SMU’s Andrew Boyd places fourth with four PRs in GNAC Combined Event Championships

Saint Martin’s University’s Andrew Boyd ranked fourth out of seven participants in the combined event of decathlon in the 2024 Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) Multi-Event Championships held in Civic Stadium at Bellingham, WA last April 29-30 all the while hitting multiple personal bests in various events.

Boyd accumulated 5994 points in total and won two out of the ten track and field events in the two-day conference championship, which is just 236 points from a podium finish and enough for a fourth-place overall finish to boost his bid for an NCAA Div II National qualifier later this May.

The redshirt senior student-athlete started strong as he shattered two of his four personal records (PR) in this competition on Monday, finishing third in the 100-meter dash with a new personal best of 11.39s and sixth in the long jump with a new personal record of 6.21m.

Boyd further sustained his bid for a high finish with an outright win in shotput after a monster distance of 13.08m distance hurled, despite celebrations being cut short by his less-than-ideal performances in high jump and men’s 400 meters, where he finished last and second last respectively, as Day 1 closes. He finished Day 1 in fifth place with 3208 points.

The bad spell continued to hound Boyd on Day 2, especially on the running events as he finished dead last again in the men’s 1500 meters after clocking at 5:22.93 and sixth in the 110m hurdles at 17.76s.

Eager to overturn his woes, Boyd finally got his mojo back after placing fourth in the pole vault, posting another personal best in the event at 3.73 meters cleared. He then fired it up with a second place in the discus throw where he covered 34.57 meters.

Finishing in style, Boyd capped off the unprecedented climb as he caught fire in the men's javelin throw, breaking his personal best in three consecutive attempts and winning the event with a final throw of 57.85m, almost 10 meters clear of the second placer, to wrap up the conference final of the combined events and leapfrog to fourth.

The GNAC Combined Event Championships are part of the upcoming 2024 GNAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships, which will take place May 10-11 in Ellensburg, WA. The best representatives of the Saints Track & Field contingent are expected to vie for their respective events in the conference finale and attempt to shoot for the stars for a possible NCAA DII qualification.