Doane sweeps GPAC track titles
By Steven Allspach Journal sports writer | Posted: Sunday, May 04, 2008
What goes around, comes around.
Like, every 20 years or so a school other than Nebraska Wesleyan wins the men's outdoor track and field championship in the Great Plains Athletic Conference -- or its forerunners, the Nebraska Athletic Conference and Nebraska-Iowa Athletic Conference.
It happened Saturday at Elwood Olsen Stadium, where Doane College ended Nebraska Wesleyan's 19-year reign as conference kingpin.
The Doane men stacked up 212 points to outdistance Wesleyan's 178. Doane also won its 10th straight women's crown with 208 points to runner-up NWU's 172.
"We've been fortunate to win the women's titles in the past, but we could never quite knock off Wesleyan (in the men's race),'' said Ed Fye, who coordinates both programs at the Crete, Neb., school. "Depth always plays a major role for us.
"And, on the men's side we scored pretty well in the field events. We've come awfully close to beating Wesleyan the last couple years. We lost by a point two years ago and a point-and-a-half last year, so this is pretty gratifying for our athletes.''
Doane last won both titles in 1989.
Coach Dave Nash directed Morningside to fifth-place finishes in either division, improving a notch each time from a year ago. The Mustang men, led by javelin winner Brad South, totaled 48 points, and the women had 65 points.
South, fifth in the NAIA national outdoor last year, won with a throw of 203 feet, 5 inches.
The women's javelin title went to Morningside's Vanessa Warzecha with a throw of 134-4. She was the national runner-up in the event last year.
Doane's Paulvince Obuon was named the outstanding male athlete after winning the 100 in :10.68, the 200 in :21.27 and anchoring a victorious 4x100 relay quartet.
Dordt senior Jen Kempers was named the outstanding female athlete after winning the steeplechase, finishing second in the 5,000 meters, taking seventh in the high jump, finishing second in the 800 and running a leg on the Defender 4x400 relay.
"I was running for team points,'' said Kempers, the NAIA national champ in the steeple two years ago and runner-up last year. She won her specialty in 11:05.99, 24 seconds over her personal best.
Northwestern freshman Olivia Johnson, from Milford, won the 800 in 2:16.59 after setting one of two women's meet records with a 4:39.10 victory in the 1,500.
Jared Schuurmans, a Nebraska state prep discus champion at Norfolk High School, jump-started Doane's championship run when he won the first individual event to be completed, the men's shot put.
He won with a personal best heave of 55 feet, 10.25 and later won the discus title with a throw of 176 feet, 3 inches, also a personal best.
"Getting 55 (feet) or better this year was one of my goals so I'm pretty happy with the shot,'' said the 6-3, 225-pound sophomore, whose previous best was 53-7.75. "The discus is my favorite event, though.''
Concordia's Luka Thor, a native of the Sudan who became a U.S. citizen last December, doubled in the two longest men's races, the 5,000 and 10,000 meters.
In the 10K, Thor ran away from the field with two blazing final laps to win in 32 minutes, 52.81 seconds.
Thor, whose father was killed in the civil war in Sudan when he was a 6-year-old, moved with his mother to the U.S. and actually graduated from high school at Lincoln Northeast.
He won the 5K in 15:16.15, outsprinting Doane's Sufian Kimo down the stretch. Kimo ran 15:16.95.
Also making a major contribution for the Doane men was 400-meter champ Lance Foster, who blazed home in 47.43 seconds.
Foster, who won the NAIA national indoor 600 in February, also led off a winning 4x400 relay.
Men's high jump champ Will Keesee flirted with a stadium record. The Hastings freshman from Phillipsburg, Kan., cleared 6 feet, 9.75 inches, then missed three times at 7 feet, one-quarter inch.
Buena Vista's Don Wolf set the stadium record in the Sioux City Relays in 1995, clearing 7 feet.
Because of strong prevailing winds, the 100 meters, 100-meter low hurdles and 110 high hurdles were turned around, running from west to east with the wind at the back of athletes.
In NAIA track and field, wind gauges are not used, hence there are no wind-aided performances. However, because Nebraska Wesleyan is the lone NCAA Division III school in the conference, a wind gauge was in operation in events involving NWU athletes.
Also, both 200-meter finals started at the finish line and ended where the event normally starts in the third turn.
Another Siouxland athlete, Mount Marty's Laura Wortmann was a double winner in the discus and shot put.
Another premier performance was turned in by Concordia's Michael Saalfeld. The reigning NAIA national indoor champ in the 800 ran 1:51.44, just off the record of 1:51.01.
Like, every 20 years or so a school other than Nebraska Wesleyan wins the men's outdoor track and field championship in the Great Plains Athletic Conference -- or its forerunners, the Nebraska Athletic Conference and Nebraska-Iowa Athletic Conference.
It happened Saturday at Elwood Olsen Stadium, where Doane College ended Nebraska Wesleyan's 19-year reign as conference kingpin.
The Doane men stacked up 212 points to outdistance Wesleyan's 178. Doane also won its 10th straight women's crown with 208 points to runner-up NWU's 172.
"We've been fortunate to win the women's titles in the past, but we could never quite knock off Wesleyan (in the men's race),'' said Ed Fye, who coordinates both programs at the Crete, Neb., school. "Depth always plays a major role for us.
"And, on the men's side we scored pretty well in the field events. We've come awfully close to beating Wesleyan the last couple years. We lost by a point two years ago and a point-and-a-half last year, so this is pretty gratifying for our athletes.''
Doane last won both titles in 1989.
Coach Dave Nash directed Morningside to fifth-place finishes in either division, improving a notch each time from a year ago. The Mustang men, led by javelin winner Brad South, totaled 48 points, and the women had 65 points.
South, fifth in the NAIA national outdoor last year, won with a throw of 203 feet, 5 inches.
The women's javelin title went to Morningside's Vanessa Warzecha with a throw of 134-4. She was the national runner-up in the event last year.
Doane's Paulvince Obuon was named the outstanding male athlete after winning the 100 in :10.68, the 200 in :21.27 and anchoring a victorious 4x100 relay quartet.
Dordt senior Jen Kempers was named the outstanding female athlete after winning the steeplechase, finishing second in the 5,000 meters, taking seventh in the high jump, finishing second in the 800 and running a leg on the Defender 4x400 relay.
"I was running for team points,'' said Kempers, the NAIA national champ in the steeple two years ago and runner-up last year. She won her specialty in 11:05.99, 24 seconds over her personal best.
Northwestern freshman Olivia Johnson, from Milford, won the 800 in 2:16.59 after setting one of two women's meet records with a 4:39.10 victory in the 1,500.
Jared Schuurmans, a Nebraska state prep discus champion at Norfolk High School, jump-started Doane's championship run when he won the first individual event to be completed, the men's shot put.
He won with a personal best heave of 55 feet, 10.25 and later won the discus title with a throw of 176 feet, 3 inches, also a personal best.
"Getting 55 (feet) or better this year was one of my goals so I'm pretty happy with the shot,'' said the 6-3, 225-pound sophomore, whose previous best was 53-7.75. "The discus is my favorite event, though.''
Concordia's Luka Thor, a native of the Sudan who became a U.S. citizen last December, doubled in the two longest men's races, the 5,000 and 10,000 meters.
In the 10K, Thor ran away from the field with two blazing final laps to win in 32 minutes, 52.81 seconds.
Thor, whose father was killed in the civil war in Sudan when he was a 6-year-old, moved with his mother to the U.S. and actually graduated from high school at Lincoln Northeast.
He won the 5K in 15:16.15, outsprinting Doane's Sufian Kimo down the stretch. Kimo ran 15:16.95.
Also making a major contribution for the Doane men was 400-meter champ Lance Foster, who blazed home in 47.43 seconds.
Foster, who won the NAIA national indoor 600 in February, also led off a winning 4x400 relay.
Men's high jump champ Will Keesee flirted with a stadium record. The Hastings freshman from Phillipsburg, Kan., cleared 6 feet, 9.75 inches, then missed three times at 7 feet, one-quarter inch.
Buena Vista's Don Wolf set the stadium record in the Sioux City Relays in 1995, clearing 7 feet.
Because of strong prevailing winds, the 100 meters, 100-meter low hurdles and 110 high hurdles were turned around, running from west to east with the wind at the back of athletes.
In NAIA track and field, wind gauges are not used, hence there are no wind-aided performances. However, because Nebraska Wesleyan is the lone NCAA Division III school in the conference, a wind gauge was in operation in events involving NWU athletes.
Also, both 200-meter finals started at the finish line and ended where the event normally starts in the third turn.
Another Siouxland athlete, Mount Marty's Laura Wortmann was a double winner in the discus and shot put.
Another premier performance was turned in by Concordia's Michael Saalfeld. The reigning NAIA national indoor champ in the 800 ran 1:51.44, just off the record of 1:51.01.
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