The Seattle University track and field team set four school records and earned nine trips to the medal stand with top-three finishes as the 2012 Great West Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships concluded Saturday at Turner Stadium.
The Redhawks picked up another conference title, as the men's 4x100 meter relay quartet of Eric Patterson-Floyd (Seattle, Wash.), Austin Thummel-Gravitt (Puyallup, Wash.), Zachary Schlachter (Tigard, Ore.), and Zach Stanfield (Adna, Wash.) won the event with a time of 41.67 seconds, 3/10ths of a second ahead of the team from CSU Bakersfield.
Stanfield set two individual school records during the afternoon, finishing third in both the 100 meter dash with a time of 10.59 seconds and in the 200 meter dash with a mark of 21.36 seconds. Patterson-Floyd also scored for the Redhawks in the 100 meter dash, finishing sixth with a personal-best time of 10.92 seconds, as did Schlachter in the 200 meter dash with an eighth place finish in 22.31 seconds. Thummel-Gravitt also posted a personal-best time in his event, finishing second in the 400 meter dash with a time of 48.27 seconds.
In the final men's event of the meet, the Redhawk 4x400 meter relay team of Thummel-Gravitt, Colton Misono (Newcastle, Calif.), Schlachter, and Stanfield finished in third place, setting a school record with a time of 3:17.02. That result enabled the Seattle U men to clinch fourth place in the final team standings with 87 points, two points ahead of CSU Bakersfield and four points in front of Texas-Pan American.
"The team as a whole brought a focus and level of energy unlike what we've brought in the past. This resulted in seven school records (over the weekend), many podium appearances, and stronger performances all around than we've put out before," Seattle U head coach Trisha Steidl said.
Cali Cull (Marysville, Wash.) came close to achieving the indoor-outdoor double title, finishing second in the triple jump with a top effort of 11.05 meters (36' 3"). She was also the second leg in the women's 4x100 meter relay, joining with Alyssa Lout (Tempe, Ariz.), Meeghan Bergmann (Portland, Ore.), and Katie Tougas (Edmonds, Wash.) for a fifth place finish in the event in 49.56 seconds. Tougas also set the school record in the women's 200 meter dash with a time of 25.94 seconds, while Bergmann finished the event in 26.67 seconds.
The postponement of the 3000 meter steeplechase did not seem to affect either Seattle U runner. First, Hannah Mittelstaedt (Maple Valley, Wash.) finished in second place in the women's steeplechase with a time of 11:22.23. Kelton Sears (Maple Valley, Wash.) followed with his own second place finish in the men's steeplechase with a personal-best time of 9:30.75, less than two seconds off the school record.
Less than 48 hours after winning the 10,000 meter run, Erik Barkhaus (Whitefish Bay, Wis.) finished third in the 5000 meter run with a time of 15:21.09, with Matthew McClement (Bellingham, Wash.) close behind him in fifth place in 15;24.07. Graham Kinzel-Grubbs (Portland, Ore.), also completing the 5,000-10,000 double, finished 11th with a time of 15:45.77, and Jeff Baklund (Auburn, Wash.) finished in 15th place in 16:16.30.
Running her second event of the day in the women's 5000 meter run, Mittelstaedt finished in ninth place with a time of 18:44.99. Sears also competed twice Saturday, finishing seventh in the men's 1500 meter run with a time of 4:00.42. In the women's 1500 meter run, Sarah Bolce (Sacramento, Calif.) finished in sixth place with a time of 4:47.29, followed by Jennifer Stolle (Seattle, Wash.) in seventh place in 4:48.04.
Dan Auld (Eugene, Ore.) finished in sixth place in the 800 meter run with a time of 1:54.89. Getting only one chance to post a good time in the 400 meter hurdles, Samuel Engle (Portland, Ore.) picked up one point for the Redhawks with an eighth place finish in a personal-best time of 56.67 seconds.
In the field events, Nick Bever (Seattle, Wash.) finished in sixth place in the men's triple jump with a top effort of 12.33 meters (40' 5.5"), while Kaytie Bateman (Chehalis, Wash.) concluded a busy weekend with an eighth place finish in the women's high jump after clearing 1.50 meters (4' 11"), an outdoor personal best. In the women's discus throw, Sara Blakely (Spokane, Wash.) finished 11th with a toss of 31.95 meters (104' 10"), and Bethany Richards (Shoreline, Wash.) finished 13th after a best effort of 30.24 meters (99' 2").
The women's 4x400 meter relay foursome of Candice de Sauvage (Foster City, Calif.), Bergmann, Tougas, and Elena Collins (Eugene, Ore.) finished in sixth place with a time of 3:58.12. The Redhawk women finished fifth in the team standings with 49 points. Utah Valley once again won both the men's and the women's team championships.
"We're leaving the Great West Conference in a much stronger place than where we started, which bodes well for the direction we're moving the program towards," said Steidl. "I'm very pleased with the amount of tenacity and energy the team exhibited over the past three days."
The Seattle University track and field team will move into the Western Athletic Conference July 1, 2012, and will be eligible for both conference titles and berths into NCAA postseason competition.