The Nebraska Wesleyan track & field teams both placed third at the 2011 GPAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships that were held Saturday (May 7) at DeValois Stadium in Orange City, Iowa. The NWU women scored 124 team points, while the NWU men had 120.5 team points.

Sioux Falls won the women's team race with 147 points, defeating Doane by eight. Doane was the winner on the men's side with 203 points, compared to 126 for second place Concordia.

For the NWU women, four individuals were event winners on the day for the Prairie Wolves. NWU ladies dominated the throwing events winning three of the four events. Amanda Brichacek set a new GPAC record with her winning toss of 183-5 in the women's hammer throw. Brichacek also had a personal-best throw of 46-8.25 in the shot put to place second in that event.

Bailey Soucie was the champion in the women's discus in a career-best mark of 141-11 that is a NCAA provisional mark. Soucie was second in the javelin with a mark of 127-5.

Deanna Dirkschneider won the women's shot put with a career-best toss of 46-11 for an NCAA Automatic qualifying distance. She was seventh in the women's discus at the GPAC Championships.

On the track, the lone NWU women's champion was Taylor Tacha in the 100 hurdles. Tacha ran a career=best time of 14.38, which is an automatic qualifying time and the third fastest time in NWU history. Tacha placed second in the 400 hurdles in a career-best time of 1:02.82 to give her an NCAA qualifying time in that event.

The lone winner for the Nebraska Wesleyan men was senior Elliott Bulling the men's shot put. Bulling had a toss of 53-10.25 to win the event and also places sixth in the discus.

Ben Paben had a good day in the distance races taking second place in both the 5,000 meters (14:57.42) and the 10,000 meters (32:58.99).

The 4x400 relay team of John Hower, John Kersenbrock, Matt Holst and Nick Sawyer placed second with a NCAA qualifying time of 3:14.41. Another top mark for the NWU men was Jack Chatelain in the triple jump with a leap of 47-7.75 to take third in the event.