UAA's Caroline Kurgat set a stadium record en route to the 10,000-meter title Friday at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference track and field championships in Monmouth, Oregon.
Kurgat, a junior from Kenya who is running some of the fastest times in Division II history this season, finished well off her personal-best. But she sliced 45 seconds off the McArthur Field record with her time of 34 minutes, 49.33 seconds.
Kurgat was among seven Seawolves who posted top-six finishes in Friday's finals at the Western Oregon University track. Among them were two Alaskans – Mariah Burroughs of Wasilla and Kaleb Korta of Galena.
She won the 10,000 meters by more than two minutes over Western Washington's Sophia Galvez. Kurgat's time was nearly two minutes off her personal-best of 32:33.24 from earlier this season, but it was good enough to break the previous McArthur Field record of 35:34.05, set in 2008 by Lorene Young.
UAA's Zennah Jepchumba placed fourth in the 10,000 in 38:10.19.
The Seawolves placed two women in the top five of the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Emmanuela Chelimo grabbed second place in 10:49.33, six seconds off the winning time, and Burroughs was fifth in 11:06.60.
Leading the UAA men was Nickson Koech, who placed third in the 10,000 in 32:12.47, which left him a little more than four seconds behind the winner.
Chris Brake went 21 feet, 11 inches in the men's long jump to grab fifth place Korta finished sixth in the steeplechase in 9:13.88.
Action continues Saturday.