May 3, 2003

Complete Results

ELLENSBURG, Wash. - Dania Swosinski (Jr., Tacoma/Wilson) successfully defended her titles in the 200 and 400 meters and also ran a leg of the victorious 4x100 relay as the Western Washington University women's track and field team won seven events in finishing third overall at the second annual Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships at Tomlinson Stadium.

The Viking women had 181 points, finishing narrowly behind Western Oregon at 210.5 and Seattle Pacific at 207.5. The Western men placed second with 156 points, but were more than 100 points behind champion Western Oregon, which won 11 events and had 259.5 points in claiming the eighth consecutive conference championship across three leagues.

"I think we competed better than any team here and the points show that," said Western coach PeeWee Halsell. "The men jumped up a spot from where the marks predicted they'd be and the women were so much closer to the top two than they were projected. We won a lot of events and had a lot of people scoring points they weren't expected to get."

Swosinski edged the Female Athlete of the Meet, Sarah Kraybill of Seattle Pacific, by 0.1 of a second in the 400, winning in 57.88. She also won the 200 in 25.45, with teammate Melissa Behrens (Jr., Redmond/Eastlake) finishing second. Behrens won the 100 (12.28) and ran the anchor leg for the winning 4x100 team (48.04) that also included Dani Reid (Fr., Spokane/North Central), Swosinski and Laura Burch (So., McMinnville, OR).

"Dania did a great job and did it on a sore hamstring," Halsell said. "Melissa Behrens had a PR in the 200 (25.78) and dominated the 100."

Also winning for the Western women were Burch in the 400 hurdles (1:05.28), Ashlee Vincent (So., Bellingham/Squalicum) in the 3,000 (10:17.34) and Jessica Telleria (Fr., Boise, ID/Capital), who had a personal-best in the discus (142-9) that was just three inches short of the provisional qualifying standard for the NCAA Division II National Championships.

Victorious for the Western men were Zach Boteilho (Sr., Camas) in the 5,000 (15:11.32), T.J. Garlatz (Sr., Redmond/Inglemoor) in the 10,000 (32:29.73), and Jeff Word (Fr., Sequim) in the high jump (6-6).

"T.J. Garlatz really set the pace for us right at the beginning of the meet," Halsell said. "He was ranked sixth coming in, and he won. That's a seven-point swing and that set the tone of the day."

Halsell also praised a number of other competitors, in particular Kurt Hartmaier (Jr., Woodinville/Redmond), who placed third in both the 1,500 and 5,000.

Kraybill, who competed in five events, won two individual races, edging Vincent in the 1,500 and Central Washington's Lindy Mullen in the 800 by less than a second each, as well as running a leg in Seattle Pacific's victorious 4x400.

Western Oregon's Issac Fredrick, who won the 200 and 400 and was on two victorious relay teams, was the Male Athlete of the Meet, and the Wolves' John Knight was selected Men's and Women's Coach of the Year.