Vanessa Aniteye
Former Chugiak High and UAA runner Vanessa Aniteye of Eagle River was the prohibitive favorite to win the women’s 800 meters at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference’s Indoor Track and Field Championships on Tuesday, when she raced according to form.
Aniteye, who owns the fastest 800 time in NCAA Division II this season for Seattle Pacific, throttled the field at The Podium in Spokane to earn the fifth individual GNAC title of her career. She won the outdoor 400 title for Seattle Pacific last year and won three consecutive 400 outdoor GNAC titles for UAA from 2017-19. She has also run a leg on four GNAC relay champs – three times for UAA and once for SPU.
Aniteye in the 800 Tuesday ran a blistering first 400, coming through two laps in 60.75 seconds and closing in 67.96 for a 2:08.71 that put her 5.51 seconds ahead of the runner-up.
Aniteye earlier this month clocked a personal-best 2:07.53 that leads Division II. She’s a lock to qualify for the Division II indoor nationals March 10-11 in Virginia Beach, Va. Aniteye is an eight-time All-American and last outdoor season finished sixth in the nation in the 400.
UAA junior Bailey Roe of Fairbanks finished sixth in the women’s 800 in 2:22.84.
#GNACTF | Vanessa Aniteye captures the win for @SPUsports in the women's 800 meters with a time of 2:08.71!
Live Results: https://t.co/TZ7jpghVfu pic.twitter.com/zZkoth0xke— GNAC Sports (@GNACsports) February 21, 2023
Tuesday, Aniteye also anchored Seattle Pacific’s 4×400 relay team to a third-place finish with a blistering 55.11 leg – the second-fastest in the race – that pushed her past UAA, her old team.
UAA freshman sprinter Olivia Manley of Fairbanks enjoyed a breakthrough Tuesday in which she obliterated her personal bests at 60 meters and 200 meters. Manley’s fifth-place finish in the 60 came in 7.72 seconds, which lopped .16 seconds off her previous best. She also finished fifth in the 200, clocking 24.89 to slash .73 seconds off her previous best. And Manley closed the meet by running a leg on the Seawolves’ fourth-place 4×400 squad, which included fellow Alaskans Sophia Cvancara, a freshman from Anchorage, and junior anchor Joei Vidad of Sitka, as well as sophomore Blanca De Arvizu Sarrias of Spain.
Vidad finished fourth in the 400 meters in 58.76.
UAA senior Mikayla Mader of Anchorage tied for seventh in the women’s high jump at 4 feet, 7.5 inches.
Sophie Wright
Western Washington’s Sophie Wright, a sophomore from Palmer who is also a top mountain runner on Alaska’s summer circuit, earned seventh place in the women’s mile in 5:10.46. She also raced the 3,000 meters for the first time in her career and nearly seized a team point – the top eight finishers in each event earned team points. Wright won the slower of two 3K heats, clocking 10:33.72 to beat the runner-up by 20.55 seconds. She finished just 1.58 seconds out of eighth place.
UAA’s most dominating athlete in the meet was sophomore distance dynamo Cole Nash of Colorado, who won two races for the second straight GNAC championships. Nash won the 5,000 meters on Monday, then won the 3,000 Tuesday, and he shattered meet records at both distances. That double came after he won the 5,000 and 10,000 last spring at the GNAC outdoor championships. In all, he owns five GNAC crowns – he won the cross country title last fall.
Nash captured the two longest races in the indoor meet with the same tactic – sitting behind leader Sebastian Brinkman of Simon Fraser for much of the race before dropping the hammer inside the final kilometer. His 5,000 time of 14:17.09 crushed the previous meet standard set by UAA’s Dominik Notz in 2016 and his 3,000 time of 8:18.32 topped the previous meet record of 8:27.83 by UAA’s Henry Cheseto in 2015.
Cole Nash
“A sit-and-kick with a little bit longer of a kick,’’ Nash said of the 5,000 Monday on the GNAC’s YouTube account, and the description fit his 3,000 too.
Nash was named Men’s Track Athlete of the Meet.
Brinkman finished second in both races, and he also ran faster than the previous meet record in each event.
UAA junior Kevin Angarita of Colombia won the men’s 400 with a huge personal best of 48.70, an improvement of .77 over his previous best.
UAA placed sixth Monday in the distance medley relay in both genders. The women’s relay included junior Haley Bartolaba of Sitka and freshman Avery Williamson of Haines. The men’s relay featured senior Jacob Belanger of Anchorage and freshman Ty Elliott of Anchorage.
The UAA men’s 4×400 relay that included Belanger and Angarita finished seventh.
UAA’s men finished sixth of nine teams and the Seawolves women finished eighth.
Western Oregon swept the team titles, with its men edging Western Washington by six points and its women coming out five points ahead of Western Washington.
