April 27, 2005

BELLINGHAM, Wash. - Down to the final chance for its athletes to qualify or improve seeding for next week's league championships, Western Washington University hosts the fifth annual Viking Twilight Track and Field Meet on Friday at the WWU campus track.

Field events begin at 3 p.m., and the first running event is scheduled for 4:15 p.m.

Six other schools are sending athletes, including Highline CC, Pacific Lutheran, Puget Sound, Saint Martin's, Seattle U. and Seattle Pacific. A number of unattached athletes also are competing.

"Our people have been looking forward to this meet ever since last year," said Western coach Pee Wee Halsell. "It's our only chance to compete on our home track, which has a very fast surface."

Western has three leaders in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's events. They are Adam Neff (So., White Salmon/Columbia) in the 100 meters (10.98), Kyle McGillen (Fr., Clinton/South Whidbey) in the long jump (22-3/4) and Hunter Verner (Jr., Brentwood, TN), who has a school-record and national provisional qualifying mark of 15-9 in the pole vault. McGillen also is third in the triple jump (44-4) and Neff is fourth in the 200 (22.61).

The Vikings also have the league's best time of 42.84 in the 4x100 relay. That quartet was made up of Neff, Dustin Wilson (Jr., Silverdale/Central Kitsap), Mike Khabibulin (Jr., Vancouver/Skyview/Clark CC) and Dan Thompsen (Sr., Bellevue/Interlake).

Josh Freeman (Sr., Bainbridge Island) is second in the men's 110 hurdles (14.84) as are Tyler Thornbrue (Jr., Shelton) in the pole vault (15-7), Ryan Los (Sr., Gig Harbor/Peninsula) in the 400 hurdles (57.73) and Peter Geist (So., Portland, OR/Grant) in the high jump (6-8).

Ranked third are Sam Brancheau (So., Edmonds/Edmonds-Woodway) in the steeplechase (9:31.2), Justin Brewer (Sr., Sammamish/Eastlake) in the javelin (191-10) and Jeff Word (Jr., Sequim) in the high jump (6-5).

Brewer is competing for the first time since March 19 after injuring his elbow, and Verner has not vaulted the last two weeks because of a nagging knee injury.

Brancheau will concentrate on the 800 as he looks to better position himself in that event for the GNAC meet.

Western's top GNAC performers in the women's events are two national provisional qualifiers - Andrea Kreft (So., Lake Stevens) in the pole vault (11-5 3/4) and Jessica Telleria (Jr., Boise, ID/Capital) in the discus (144-10). Telleria ranks second in the GNAC and Kreft is tied for third.

Kim Bascom (So., Camano Island/Stanwood) is second in the triple jump (36-3 1/2) and fourth in the long jump (17-3 1/4), and Tammy Carlson (Sr., Ridgefield) is third in the shot put (40-3/4).

Ranking fourth are Angela Burt (Fr., Bellingham) in the 400 (59.97), Beth Rosapepe (Sr., Port Orchard/South Kitsap) in the 10,000 (38:39.4) and Kristin Haas (Jr., Port Orchard/South Kitsap) in the steeplechase (11:56.52).

The GNAC Championships are slated for May 8. Western is the defending men's team champion.