Shaddye Melu (Auburn, Wash.) won his second Western Athletic Conference title in as many days, and Sophie Curatilo (Honolulu, Hawaii) picked up her second individual WAC title this year, pacing the Seattle University track and field team as competition concluded Saturday at the 2015 WAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships, hosted by Utah Valley University at the Hal Wing Track and Field Complex.
Curatilo, the WAC champion in the one mile run during the indoor championships, won the 1500 meter run by over a full second, posting a time of 4:40.81. Curatilo came back later in the day to finish second in the 5000 meter run in 17:43.25, with WAC 10,000 meter champion Elena Smith (Seattle, Wash.) finishing fourth in 18:02.56.
Melu picked up his third conference title of the year, posting a school-record time of 47.39 seconds to win the 400 meter dash by just 4/100ths of a second. Austin Thummel-Gravitt (Puyallup, Wash.) finished in seventh place in the event with a time of 48.41 seconds. In the final event of the meet, Melu and Thummel-Gravitt joined with Zac Schlachter (Tigard, Ore.) and Jason Cowan (Renton, Wash.) to finish fourth in the 4x400 meter relay with a time of 3:17.45.
Madison Davis (Camano Island, Wash.) and Alisa Poplawski (Newcastle, Wash.) were both in contention to win the conference title in the women’s 800 meter run, with Davis finishing second in 2:13.52 and Poplawski third in 2:13.82, just behind New Mexico State’s Kelsi Gonzalez, who crossed the finish line first in 2:13.44. Poplawski later joined Katie Fleming (Paradise Valley, Ariz.), Mandy Rusch (Redmond, Wash.), and Candice de Sauvage (Foster City, Calif.) to help the Redhawk women finish sixth in the 4x400 meter relay in 3:57.95.
Joe Charbonneau (Bellingham, Wash.) earned First Team All-WAC honors with a second place finish in the men’s 800 meter run in 1:54.95, while Louis Rodrigues (Alameda, Calif.) picked up Second Team All-WAC honors with a fifth place finish in 1:55.60.
Collin Overbay (Spokane, Wash.) crossed the finish line in third place in the men’s 1500 meter run, earning First Team All-WAC honors with a time of 3:56.84. Gus Arroyo (Portland, Ore.) picked up a point for the Redhawks with an eighth place finish in 4:05.88, while Joseph Nakao (Sammamish, Wash.) finished in 10th place with a time of 4:12.84.
Also in the women’s 1500 meter run, Moira O’Connor Lenth (Seattle, Wash.) picked up Second Team All-WAC honors with a sixth place finish in 4:46.73, and Lila Rice (Redmond, Wash.) finished ninth with a time of 4:50.04. Rice would also finish 10th in the 5000 meter run in 18:32.54, followed by Davis in 12th place in 18:37.02, Taylor de Laveaga (Gilbert, Ariz.) in 15th place in 18:38.76, O’Connor Lenth in 16th place in 18:44.58, Emily Hedberg (Phoenix, Ariz.) in 18th place in 18:47.04, and Rebecca Lassere (Boise, Idaho) in 22nd place in 19:06.49.
In the women’s 100 meter dash, Alyssa Gonzales (Pasadena, Calif.) tied the school record set at this meet last year, finishing fourth for Second Team All-WAC honors with a time of 12.10 seconds. She also anchored the women’s 4x100 meter relay for Seattle U, joining with Madison Lichter (Snohomish, Wash.), Mariah Gibbs (Banks, Ore.), and Abby Wachter (Beaverton, Ore.) to finish sixth in 48.54 seconds.
In the men’s 5000 meter run, Nathan McLaughlin (Puyallup, Wash.) was Seattle U’s top finisher, crossing the finish line in 10th place in 15:32.18. Tyler Flannery (Auburn, Wash.) finished in 12th place in 15:44.45, ahead of Charbonneau in 13th place in 15:51.14 and Matthew Seidel (Santa Clara, Calif.) in 14th place in 15:52.95. Overbay finished in 19th place in 16:11.28, followed by Nakao in 20th place in 16:25.59.
Mandie Maddux (Gresham, Ore.) completed her busy week with a second place finish in the women’s high jump, clearing 1.62 meters (5’ 3.75”) for First Team All-WAC honors. Gibbs finished in ninth place in the triple jump with a top mark of 11.30 meters (37’ 1”), with Fleming finishing in 11th place with a mark of 11.14 meters (36’ 6.75”).
For the men, Malaki Seanoa (Everett, Wash.) picked up Second Team All-WAC honors with a sixth place finish in the javelin throw with a top toss of 53.02 meters. Chris Scaffa (Lake Oswego, Ore.) also picked up a point for the Redhawks with an eighth place finish with a mark of 47.63 meters (156’ 3”).
In the team standings, the Seattle U men finished in fifth place with 71.5 points, while the women ended up in sixth place with 79 points, both program-high point totals since the Redhawks joined the WAC. UMKC won the women’s team title with 199 points, while Utah Valley took the men’s championship after scoring 252.5 points.
The NCAA will announce the student-athletes who qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Preliminary Championships sometime during the week of May 18. Melu is a candidate to be eligible for the West Preliminary Championships in the high jump.