Pacific Twilight: Kongela’s 100, Johnson’s 100 Hurdles Hit NCAA Marks

The Bruins have two more meets in which to try for national qualifying times before the NCAA Division III National Championships.

Salem-News.com Sports

FOREST GROVE, Ore. - Returning to the same site where they won the Northwest Conference men’s 100 meter dash and women’s 100 meter hurdles a week ago, George Fox University’s Dakari Kongela and Irene Johnson won those events again with NCAA Division III provisional times in the Pacific University Twilight track and field meet Saturday here at Lincoln Park Stadium.

Kongela captured the men’s 100 in 10.78, bettering the 10.88 he ran last week. He equaled the provisional mark of 10.78 and now stands tied for 28th nationally. He also set new meet and stadium records in the event.

Johnson sped away with the women’s 100 hurdles in 14.47, easily surpassing the NCAA provisional mark of 14.95 and only 12/100ths of a second from an automatic mark. She now ranks 8th nationally in the event, and also set meet and stadium records.

Because of George Fox’s graduation ceremonies on Saturday, only a limited number of Bruins were entered in the Pacific Twilight. Allen Cassell, Cam Eberhart, and Ryan Lane in the men’s 1500 meter run, and Marlee Zakrevsky in the women’s hammer, were the only other Bruins who competed.

The meet field featured 23 teams from every level of intercollegiate competition and a number of open competitors. The field expanded greatly to 596 total athletes over the 36 hours leading up to the meet when five Great Northwest Athletic Conference teams were admitted after their conference meet was cancelled due to a H1N1 influenza (swine flu) scare at meet host Western Oregon University.

The Bruins have two more meets in which to try for national qualifying times before the NCAA Division III National Championships May 21-23 in Marietta, Ohio. The first is Saturday, May 9, in the University of Oregon Twilight meet, and the second is the Willamette University Last Chance meet Thursday, May 14.

Complete results of the Pacific Twilight meet, courtesy of the Pacific sports information office, are available on the George Fox track web site at georgefox.edu/athletics/track/2009/results1.hmtl.

George Fox 2009 NCAA Division III Qualifiers

Men
Joel Krebs - Javelin (6th, 203-7 / 62.6m)
Ryan Forbes - Decathlon (9th, 6,365 pts)
David Dillow - Decathlon (14th, 6,237 pts)
Nate Dillow - Decathlon (20th, 6,161 pts)
Dakari Kongela - 100 (28th, 10.78)

Women
Beth Stam - Javelin (7th, 142-0 / 43.28m), Heptathlon (22nd, 4,139 pts)
Irene Johnson - 100 Hurdles (8th, 14.47)
Cindy Walsh - Long Jump (29th, 18-0.25 /5.49m)

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