Lions freshmen seeing double at championships

SAN DIEGO ? Vanguard University won five individual titles at the Golden State Athletic Conference track and field championships, which ended Saturday at Point Loma Nazarene University.

Freshmen Grace Jepngetich and Tiffany Foley led the way for the Lions, winning two events each.

Foley roared to victories in the women’s 100 and 200 meters on Saturday. The freshman ran the 100 in 12.42 seconds, defeating Azusa Pacific’s Renee Eckley, and edged Concordia’s Jen Clouse in the 200, running 26.14 seconds to beat Clouse by .19 seconds.

Teammate Megan Leapaldt finished third in both races, running 12.82 in the 100 and 26.60 in the 200.

Jepngetich won the women’s 5,000 meters on Saturday, finishing in 17:49.21 to defeat Point Loma’s Jasmine Marks by nearly six seconds. The Kenyan also defeated Marks in the 10,000 final, winning in 37:30.9 and automatically qualifying for the NAIA track and field championships.

Fellow freshman Rebecca Sopp took seventh in the 5,000, finishing in 18:25.58. Sopp also finished third in the 10,000, an event she had already qualified for the NAIA championships in, with a time of 37.52.5.

The other winner for Vanguard was senior Jenny Thune in the 1,500. The three-time All-American finished in 4:39.01 to automatically qualify for the NAIA championships. Jepngetich was seventh in the 1,500 in 4:49.95.

Thune was second in the 800, running 2:18.16 to finish behind Concordia’s Jeanelle Goonetilleke, who broke the conference record (2:11.33).

Leapaldt placed in two other events for the Lions. The junior took second in the women’s long jump behind Fresno Pacific’s Natalie Friesen. Leapaldt’s best jump was 17 feet, 9 inches, well behind Friesen’s conference record mark of 19- 3/4 , but still a personal record.

Leapaldt also placed sixth in the triple jump (34-2).

Other scorers for the Vanguard women were Laura Bowman (third in the 3,000 steeplechase in 11:38.2) and Claire Balich (eighth in the 100 hurdles in 16.86). The 400-meter relay team finished fourth and the 1,600 relay squad was sixth.

On the men’s side, Matt Meyer had a pair of top three finishes. Meyer took second in the 1,500, running 3:54.42 to finish behind Azusa Pacific’s Tim Ramirez. The senior also placed third in the 800, finishing in 1:54.16.

Zach Powell placed in two events, finishing fifth in the 400 hurdles (57.27) and eighth in the 400 (51.44).

Also scoring for the Vanguard men were Travis Hartanov (sixth in the 3,000 steeplechase in 10:06.9), Carl Murdock (sixth in the decathlon with 3,945 points) and Stewart Ramsey (seventh in the triple jump with a best of 37-9 1/4 ). The Lions 1,600 relay team placed fifth.

The Vanguard women finished fifth in the team standings with 106 points, well behind conference champion Azusa Pacific’s 252.5 points. The Lions men were sixth with 37 points, with Azusa Pacific winning the men’s title with 291 points.dpt-vantrack23.IMGGraphicInfoEI1Q81C220060423EI1Q81C2No Caption