Track and field: SPU’s Decker garners NCAA-II All-America
Seattle Pacific University junior Lynelle Decker placed seventh in the 800-meter run at the NCAA Division II Track and Field Championships in Allendale, Mich., becoming an All-American for the first time in her eighth career appearance at nationals for cross country and indoor and outdoor track.
The Mountain View High School graduate’s time of 2 minutes, 8.42 seconds was just 0.29 seconds shy of her personal best, even though she was bumped and nearly fell during the first lap, then managed to get around a runner who fell in front of her on the second lap.
“It feels really good,” Decker told the school website spufalcons.com. “It’s also making me hungry to get it again.”
She was the No. 7 seed going into nationals, running a 2:09.36 in Friday’s preliminaries for the No. 8 seed in Saturday’s final.
Oregon Tech’s roster includes senior pitcher Jessi Duncan (Prairie High School), junior catcher Ariel Fulkerson (Battle Ground High School) and junior utility player Ashley Sfetku (Hudson’s Bay High School).
Softball: Linfield reaches NCAA-III semifinals
The Linfield College softball team’s postseason surge came to an end at the NCAA Division III national tournament.
The Wildcats won 22 of their final 28 games, including 11 of 14 in the postseason. They won two games at the national tournament in Salem, Va., and their two losses were by one-run margins to the teams that played in the championship game.
Linfield won its tournament opener Thursday, beating Alfred 8-0, before a 2-1 loss to Texas-Tyler on Friday. The Wildcats eliminated DePauw, 8-0 on Saturday, before a 1-0 loss to Tufts ended their season at 39-15. Tufts claimed the national championship with a 7-4 win Monday over Texas-Tyler.
Corbett, a Camas High School graduate, placed 16th in the women’s javelin Thursday with a mark of 123 feet, 3½ inches. Phillips, a Prairie High School graduate, placed 16th in the men’s long jump Friday with a mark of 22-3½.
Golf: Maahs helps Cavs at NAIA golf nationals
Concordia University senior Tanner Maahs shot 80-78-83—241 at the NAIA Men’s Golf National Championships last week at the LPGA International Hills Course in Daytona Beach, Fla.
The Prairie High School graduate was the fourth scorer for the Cavaliers, who finished in 27th place in the team scoring and missed the cut to the top 17 teams for Friday’s final round.
Concordia, which entered nationals with a 294 team stroke average, posted 315-314-308—937.
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