LACEY, Wash. – Highlighted by junior Karolin Anders successfully defending her heptathlon title and qualifying automatically for the NCAA Championships, the Alaska Anchorage women's track & field team went 1-2-4 at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Combined Events Championships Tuesday on the Saint Martin's campus.
The women's team combined for 23 points, which will be added to the Seawolves' score at the GNAC Championships, May 8-9, as UAA looks to capture their third straight team title. Combined, the Seawolves won six of the seven events. In the decathlon, the Seawolves received six points from junior Travis Turner, who finished third.
A local from Berlin, Germany, Anders qualified automatically for the first time of her career and will compete at the National meet, May 21-23 in Allendale Mich. She posted a season-best 5,162 points, bypassing the required mark of 5,160 by two points. The UAA school-record holder with 5,375 points, Anders won the heptathlon last season after finishing runner-up at the league meet in 2013.
In the final three events, Anders posted the best leap of the day in the long jump at 18-3.75, before going 114-4 in the javelin and registering a time of 2:21.81 in the 800 meters. Anders also won the high jump (5-7) and shot put (38-7.5) on Monday.
Qualifying provisionally for the NCAA meet were senior Haleigh Lloyd (4,589) and junior Rosie Smith (4,559), who finished runner-up and fourth, respectively. The Seawolf duo bettered the provisional mark of 4,377.
After six events, Lloyd, from Ladysmith, B.C., was fifth before posting a GNAC-meet record in the 800-meters at 2:14.20 for 904 points, leap-frogging into second. Competing in just her second heptathlon and first since 2013, Lloyd defeated Seattle Pacific's Maliea Luquin (4,584) by five points.
Earning five points for the Seawolves, Smith won two events in the heptathlon – 100-meter hurdles with a personal best of 14.33 and the 200 meters at 25.69. The Bartlett High graduate also posted a time of 2:26.42 in the 800 meters for fourth and 738 points.
In the decathlon, Turner finished third for All-Conference honors with a season-best 6,362 points – a provisional NCAA qualifying mark. A newcomer from Stockton, Calif., Turner bested his previous best of 5,978 – set April 16 – with eight personal bests, including all five on the second day. Turner went 15.12 in the 110-meter hurdles, 4:48.48 in the 1500 meters, 105-7 in the discus, 132-2 in the javelin and 13-1.5 in the pole vault.
Winning the decathlon was Northwest Nazarene's Payton Lewis with 6,595 points.
