by Jordanne Perry
The Whitworth men’s and women’s track and field team took first place victories with scores of 187 and 216.5, respectively, at the Northwest Conference Championship meet this past weekend at Lewis & Clark.
With their second consecutive NWC victory, the women’s team had eight athletes take first place finishes and had over 20 with top five finishes.
Some Pirate first place performances came from the throwing events where senior Kerry Wright became the NWC champion in the javelin for the fourth consecutive year with a throw of 140‘ 8.25“. In addition, seniors Dakota Kliamovich and Courtney Fairhart became a third time NCW champions in the hammer (164‘ 11“) and discus (132‘ 2.5“) events, respectively.
The men took earned their seventh consecutive NWC victory after making a comeback from being behind George Fox on the first day.
Over 25 had top five finishes in various events and the men had five athletes take first place victories.
For the second time, Senior Everett Kleven was among the first place victors with a cleared 16‘ jump in the pole vault event. In addition, the 4×400-meter relay team consisting of freshman Jalen Robinson-McClure, senior Alex Hardlund, sophomore John-Robert Woolley, and senior Nicholas Gosselin won first place in a season-best time of 3:17.36.
Whitworth will return to action this Saturday at the Cougar Invite in Pullman, WA beginning 10:00 a.m.