The North Park Men's and Women's Track and Field teams wrapped up action at the CCIW Outdoor Track and Field conference championships on Saturday May 5. The women's squad placed eighth with 13 points while the Viking men tallied 35 points to finish in seventh place. In a tight team battle for fifth place, the men finished six points behind Millikin (41 points / 5th place) and just 5 points from Illinois Wesleyan who finished 6th with 40 points.

Leading the charge on the weekend for the Vikings, Freshman David Johansson won the CCIW title in the Javelin with a toss of 60.91 meters (199-10). Four of Johansson's throws would have been good enough for the victory. Freshman Alrick Olsen placed 8th in the event with a throw of 47.12m (154-7) after entering the meet ranked eleventh. Johansson currently ranks 18th on the NCAA III National Qualifying list. The top twenty in each individual event and top 16 in each relay will qualify for the National Championships, to be held May 24-26 in Claremont, California.

Brittany McCline's second-place finish in the Javelin highlighted the women's team performances. McClines throw of 38.05m (124-10) was short of her season-best toss of 39.07m but good enough to garner the runner-up finish. McCline ranks 33rd in the country in the event and will need to rank among the top 22 to garner a trip to nationals.

Other highlights for the Vikings included the men's sprints, where Gabriel Nash and Willie Sawyer placed well. In the 100m, Sawyer finished 5th and Nash 7th while in the 200m, Nash finished 5th and Sawyer 6th. In the preliminary rounds of the 200m, Sawyer ran 21.96, breaking the North Park University school record in the event. Nash and Sawyer combined with Justin Patterson and Johansson to place 4th in the 4x100m relay, running 42.84 which ranks #4 all-time in NPU school history.

Kevin Vaseghi placed 4th in the high jump despite coming into the meet ranked just 8th. His height of 2.00 meters (6-6.75) ranks #2 in school history and currently places him 33rd on the national list.

Julienne Samuels finished her CCIW career placing 6th in the triple jump with a personal best and North Park #4 all-time jump of 10.72 meters (35-2). Samuels came into the competition seeded just 9th. In the long jump, Shanikca Watson placed 8th.

Other noteworthy performances from the weekend included Justin Klinefelter, who ran 1:58.35 in the 800m, which was a 2-second personal best time and ranks #8 all-time in school history, Dave Anderson who placed 11th in the discus and Chris Mullen who placed 11th in the shot put.

Select individuals and the men's 4x100 relay will continue their season at North Central College on Friday May 12 and again on Friday May 18 in an attempt to qualify for the national championship.