UAA's Susan Tanui and Micah Chelimo collected their first collegiate indoor titles Friday in Nampa, Idaho, helping the Seawolves dominate the 3,000-meter race on the first day of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Indoor Championships.
Led by Tanui's win for the women and Chelimo's victory in the men's race, UAA claimed seven of the top nine spots in the women's 3,000 meters and five of the top nine in the men's.
Tanui clocked 9 minutes, 54.96 seconds to edge teammate Ruth Keino (9:54.98) by .03 seconds at the line. Chelimo outran the men in 8:29.35, winning by more than five seconds over teammate Dylan Anthony (8:34.76).
The men's distance medley relay team also picked up a win to help the men sit in third place behind Western Washington and Western Oregon through six events. The UAA women are in second place, trailing Western Washington with one more day of competition remaining.
Other UAA women in the top nine for the 3,000 meters were Miriam Kipng'eno in fourth at 10:20.88, Christi Schmitz in sixth at 10:21.76, Bryn Haebe in seventh at 10:22.50 and Jaymi Bethea in eighth at 10:26.57.
UAA's Jake Parisien rounded out the top three in the men's 3,000 meters, coming in at 8:37.58. UAA's Kevin Rooke clocked 8:45.11 to finish in seventh, and Yonotan Yilma took ninth in 8:48.27.
Joe Day, Ethan Hewitt, Alfred Kangogo and Isaac Kangogo made up the men's winning distance medley relay team, beating Simon Fraser by 10 seconds with a time of 10:06.58. Simon Fraser managed to get the better of the UAA women, however, taking first in the women's distance medley relay. UAA finished second in 11:56:39, nearly nine seconds behind Simon Fraser's 11:47.86.
The women got another runner-up finish from Karolin Anders, who recorded 3,458 points in the pentathlon, behind Seattle Pacific's Katy Groos, who set a league record with 3,505 points. Anders was second in four of the five pentathlon events, the high jump, shot put, long jump and 800 meters and she took fourth in the 60-meter hurdles.
UAA's Haleigh Lloyd and Rosie Smith qualified for the women's 60-meter hurdles, which take place Saturday.
Anchorage Daily News