Saint Martin’s Track and Field team steps up in GNAC Finals preview at CWU

With only a couple of weeks left approaching the Conference Finals, the Saint Martin’s University Track and Field team is in their homestretch preparations to vie for all the marbles and was tested on what could be the Championship preview at the Central Washington University Invitational at Ellensburg, Washington last weekend, April 20.

The CWU Wildcat Invite is the second to last of the outdoor meets wherein the Saints competed in and served as the preview of sorts for the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) Finale as the same ground will host the Conference Championships this coming May 10-11.

And the Saints went marching in, as they should.

Cassidy Walchak-Sloan followed up on her monster performance at the Lewis & Clark Larry Byerly Invite last week with another banger, this time at the women’s 3000 meters. She finished first after clocking 9:51.95, which is the sixth-best time in the event, while schoolmate Kya Ramirez finished second in the same race at 11:01.40.

It could be remembered that last week in Portland, CWS ran a personal and school best of 4:29.05 in the women’s 1500 meters, which was ranked second in the GNAC this season and deemed good enough for an NCAA DII Provisional. This was one of the best showings for distance running in SMU. 

Sprinter Madison Vu also had a ball in the women’s 400 meters, finishing first of 18 runners after speeding at 57.30s, the 6th best time in GNAC. Alisha Saucedo, who usually ran longer distances, also participated in the event and had a personal record of 1:01.29.

In the women's 100m hurdles, Gabriela Cintron placed 7th with a time of 15.27s, and 12th in the GNAC.

Andrew and Noah Boyd also pencilbooked their tickets to the GNAC Championships in their respective events, with Andrew placing 4th in the men’s 110m hurdles with his time of 15.23s, ranked 5th in the GNAC and Noah placing 6th in the men’s 400m hurdles, with his 59.78s time 10th in the conference.

In the men’s pole vault, Ryan Doidge finished second of 12 competitors after clearing a personal best of 4.61 meters, which is also second best in the GNAC.