BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Western Washington University track & field junior Emily Sytsma has been named the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Women’s Track Athlete of the Week, announced Monday by the conference office.
Sytsma (Lynden, WA/Lynden Christian/Concordia) helped WWU to a team victory at the 37th Annual Ralph Vernacchia Meet last Saturday, competing in three track events as the Vikings placed 1st among 20 teams.
She won the 100m with a personal-best time of 12.43, placing 1st of 22 to lead three Vikings among the top four with junior Savannah Smith (Renton, WA) in 2nd (12.55) and freshman Emily Greene (Spokane, WA/Lewis and Clark) in 4th (12.83). Sytsma’s personal-best time ranks 9th in the GNAC this season.
Sytsma also placed 10th of 28 in the 200m with a time of 26.11 and was part of the WWU 4x400m relay team that finished 2nd among six teams with a time of 3:57.97 – the best 4x400m relay time by a WWU team this year, ranking 6th in the GNAC.
The GNAC weekly honor for Sytsma is the first of her career. For the season, she has recorded personal-best times in the 100m (12.43) and 200m (25.50), with her top 200m time ranking 9th on the WWU outdoor top-10 list.
The WWU track & field program has earned six GNAC weekly awards during the 2018 outdoor season, with four on the women’s side. Sophomore javelin thrower Raquel Pellecer (Sandy, OR/Portland State) is a three-time recipient of the GNAC Women’s Field Athlete of the Week honor during the season. Sytsma became the first WWU student-athlete to receive the GNAC Women’s Track Athlete of Week award during the year, and is the first to receive the honor since Katelyn Steen in 2015.
WWU has competitors in action Monday and Tuesday at the GNAC Combined Event Championships, hosted by Northwest Nazarene University, in Nampa, Idaho. Freshman Seren Dances (Port Townsend, WA), junior Rudy Mataya (Burlington, WA/Burlington-Edison) and sophomore Nick Makrakis (Concord, CA/Northgate) are competing in the decathlon for the Vikings with live results available.
The Vikings will also compete Friday and Saturday at the University of Washington Ken Shannon Invitational, held at Husky Stadium in Seattle, Washington. The GNAC Championships are coming up on May 11-12 at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, Oregon.
