Saint Martin’s University senior distance runner Shannon Porter was named Great Northwest Athletic Conference Women’s Track Athlete of the Week for the second time in three weeks after breaking her own school record in the 3,000 meters again Friday in Portland.
“Shannon is continuing to improve on her fitness,” Saints coach Jim Brewer told the school website smusaints.com. “She ran a great race on Friday. We are looking forward to GNAC.”
The Hockinson High School graduate won the “B” section at the TrackTown USA High Performance Meet #4 with a time of 9 minutes, 51.99 seconds in Portland. The performance is a NCAA Championship provisional qualifier and ranks her 18th in Division II.
“The race went out a lot slower than I expected but overall I felt like I made a good move,” Porter told the website. “I am looking forward to racing at GNAC. I loved running on the same track that the elites were running on. It felt really fast.”
A week earlier, Porter ran a provisional time for NCAA-II nationals in the 5,000 meters. She holds both SMU school records, and has been breaking her own school records in both races. This week, Porter broke the time of 10:10.44 set two weeks ago.
Porter and the Saints are scheduled to compete at this weekend’s UW Open at the University of Washington’s Dempsey Indoor facility in Seattle, the final competition before the GNAC championhips Feb. 19-20 in Nampa, Idaho.
Indoor track and field
WSCU’s Porter runs D-II provisional mile
Western State Colorado University junior Georgia Porter won the women’s mile race at the 2016 Western State Alumni Open meet in Gunnison, Colo.
The Hockinson High School graduate — yes, Georgia Porter and Shannon Porter are sisters — finished in 5 minutes, 13.53 seconds, placing her 19th this season in NCAA Division II and a provisional qualifying time for NCAA-II indoor nationals.
Indoor track and field
NNU’s Van Valey hits D-II provisional mark
Northwest Nazarene University junior Taylor Van Valey placed fifth in the shot put at the Jackson’s/New Balance Boise Indoor Invitational meet Saturday at NNU’s Ford Idaho Center in Nampa.
The Hockinson High School graduate threw a season-best 43 feet, 7 3/4 inches, an NCAA Division II national provisional qualifying mark. She previously hit the NCAA mark in the weight throw.
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