TACOMA, Wash. - Whitworth College's men, led by five NWC individual titles, finished in third place and the Pirate women took fourth after the final events were counted today at the Northwest Conference Track & Field Championships, hosted by the University of Puget Sound.

Ben Spaun won both hurdles races

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The final men's team scores were: Linfield 211.83, Willamette 195, Whitworth 157, Puget Sound 124.5, George Fox 69.66, Lewis & Clark 23, Pacific Lutheran 19, Pacific 15. The final women's scores were: Willamette 257.33, George Fox 124, Linfield 114, Whitworth 87, Puget Sound 76.33, Pacific Lutheran 71.33, Pacific 45, Lewis & Clark 36.

The Pirate men won five individual events, the highest total since Whitworth won the NWC title in 2001. Ben Spaun won two, and scored in five events overall, to lead the Bucs with 29 points.

Spaun won both the 110 high hurdles (15.57) and 400 hurdles (55.27). He was also part of the 4x400 relay that took second in 3:20.37 and he finished eighth in the long jump (20'-7.25"). Those four events, added to his third-place finish at the NWC decathlon last week, give him 29 points.

Whitworth's middle distance combination of Brandon Howell and Emmanual Bofa also scored plenty of points. Howell was second in the 400 dash (49.42) and third in the 800 (1:56.69). Bofa was third in the 400 (49.44) and fourth in the 800 (1:56.80). Those two, along with Spaun and Michael Johnston, made up the 4x400 relay.

The men's 4x100 relay of Nathan Anderson, Justin Spencer, Tim Kirkpatrick and Shane Thomas took third place with a time of 43.15.

Freshman Cody Stelzer went into the meet as the top seed in the high jump and came away as the champion. He and Brian Kramer of UPS each cleared 6'-7", but Stelzer was declared champion based on the fewest number of misses.

The Pirates also got great results from their throwers. Jeff Kintner and Joey VanHoomissen each won an event and placed highly in others. Kintner, a freshman, won the discus (143'-8"), placed second in the shot put (48'-0.5") and was fourth in the hammer (145'-11"). VanHoomissen won the hammer (156'-3") and finished third in the discus (136'-7").

Kory Kemp improved his provisional national qualifying mark in the javelin while finishing third with a throw of 195'-2".

Dormaier scored in five events for the Bucs

Kristin Dormaier scored in five different events to lead the Pirate women to their fourth place finish. Suzy Viducich earned Whitworth's individual conference title.

Dormaier placed second in the triple jump (34'-10.5"), fourth in the long jump (16'-1"), fifth in the high jump (4'-7.5) and fifth in the 100 dash (13.31). Along with her second place finish at last week's NWC heptathlon, she totaled 29 points for the Pirates.

Viducich won the high jump with a mark of 5'-3.25", a season best performance.

Jenna Hays scored in three different events for the Bucs. She was fourth in both the 100 hurdles (16.09) and 400 hurdles (1:05.80), along with a seventh place in the pole vault (10'-0").

Stephanie Melrose (2:22.90) and Elise Page (2:33.05) finished fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 800.

Up Next: Those Pirates close to qualifying for the NCAA Division III Track & Field Championships next month will compete next weekend at the Duane Hartman Invitational, hosted by the Community Colleges of Spokane at Spokane Falls CC.