NWC Championships Results (M&W)

McMINNVILLE, Ore. – Led by twin brothers Nate and David Dillow, who combined for four event titles and eight All-Conference finishes, and a contingent of other sprinters and runners that refused to quit, the George Fox University Bruins performed beyond expectations in claiming 3rd place after being predicted by some to finish as low as sixth.

Entering Saturday's finals, Nate Dillow had already won the pole vault and finished second in the decathlon, while David Dillow had won a razor-close 1-2-3 finish in the long jump and placed third in the decathlon and the pole vault.  On Saturday, Nate defended his 110 meter hurdles title from last year by winning in 15.18.  Although he has only ran the 400 meter hurdles a handful of times during his career, he bolted to the lead in that race and appeared poised to win before slowing dramatically over one of the final hurdles.  Favorite Barrett Bollen seized the opportunity and pushed Dillow all the way to the line where the race photo had to be consulted to sort them apart.  Dillow was determined the winner in 54.85 to Bollen's 54.87 to secure his 3rd individual title of the meet.

Matt Romey entered the 800 meter dash with the slowest qualifying time but also armed with a plan from Coach Jeff Larson.  After the first lap of the final, he found himself in a distant 7th place with Tyler Alsin from Whitworth far in the lead.  On the curve he started picking off the runners in front of him one by one and continued down the backstretch to get him into the 4th position.  Another Whitworth runner appeared to be re-passing him with about 120 meters to go that would have put him back in 5th when Romey found another gear.  He scortched the homestretch with a monster kick before a screaming crowd to pass the 3 remaining leaders and claim the win in 1:55.38.

Romey wasn't the only Bruin that used a strong finish to pass a multitude of compeititors.  Romey watched Junior Allen Cassel demonstrate the same strategy earlier in the day as Cassel worked his way through the 1500 meter field to steal a 5th place finish in a huge personal record of 4:00.59.  After Cassel's and Romey's breakthroughs, freshmen Joseph Pia and Dylan Arana started the 5000 run in the way back of a pack of 19 runners.  They spent over three miles working their way up to sneak in the scoring places with times of 15:29.57 and 15:40.79 respectively.  Pia's personal record time matched Arana's 15:30.98 from earlier in the year and put them at some of the fastest freshmen in GFU history.

Two-time All-American Dak Kongela got into the blocks for the 100m dash knowing that he was already one of the fastest sprinters in NWC history but also that he hadn't ran a competitive sprint since the beginning of March.  He shook off the rust and won his third straight crown in the 100m dash after winning in 2009 and 2010.

In the final men's race of the day, Nate ran the first leg and David anchored the 4x400 meter relay team which finished second (3:20.98).  Matt Romey and Dakarai Kongela ran the second and third legs to round out a team in which each member won an individual title in another event.

Bruins who scored points to aid the team finish in the track events were Casey Taylor in the 100 (5th, 11.26), Zeke Smith in the 400 meter dash (8th, 53.16), the 4x100 meter relay team of Clinton Mitchell, Bret Hamilton, Connor Koch, and Zach Pankratz (6th, 44.96).  In the field events, Bruin scorers included Kai Ojala's All-NWC honors with a second-place finish in the high jump (6-3.5 / 1.92m), Pankratz in the triple jump (8th, 42-10.75 / 13.07m), and Arick Morrell in the hammer (8th, 154-3 / 47.01m) and the shot put (8th, 44-9.5 / 13.65m). On Friday, Jon Udlock had placed fourth in the javelin (191-9 / 58.44m).

George Fox collected 119 points to finish behind conference repeat champion Whitworth University with 242 points and Willamette University with 188.  Trailing the Bruins were Pacific Lutheran University with 109 points, Linfield College with 68, Pacific University with 57, the University of Puget Sound with 18, and Lewis & Clark College with 14.

For the first time, the NWC split the Athlete of the Meet awards into separate track and field honorees, with Nate Dillow receiving the Men's Field Athlete of the Meet award.  Leo Castillo of Willamette was named the Men's Track Athlete of the Meet.  Toby Schwarz of Whitworth was named the NWC Men's Track and Field Coach of the Year.