In 2024, the Bison captured their third-straight GAC Championship title. Sophia Strange returns as the league’s dominant distance runner. She has won the 10,000-meter run each of the last three years and she has claimed back-to-back wins in the 5,000. Shayna Hendrix, who set a Championship record in winning the 800-meter, returns. They bring back two of the four members of the GAC-winning 4×100-meter relay team in Deja Rose and Olivia Tate. Additionally, Oklahoma Baptist returns three 2024 NCAA Championship qualifiers in Jade Byrd, Anisha Henderson and Jamora Horace. Byrd took seventh in the discus, Horace finished 13th in high jump and Henderson claimed 19th in the long jump. Henderson and Horace both earned spots to the upcoming NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, as did Asia Foster, in the 400, and Valerie Olson in the Pentathlon.
Harding received three votes and finished second in the poll. For the third-straight season, the Lady Bisons finished runner up at the GAC Championships. They return three that qualified for the NCAA Championships in Kiera Blankinship, high jump; Cella Nguema, 100-meter hurdles and Omolara Ogunmakinju, 400-meter run. Ogunmakinju finished fourth and garnered First-Team All-America honors while Blankinship earned Second-Team accolades. Lisa Retailleau won a GAC title in the 400-meter hurdles and Cadence Sansom gave the Lady Bisons four straight wins in the pole vault. Sansom and Hanna Onufriieva will compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships this week. Onufriieva qualified in the triple jump.
Ouachita Baptist claimed third in the poll. The Tigers’ Izzi Breaux returns as the GAC champion in the 1500 and Katelynn Nachtigal comes back after winning the steeplechase.
Southeastern Oklahoma State edged Southern Arkansas for fourth place. The Savage Storm’s Madison Rowe won a GAC title in the 400 and ran on the winning 4×400-meter relay team. Kaitlyn Cedillo also comes back from the winning relay team. SAU’s Diamond Brunn clipped Oklahoma Baptist’s Henderson to win the GAC title in the long jump.
Northwestern Oklahoma State finished in sixth followed by East Central and Southern Nazarene. The Crimson Storm’s Abriel Thrash won the Most Valuable Player honor at the GAC Championships after she won the heptathlon, placed second in the high jump, fourth in the long jump and seventh in the javelin. She ran the anchor leg on the Crimson Storm’s 4×100 relay team and the lead-off leg in the 4×400 relay squad.
Arkansas Tech and Southwestern Oklahoma State rounded out the poll.
The 2025 GAC Championships return to Shawnee, Oklahoma with all seven teams competing from Thursday, May 1 through Saturday, May 3.
Get Local News!
