Record-setting Whitworth women claim NWC track and field title, ending George Fox’s dynastic run
Spent from four hard races and a detour to throw the javelin, Emily Brown was asked in jest if another event might be heaped upon her shoulders.
“They were talking about the steeplechase,” said the Whitworth University junior, apparently unwilling to be bested even in the kidding-around department.
And yet, not kidding.
Coach Toby Schwarz asks his athletes to dig deep for the team – or rather “capital TEAM” – at Whitworth, and on Sunday the ubiquitous Brown and the Pirates’ strong-armed throwers led the way in putting a dynasty in neutral at the Northwest Conference track and field championships at Boppell Track.
The Pirates ended George Fox’s string of women’s team titles at eight, bringing the gavel down four events from meet’s end with a 1-4-5-6-7-8 finish in the discus and totaling 218 points to the Bruins’ 191.5.
Yet even with the meet sewn up and the closing 4x400-meter relay a formality, Brown wouldn’t give an inch to Lewis & Clark 800 champ Malia Heien at the finish – and spent a good 15 minutes in tearful, agonizing recovery after a 55-second split.
“It’s about the competition,” she said. “We’re here to lift each other up.”
She did a lot of lifting, having a hand in 50 of Whitworth’s points, including a win in the 400 hurdles less than an hour after running second in the 400.
So did Amblessed Okemgbo, who for the second day shattered meet and school records, this time in the discus. The Medical Lake senior launched her first throw 160 feet, 10 inches to add 8 feet to her meet standard, then finished the day with a 161-7 spin.
That capped an almost ridiculous dominance by the Pirate throwers, who won all four women’s disciplines and claimed 93 of a possible 156 points.
“We had 100 as our goal,” Okemgbo said, “but (93) is still insane – and that’s going to beat a lot of people as a team.”
Indeed, the Pirate throwers would have bested third-place Willamette’s total in all 21 events. That included Devyn Chelin, who got the day started with her best throw in two years, 139-8 – and did not credit some breakthrough in technique.
“It’s such a cool opportunity to have conference here,” she said. “Having teammates lining the fence behind me, yelling, hearing their voices really just gives you that extra oomph.”
Whitworth’s male throwers made their mark, too, with Eddie Vu winning the discus (171-5) and Cody Wheeler putting up his best mark (218-4) in the javelin since his NCAA Division III championship year of 2024.
That wasn’t enough to stop George Fox from claiming a ninth straight men’s title, 214.5-182 over the Pirates – though it could have been a bit closer. In the first three events on the track Sunday, Whitworth wound up second by .04 seconds (in the 4x100 relay), 1.47 (Jack Ireton in the 1,500) and .01 (Spokane freshman Brayden Oletzke in the high hurdles). Later, London Haley – Saturday’s 10,000 champ – was second in the 5,000 by just .34.
But Schwarz counted all among the weekend’s success, especially Ireton, who won the steeplechase on Saturday.
“Jack is a kid who didn’t do a competitive sport in high school,” Schwarz said. “He was like a rock climber who just decided he’d like to try this, and now he’s the second-fastest steeplechaser in school history.”
Whitworth won a photo finish in the women’s 4x100, where freshmen Bella Tolen of Brewster and Akeelis Muhammed of Rogers brought the Pirates from well back to nip Willamette by .01 in 47.91.
“That was the scary part – honestly, I didn’t know if I could push more,” said Muhammed, who didn’t catch her rival until the final 10 meters.
Two other meet records fell Sunday. Puget Sound’s Avery Keith took the men’s 400 mark down to 47.11, erasing former teammate Alexander Rhodes’ 2024 record. And Pacific’s Allyson Hammond zipped a 13.91 in the 100 hurdles, following up that victory with wins in the 100 and 200.