April 20, 2007

Hatch Second in Women’s Javelin to Pace PLU at NWC Championships

Karin Hatch - second in javelin

First Day Results

TACOMA – Freshman Karin Hatch threw the javelin a career best 131-1 to finish second and pace Pacific Lutheran’s performance at Friday’s opening day of the Northwest Conference Track & Field Championships being hosted by the University of Puget Sound.

The Lute women currently sit in seventh place after the first day with 13.33 points. Heavily favored Willamette is in first with 70.33 points, followed by Linfield with 49, George Fox with 48, Pacific with 32, Whitworth with 31, Puget Sound with 20.33, PLU with 13.33 and Pacific with 9.

Linfield leads in the men’s competition with 77.83 points followed by Willamette with 61. Whitworth is in third with 49, followed by Puget Sound with 39.5, George Fox with 32.66, Lewis & Clark with 6, Pacific with 5 and Pacific Lutheran with 2.

Hatch, who came into the competition with a previous best of 127-5, surpassed the NCAA Division III national meet provisional mark of 128-8 with her second-place throw. Pacific’s Brooke Barker, who two weeks ago won the conference heptathlon title, won the women’s javelin with a toss of 133-5.

Senior Megan Wochnick placed fourth in the discus with a throw of 109-5, and Taylor Hacker was 10th in the event, throwing 84-11. Wochnick will participate in her specialty, the hammer throw, on Saturday morning. She won the 2004 hammer title and has the top throw in the conference this year (161-5) entering the competition.

The PLU women also got 1/3 of a point from senior Laura Bonino, who finished in a three-way tie for eighth in the pole vault with a leap of 9-6 ¼.

In other women’s finals, Amy Forza placed 15th in the 3000-meter steeplechase in a time of 13:09.68, and Lauren McDonald finished 10th in the 10,000 meters in a time of 40:42.25. Rebecca Lewis placed 13th and Heather O’Farrell finished 15th in the long jump, going 14-5 ¾ and 13-8 ¼, respectively.

The Lutes advanced several athletes in track events, led by Katie Choate’s top qualifying time in the 800. Choate, a freshman, clocked 2:23.37 to lead the field into tomorrow’s final. In the women’s 100, Amy LeBrun ran 13.02 to place fourth in the prelims and Lynette Millard clocked 13.08 to finish fifth. Both will run in Saturday’s final.

Sophomore Faven Araya advanced in two races. She was fourth in the 100 hurdles prelims in a time of 15.61, and she goes into the 400 hurdles finals with the second-best qualifying time, 1:05.06.

On the men’s side, Pacific Lutheran picked up its two team points from freshman Clint Ludlow, who threw the javelin 184-7 to place seventh. His throw was a 10-foot improvement over his previous best mark this year and places him 11th on the all-time PLU men’s javelin list. PLU’s Casey Pyle finished 11th in the event with a throw of 167-0, edging teammate Doug Rickabaugh, one place and one inch behind.

In the men’s 3000-meter steeplechase final, Nolan Adams placed 14th in a time of 10:32.44.

In men's preliminaries contested Friday, the Lutes managed to qualify finalists in only one event, the 400 hurdles. Luke Weinbrecht ran 57.00, the fourth-best preliminary time, and Daniel Hibbard clocked 57.69, seventh best, entering Saturday’s final.

- PLU -