With the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) Outdoor Track and Field Championship last week, the Wildcat track and field team saw themselves going into the final competition strong. 

The CWU Multi athletes competed in the GNAC Outdoor Multi’s Championships on May 3-4 and showed promising results despite the additional challenges this year has presented. 

“Multi’s is a combination of the jumps, sprints and throws,” multi’s coach Brittany Aanstad said. “All the events are then combined together for a total score.”

Aanstad said that multi athletes are typically talented in multiple events and that a separate championship gives them the ability to test their skills in a cumulative way. 

“On the men’s side of the competition, senior Braydon Maier placed first and freshman Ryan Thoma placed third,” Aanstad said. “On the women’s side, sophomore McCall Dechenne placed fourth and freshman Hailey Holsey placed fifth.”   

According to Aanstad, this is a good result, not only because of the high placings, but also because Maier was the only athlete from CWU that had competed in a Multi’s Championship before. 

“I think my teammates did really well for it being everyone’s first time at a championship,” said Senior athlete Braydon Maier. 

Maier said that Thoma did especially well because the decathlon is hard, but Thoma competed at a high level the whole time. 

Even though Maier secured his victory with 6,776 points, 192 points more than the second-place athlete, he said his performance wasn’t one that he was happy with. 

“Even though 192 is a pretty good margin, I have had a better score in the past,” Maier said. “I am happy with the win, but I could’ve done more.” 

On the women’s side, sophomore athlete McCall Dechenne said that her performance was one that she is happy with. 

“I think I did well. I came away with a personal best in the hurdles and 800m which are where I get most of my points,” Dechenne said. “The field events weren’t as strong as I had hoped, but they still came out pretty well.”

As this was her first year competing at a Multi’s championship, Dechenne said the experience was something she won’t forget. 

“Having missed the championships last year,” Dechenne said, “I had higher expectations for myself. But this gave me a baseline for what to expect going forward.”

Both Dechenne and Maier also took part in the GNAC Outdoor Championship on May 14 and 15.

Maier competed in the 110 hurdles, long jump, high jump, javelin, pole vault and 4×400 relay. Dechenne competed in the 100 hurdles, 400 hurdles and 4×400 relay. 

“The regular championship is a big deal, but I’

d say the Multi’s championship helps come into the normal championship a bit more relaxed,” Maier said. “All of us that competed at Multi’s have already performed in a championship, so we aren’t as nervous.” 

With only a week between the  Multi’s championship and the final competition, head coach Kevin Adkisson said his hopes were high for the team.

“The men brought home 16 points and the women brought home nine points from the Multi’s championship,” Adkisson said.  

According to Adkisson, CWU had a jump on the rest of the competition by going into the team championship with some points under their belt.

“Usually at meets, the events are scored in descending order,” Adkisson said, “with the first-place athlete getting eight points and the eighth-place athlete getting one point.” 

Adkisson said having some points already on the board allowed for CWU to come into the championship with higher confidence. 

“We didn’t score as many as Seattle Pacific and they are our main competition, but 9 points is better than no points when the competition is close,” Dechenne said.

According to Aanstad, there are a lot of athletes to keep an eye on. The GNAC championship is filled with stronger competition and the grander stage brings out a higher performance from the athletes.