By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications

SALEM, Ore. -- The Willamette University men's and women's track and field teams are ranked in the West Region of NCAA Division III this week according to the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). The Bearcat men's team is ranked #9 and the Willamette women's team is ranked #10.

George Fox University was ranked #1 in the West Region in both men's and women's track and field.

In the men's rankings, GFU had 603.42 points. Pomona-Pitzer (Calif.) was #2 with 459.03 points. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (Calif.) was #3 with 278.08 points, just edging out University of Redlands (Calif.), which was #4 at 275.0. CMS and Redlands switched positions from a week ago.

Occidental College (Calif.) held #5 in the men's rankings at 252.17 and University of La Verne (Calif.) was #6 at 240.20. Pacific Lutheran University moved up two spots to #7 with 230.92 points, while Whitworth University fell one spot to 230.25, barely beneath the Lutes. Willamette advanced one position to #9 with 181.81 points. Pacific University dropped two spots to #10 at 176.73 points.

George Fox topped the women's rankings with 505.40 points, while Whitworth was #2 at 429.68 and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps was #3 at 409.73. A week ago, CMS was #2 and Whitworth was #3.

Redlands owned the #4 ranking this week with 363.28 points. Linfield College was up one spot to #5 with 298.67 points, Occidental was down one position to #6 at 257.12, Pacific Lutheran advanced one spot to #7 at 208.57, and La Verne fell one spot to #8 at 154.82. Pacific moved up two spots from just outside the top 10 into the #9 position with 139.48 points. Willamette remained #10 with 137.93 points.

In addition to the Regional team rankings, three athletes on the Willamette men's team and three athletes on the Bearcat women's team are included in the top 30 of the NCAA Division III performance list for the season.

Keaton Beckmann (Fr., Salem, OR/Sprague HS) is 17th in the decathlon with a top score of 6,184 points during the Willamette vs. Corban Dual on March 13-14. Brian Peck (So., Reno, NV/Reno HS) is 30th in the decathlon with his score of 5,747 points at the 2018 Northwest Conference Multi-Event Championships on April 9-10. Michael Montague (So., San Diego, CA/Canyon Crest Academy) is 26th in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase with a personal record time of 9:29.31 at the NWC Championships on April 20.

Hannah Swanson (Sr., Seattle, WA/Roosevelt HS) is fifth in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase and 21st in the women's 1,500-meter run. She recorded a personal record time of 10:44.86 in the steeplechase at the 2018 NWC Championships. Her best time this season in the 1,500 was 4:37.65 at the Willamette invitational on March 24. Hope Duenas (So., Covina, CA/Covina HS) has the 10th best distance in the discus this spring at 147' 2" during the Willamette Invitational. Jewell Sparks (Sr., San Francisco, CA/Lick Wilmerding HS) is 22nd in the women's 400-meter hurdles with a top time of 1:03.46 at the John Knight Twilight on April 6.

Several Willamette athletes will be at the Oregon State University High Performance Meet on Friday, April 27 and Saturday, April 28. Duenas will compete in the discus on Friday. Beckmann, Sparks and Melissa Scott (So., Tustin, CA/Beckman HS) will participate on Saturday. Beckmann is entered in the long jump, while Sparks is set to compete in the 400-meter hurdles and Scott is scheduled to run in the women's 100-meter hurdles.