LACEY, Wash. – At the halfway mark of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Combined Events Championships, the Alaska Anchorage men's and women's teams have four individuals in top-three positions in the decathlon and heptathlon Monday.
Leading the Seawolves with a No. 1 standing after four events is junior All-American Karolin Anders. A local of Berlin, Germany, Anders leads the league field with 3,071 points – 163 points more than her halfway-point total from the California Invite Combined Events on April 15.
The 2014 NCAA runner-up, Anders posted a leap of 5-7 in the high jump and collected a toss of 38-7.5 in the shot put. She also went 26.05 in the 200 meters and 15.50 in the 100-meter hurdles as she looks to qualify for her third straight outdoor National meet and defend her GNAC title.
Additionally, junior Rosie Smith and senior Haleigh Lloyd are also ranked in the top three, with Smith sitting at No. 2 and Lloyd tied for No. 3. A Bartlett High graduate, Smith has furnished 2,843 points and is on target to bypass her career best and provisional NCAA qualifying point total of 4,613, set earlier this month. Currently, Smith sits at No. 20 in Div. II.
From Ladysmith, B.C., Lloyd – who is making her first heptathlon appearance since 2013 – has amassed 2,777 points and is tied with Seattle Pacific's Maliea Luquin. Lloyd, who recently set the GNAC record in the 400-meter hurdles, holds a career best 4,637-point total.
Meanwhile in the decathlon, junior newcomer Travis Turner sits at No. 3 with 3,328 points after five events. Turner, from Stockton, Calif., used three personal-best marks as a Seawolf to bypass his halfway total from California (3,230). Turner posted a career best in the 100 meters (11.41), 400 meters (50.64), while tying his season-best long jump at 20-0.25.
The provisional NCAA qualifying standard for the heptathlon is 4,377 points, while 5,160 qualifies the individual automatically. In the decathlon, individuals need to hit 6,202 for provisional qualification and 7,100 for automatic.
Action continues tomorrow with Day 2 of the Combined Events Championships.
