Champions by inches — Final triple jump of meet wins WAC Championships for Idaho men

The three-day WAC Indoor Track and Field Championships came down to one point on the final event of the last day.

Western Athletic Conference | Courtesy

Western Athletic Conference | Courtesy

Idaho freshman Arphaxad Carroll leapt 49 feet, 2.5 inches in the fifth round of the triple jump to win the event and gave the Vandals a one-point victory over Grand Canyon. Idaho won with 173 points to Grand Canyon’s 172 after the three-day meet ended Friday in the Kibbie Dome.

“I am just really happy and feel really good about today,” Carroll said after the meet. “I didn’t score anything yesterday and I wasn’t supposed to score in (the) 60 (meter dash) today and I came and did that and I had a big jump in the triple jump.”

Idaho coach Wayne Phipps said Carroll was disappointed, after not scoring in the long jump and came over and apologized. He then scored in the 60 and won the triple jump as an underdog. He was ranked No. 4 going into the event.

“Those are the kinds of performances you have to have in order to win,” Phipps said. “We were fortunate to have a group of guys that were stepping up to that level.”

Idaho went into the final event, the triple jump, with a 157-152 lead over Grand Canyon. None of the other competing championship teams were in the running.

GCU went on to have four jumpers score in the triple jump, but Idaho had Carroll and junior Emmanuel Panchol in the event as well. Panchol placed third before Carroll won the event on his last jump to seal Idaho as conference champions. Carroll received WAC Freshman of the Year honors following his performance.

“You don’t want to win by just one point,” Phipps said. “You don’t want it to come down to the last event and last jump. But I’ll definitely take a one-point win over a one-point loss anytime.”

Winning championships is nothing new for Phipps and the Vandals. The Idaho men won both the indoor and outdoor WAC championships in 2012. Phipps, the 2014 WAC Men’s Coach of the Year, has won 14 total championships between track and cross country — most recently winning the 2013 WAC Women’s Cross Country Championships.

Carroll wasn’t the only Vandal to claim an individual title on the final day of competition. Junior Matt Sullivan won the pole-vault (16-6.75), senior Andrey Levkiv grabbed a victory in the shot put (54-10) and Ben Ayesu-Attah took first in the 400 (47.57 seconds).

On the women’s side, Katelyn Petersen won in the high jump with a leap of 5-6. The Idaho women’s team took third with 127 points, finishing behind Missouri-Kansas City and WAC champion Grand Canyon.

Despite Idaho’s success, Phipps said he thinks Idaho might have even better teams for the outdoor season. The Vandals have a short break before starting the outdoor season on March 21 at Whitworth.

“We were definitely short an handful of guys, that we think are going to be strong contributors to the team (in the outdoor season), due to injury and other things — so we feel we’re a much stronger outdoor team,” he said. “For our freshmen, that we’ve got so many of, to compete so well here — I think it just really just prepares us well for the outdoor season.”

Stephan Wiebe can be reached at [email protected]

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Stephan Wiebe Sports reporter Sophomore in journalism Can be reached at [email protected]

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