SOU men capture 10th CCC championship
COMPLETE RESULTS (PDF)
FINAL TEAM SCORES – 1. Southern Oregon 180.5, 2. College of Idaho 153.5, 3. British Columbia 127, 4. Eastern Oregon 105, 5. Oregon Tech 83, 6. Corban 71, 7. Northwest Christian 65, 8. Northwest 11, T9. Multnomah 8, T9. Evergreen 8, 11. Warner Pacific 6
ASHLAND – Southern Oregon had a milestone celebration Saturday at Raider Stadium after chipping away at its 10th title in Cascade Conference Men’s Track and Field Championships presented by U.S. Bank at the 25th annual meet.
SOU’s Grier Gatlin was voted the Men’s Coach of the Year for leading the Raiders to their fifth championship in the last seven seasons, accumulating 180.5 points to second-place College of Idaho’s 153.5 after starting the day 17.5 points back of the Yotes.
Junior Raider sprinter Chris Rosero earned Track Athlete of the Meet accolades after winning the 100- and 200-meter dashes and running legs on SOU’s 4x100 relay title team and the third-place 4x400 squad. His teammate, senior Zach Beltz, made history again Saturday, setting a new CCC meet record in the triple jump at 50 feet 7 ¼ inches after doing the same Friday in the long jump (25-10).
Corban’s Michael Schmidt – the CCC champion in the decathlon and 400-meter hurdles, and the anchor for the Warriors in their 4x400 win – was the Field Athlete of the Meet, while Eastern Oregon took the inaugural Team Sportsmanship Award.
Below is a chronological recap of Saturday’s events:
JAVELIN: In a discipline that boasted six automatic and two provisional national qualifiers, including defending CCC and NAIA champion Hunter Drops of OIT, UBC junior Roan Allen came out on top by recording a best of 214 feet 10 inches on his initial throw. Jakob Sandhagen – one of three EOU scorers in the event – snuck into second place at 195-4, edging third-place Drops by 15 inches.
TRIPLE JUMP: With his third consecutive triple-jump championship, SOU’s Zach Beltz checked in at 50-7 ¼ to replace a 3-year-old meet record and establish a new personal best. C of I’s Keith Bailey met the NAIA ‘B’ standard at 47-1 ½ for second place, and EOU freshman Allex Kosel (44-6 ¼) was third.
POLE VAULT: EOU sophomore Corey Sledge, the top pole-vaulter in the NAIA, didn’t disappoint in clearing 16-6 ¾ for the title and a new season-best by a margin of six inches. OIT’s Drops earned another All-CCC finish at 15-7 for third place, and SOU matched EOU with three scorers in the event.
DISCUS: C of I senior Josh Brown collected his third All-CCC plaque and second title of the meet, and in the process became the first individual in CCC history to win three consecutive discus championships with a mark of 165-9 that was 13 feet better than runner-up Desmond Green (153-6), a freshman from Evergreen. The Yotes had three of the top-four placers in the event, with Alec Kuzmack (151-8) and Collin Glass (147-7) scoring next.
100 METERS: SOU’s Chris Rosero – while becoming the fifth different Raider to win the 100 in seven years – also became the conference’s first NAIA provisional qualifier of the season by blazing in at 10.69 seconds. He beat out OIT’s Donnie Pate (10.91) and UBC’s Saif Zaman (10.92), while his Raider teammates Eli Chapman (10.99) and Beltz (11.03) placed fourth and sixth.
800 METERS: UBC’s Rhys Kramer and SOU’s AJ Sandvig – both top-10 800 runners in the NAIA – were neck-and-neck before Kramer came in for the title in 1:52.19 ahead of Sandvig’s 1:52.97. UBC got another All-CCC performer in third-place Tanner Geary (1:53.63) while SOU’s Ryan Alexander (1:54.47) slotted in fourth.
400-METER HURDLES: Corban’s Michael Schmidt earned his second CCC title of the season and repeated as an all-conference hurdler with a win in 54.73 seconds, just ahead of runner-up Micah Jury (55.43) of NCU. C of I’s Kendrick Caldwell (56.31) took the final All-CCC spot and SOU added two more scorers in fourth-place Rhett Gonzalez (56.81) and fifth-place Bryce Goggin (56.83).
200 METERS: SOU’s Rosero (21.73) and OIT’s Pate (22.19) performed true to their seeds as the top-two finishers, while SOU’s Eli Chapman earned key points with an All-CCC third-place finish in 22.28 seconds as the No. 5 seed. NCU produced the Nos. 4 and 5 finishers, Antonio Campos (22.66) and Nicolas Delgado (22.70).
5,000 METERS: The most loaded race of the meet had four of the top-nine and eight of the top-24 5K runners in the NAIA, but dominated it with a 12-second win in 14:48.50. C of I’s Alex Martin (15:00.71) was the runner-up for the second year in a row and UBC’s Cole Dinsdale (15:11.06) took third as one of three Thunderbird scorers. SOU added two more scorers in fifth-place Noah Oberriter (15:25.89) and sixth-place Ben Harter (15:30.72).
4x400-METER RELAY: Corban finished the meet strong with its second-ever 4x400 win as Christian Bohuslavizki, Shane Davis, Seth Tripp and Schmidt finished in 3:19.35 – just ahead of NCU’s time of 3:19.50. SOU finished off its title run in third, clocking in at 3:22.10.