April 19, 2008

Repeat Finishes for Lutes at Conference Meet

Final Results

NEWBERG, Ore. – The 2008 Northwest Conference Track & Field Championships came to an end Saturday afternoon, and for Pacific Lutheran it was a repeat performance of last year's meet as the women placed sixth and the men finished seventh.

Willamette came out on top in the women's competition with 224.5 points, followed by meet host George Fox with 181.5 and Whitworth with 97.5. Rounding out the team scores were Linfield with 86.5, Puget Sound with 79, Pacific Lutheran with 72, Pacific with 40 and Lewis & Clark with 37.

On the men's side, Whitworth scored 196 points, followed closely by defending champion Linfield with 181 and Willamette with 177.5. Rounding out the scoring were George Fox with 115.5, Puget Sound with 78, Pacific with 37, Pacific Lutheran with 26 and Lewis & Clark with 8.

Junior Taylor Hacker was Pacific Lutheran's only event winner during the two-day meeting, taking the women's hammer throw with a 155-4. She also finished eighth in the discus (95-10) during Saturday's second day of competition.

The Lute women scored well in the sprints on Saturday with freshman Lakia Arceneaux placing third in the 100 (12.87) and in the 200 (26.26), and Amy LeBrun placing seventh in the 100 (13.16) and eighth in the 200 (26.95). In addition, the 400-meter relay team of Lynette Millard, LeBrun, Faven Araya and Arceneaux placed second it that event (49.31).

Araya had a solid meet in her individual events, finishing third in the 400 hurdles (1:02.93) and fifth in the 100 hurdles (15.45). Callie Gunderson came into the women's 400 final with the eighth best time but she improved by almost 1.5 second, finishing fifth in the race (1:02.01). She combined with LeBrun, Arceneaux and Araya to place fifth in the 1600 relay (4:10.21).

As expected, freshman Isaac Moog carried the PLU men. He finished second in the 400 (49.48), fifth in the 200 (22.95) and fourth in the triple jump (43-10). He also ran legs on PLU's sixth-place 400 relay (44.32) and fifth-place 1600 relay (3:30.32). Other than Jeff Nielsen's seventh-place performance in the shot put, Moog was the only PLU male to score in an individual event.

- PLU -