62. He did so despite coming into the weekend with CCC’s fourth-best time of the season in the race behind three other automatic NAIA Championship qualifiers. EOU’s Ryan Rosenau was second in 52.88, which was also faster than the previous meet record of 53.06. Concordia’s Peter Seifert came in third at 53.99.
200M: Corban earned its first 200-meter championship in dominant fashion, going first-second-third with Brett Johnson (21.83), Michael Trofimchik (21.99) and Nathan Martin (21.99). Johnson, who placed fifth last season, was the No. 1 seed, but Trofimchik and Martin were seeded sixth and eighth. SOU’s Gabe Derilo (22.00) and JJ Latu (22.06) just missed them.
5000M: SOU’s Dylan Alexander came from behind in the final 150 meters and kicked his way past EOU’s Isaac Updike for a title in 14:49.76. But with Updike in second (14:50.14), meet record-holder DJ Flores in third and (14:57.53) and Lucas Updike in fifth (14:57.54), the Mountaineers got what they needed from the race – 18 points, enough to take the team lead for good. SOU came in with four of the top-six times in the conference.
4x400M RELAY: Corban achieved another program first with its relay title in 3:15.59 seconds – bumping up its ‘B’ qualifying mark to an ‘A’ – thanks to the efforts of Amadi Amaitsa, Nathan Swanson, Brett Johnson and Michael Trofimchik – an appropriate finish to a strong weekend showing in the sprints. Concordia’s second-place finish (3:17.86) pushed the Cavs from third in the team standings to second, and EOU secured a championship by placing third comfortably in 3:19.06.