Green River Wins Gold at NWAC Track and Field Event
The Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC) Track and Field Championship Meet between top colleges in Washington and Oregon took place on May 21st and 22nd at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon.
Overall, eight athletes represented the Green River Track and Field team at the championship meet. Those athletes were, Michaela Evelyn-Wahl, who took sixth in the Women’s 400-Meter dash and seventh in the Women’s 400-Meter Hurdles. Frances Nguyen took eighth in the Women’s 400-Meter dash. Alicia Medley took fourth in the Women’s Discus throw and eleventh in the Women’s Shot Put. Matthew Neoporchuk placed eleventh in the Men’s 800-Meter Run and eighth in the Men’s 3000-Meter Steeplechase. Noah Baldwin placed eighth in the Men’s 5000-Meter Run and 14th in the Men’s 10,000-Meter Run. David Derkach placed sixth in both the 110-Meter Hurdles and the 400-Meter Hurdles and Nikole Schroeder who placed fourth in both the 100-Meter Dash and the 200-Meter Dash. Overall, the Gators ended up placing seventh in female events with 35 points and last in Male events with just nine points.
Despite the sub-par showing at the NWAC Championship Meet, the Gators did have an extremely bright point of the meet. Taylor Sterling, the 20-year-old sophomore High Jumper from Thomas Jefferson Highschool, defended her title as NWAC High Jump Champion with a remarkable jump of 1.69 meters that barely topped Lane Community College’s Toni Hall’s jump of 1.69 meters. Going into the meet, Sterling admitted that she felt the pressure as the defending high jump champion, “I was definitely nervous because I was defending my title from last year,” she said. “But I just focused on trying to jump as high as I could and believe in my ability.” Although she was certainly nervous, she credits her strong will and determined mindset for allowing her to clear her jump on the 3rd and final attempt. Since she joined the GRC Track and Field Team, Sterling has noticed that her physical and mental capacities for the sport have increased significantly. “Physically I learned a lot about improving my technique in the high jump,” Sterling said. “Mentally, I matured by gaining much more confidence in myself and developed more belief and trust in my abilities as a track athlete.” From repeatedly practicing her technique to enhancing her mindset, Sterling is thankful for all the improvements that have helped her become a two-time defending champion. Currently, Sterling is undecided as to whether or not she is going to continue her career in track and field because of the rigorous activity that her body is put through every year, but ever since she started competing she has never doubted her love for the sport.
Although the meet did not go totally as planned for the Gators, a good, young core of Freshmen athletes suggest brighter times moving forward to next season. Two of their young stand-out athletes include Nikole Schroeder, the 18-year-old freshmen from Enumclaw Highschool who was one spot away from achieving podium in both her solo events, and David Derkach, the 20-year-old Freshmen from Decatur Highschool, who only placed sixth in both of his events, but both of his times were personal records. When asked about what went wrong that prevented her from achieving the bronze, Schroeder did what any great athlete would do, took the blame upon herself and learned from it. “[Losing] was a matter of mentally downgrading myself,” Schroeder said, “I feel that I could have taken first place if I was mentally in the game on race day.” Coming up short this year has motivated her to come back better than ever next year and hopefully win some of her events. Similar to Schroeder, Derkach also took the blame upon himself. “I’ve trained hard enough prior the championship meet and I just held myself back from what I could have accomplished,” Derkach said. “Although, I am happy with the times I ran which were my personal bests.” Both athletes hope to comeback better than ever next season, with their sights set on the top spot for their events.
Overall, the Women from Spokane Community College in Spokane, Washington dominated the women’s events with 235.5 points, while Lane Community College in Eugene took home the win for the Male events, barely edging out Spokane 185-177
