FOREST GROVE, Ore. - Breaking her own school record by 100 points and setting a new national best for 2010, Puget Sound senior Caitlin McGrane (Colville, Wash.) successfully defended her crown in the heptathlon, winning a third-straight conference title at the Northwest Conference Multi-Event Championship in Forest Grove, Ore.
Heading into the second day with a lead of 262 points following the first four events, McGrane took third in the first event of the second day, picking up 495 with a mark of 15-7.5 in the long jump. McGrane picked up 511 points in the javelin with a toss of 104-4 but George Fox sophomore Beth Stam used a throw of 129-04, and the 656 points that came with it, to pull within nine points with just one event to go.
For McGrane, that event was the 800m run, one of her top events, and she pulled away from the competition, picking up 841 points with a time of 2:18.70 to clinch the conference title. She finished with 4509 points, exactly 100 points better than her school-record total at the 2009 NWC multi-event championships.
In addition to the score winning her the conference title, her new school record point total is also the best in the nation this season by over 100 points, while Courtney Hartman of Bridgewater recording the next-best total with 4391 at the Messiah Invitational last week.