Parks, Sanders lead SOU men to Day 1 lead at CCC Championships
ASHLAND – Southern Oregon leaned on strong performances in the field to take a first-day lead
Friday at the Cascade Conference Men’s Track & Field Championships presented by U.S. Bank, hosted by SOU at Raider Stadium.
The Raiders lead the 21
st annual meet with 94 points and will attempt to secure their third straight team title when the final events begin at
10 a.m. Saturday. Markus Sanders (hammer) and Danny Parks (discus) delivered victories, and three Raiders placed in the top four of the 1,500-meter race behind winner Matthew Clowes of Concordia.
Meet records were set by Corban’s 4x100-meter relay team, Eastern Oregon high-jumper Travis Simpson and Evergreen long-jumper Anthony Johnson.
EOU is second with 89 team points, followed by Concordia (73) and Corban (65).
Following are the events in the order they unfolded.
HAMMER: SOU’s Markus Sanders stopped Concordia’s run of four straight hammer titles with a throw of 192 feet 4 inches. Concordia’s Justin Ramirez, the CCC’s only other ‘A’ qualifier, was second at 171-7, and SOU’s Danny Parks hit third with his best mark of the season, 170-10.
LONG JUMP: Anthony Johnson won his second straight long jump title and third CCC title overall – the only ones in the history of Evergreen track and field – with a mark of 24 feet 10 inches, giving him a meet record that beat the previous one set 19 years ago, and outdoing the mark of 23-11 3/4 he posted in 2014. Corban’s Jacob Ybarra jumped into the NAIA ‘A’ standard category 23-10 1/4, and Concordia’s James Phillips registered a ‘B’ at 23-3 1/2.
STEEPLECHASE: Eastern Oregon twins Isaac Updike, the 2013 NAIA and CCC champion, and Lucas Updike, the 2014 CCC champion, cruised ahead of the field, and ultimately Isaac accepted the win in 9:28.02 while Lucas came in a shade behind in 9:28.08. Corban’s Craig Boekenoogen, the No. 10 seed coming in, placed third in 9:35.02.
DISCUS: The aforementioned Danny Parks of SOU set a school record 179-0 3/4 for his first CCC title, cutting off Concordia’s string of discus championships at seven straight. Teammate Markus Sanders gave the Raiders 18 points in the discipline at 175-2, while Concordia’s Justin Ramirez, Josh Koch and Zach Lake occupied the next three spots.
4x100M: Corban won its first-ever relay title in grand fashion by breaking the meet record with a time of 41.43 seconds, also breaking into the NAIA automatic-qualifier category. Concordia (41.81) and SOU (41.82) both logged season-bests to hit the provisional-qualifier category. The Raiders had won the last five titles.
HIGH JUMP: EOU’s Travis Simpson took the title by tying a 17-year-old meet record of 7-0 1/4. He already had an ‘A’ qualifying mark and beat it by 2 1/2 inches. Corban’s Jacob Ybarra placed second (6-6 3/4), Concordia’s Louis Faust was third (6-5 1/2), and SOU’s Anthony Neal, the No. 9 seed, slid into fourth.
1500M: Concordia’s Matthew Clowes – who came into the race the top 1,500 runner in the NAIA and was the national runner-up a season ago – got rid of a pack of SOU runners in the final lap to escape with his first conference title in 3:54.34. Still, SOU scored 19 points in the race, thanks to runner-up Zach Boyd-Helm (3:54.69), third-place Dylan Alexander (3:54.69) and fourth-place Kevin Jorgensen (3:55.44).
110M HURDLES: Oregon Tech’s Seth Gretz notched a season-best and snuck into the NAIA ‘A’ standard category with a winning time of 14.85 seconds. EOU’s Ryan Rosenau, the No. 1 seed, was second in 14.98, and OIT had another all-conference performer in third-place Daniel Brattain (15.09).
400M: Corban’s Nathan Swanson, last year’s runner-up, earned his first title as a senior with a time of 48.34 seconds that improved his previous season-best of 48.60 and made him an NAIA ‘B’ standard qualifier. Corban’s Michael Trofimchik was also all-conference for the second straight year and earned a ‘B’ qualifying time in 48.35 seconds. Concordia’s Demetrius Rhodes (49.37) claimed third.
10K: EOU’s DJ Flores capped the day by edging a pair of C of I runners, Max Hampton and Dan Williams, for the 10K title in 32:36.61. Hampton (32:40.05) and Williams (32:40.74) became all-conference and SOU’s Caleb Diaz and Connor Cushman placed fourth and fifth.
TEAM SCORES – Southern Oregon 94, Eastern Oregon 89, Concordia 73, Corban 65, Oregon Tech 46, College of Idaho 35, Evergreen 14, Northwest 4, Warner Pacific 3, Northwest Christian 3.