By: Evan O'Kelly, Associate Commissioner for Communications

ELLENSBURG, Wash. – Standout performances by multi-event athletes Vivien Liessfeld and Anders Larsen at the 2026 Great Northwest Athletic Conference Combined Event Championships this week gave the University of Alaska Anchorage a sweep of the women’s heptathlon and men’s decathlon titles.
 
It marked the sixth time since the GNAC was founded in 2002 that a school swept the multi-event gold medals and the first time in more than a decade. The last duo to achieve the feat was also the only other set of Seawolves to do so, with Karolin Anders winning the heptathlon and Kody Thomas taking the decathlon at the 2014 GNAC Outdoor Championships. In 2011 Seattle Pacific’s Nate Johnson and Ali Worthen achieved the feat, while Western Oregon did so in three consecutive seasons with Zeb Udell winning the decathlon from 2007-09 and his teammates Jacque Postlewait (2007-08) and Mandy Keifer (2009) joining him atop the podium.
 
 
Liessfeld claimed her second-career gold medal in the GNAC heptathlon, after winning the multis in 2024. Her point total of 4,999 achieved this week was a career best and was just five points shy of being a GNAC all-time top-10 mark. It was enough to hold off silver medalist Ellie DeGroot of Central Washington by 47 points, as the Wildcat made her first-ever podium also with a career-best heptathlon score. CWU’s Carley Huber made it two consecutive bronze medals in the heptathlon as she shattered her previous best of 4,610 points by reaching 4,844 at the championships.
 
Liessfeld won the title by finishing first or second in six of the seven events among the field of 13 competitors. She notched event victories in both the long jump at 19-6 feet (5.94 meters) and the javelin at 125-3 feet (38.18 meters), while finishing second in the 100-meter hurdles at 14.93 seconds, the high jump at 5-2.25 feet (1.58 meters), the shot put at 35-10.75 feet (10.94 meters) and the 200-meters at 25.32 seconds. She did just enough in the final event of the competition, placing 10th in the 800-meters with a time of 2:44.31 minutes to fend off DeGroot.
 
Liessfeld became the sixth woman in GNAC history and second Seawolf to win the GNAC heptathlon multiple times in her career. Other GNAC competitors with multiple gold medals in the heptathlon include Renick Meyer of Seattle Pacific (2018 & 2021), Karolin Anders of UAA (2014-15 & 2017), Ali Worthen of Seattle Pacific (2011-13), Jacque Postlewait of Western Oregon (2007-08) and current GNAC commissioner Bridget Johnson Tetteh formerly of Western Oregon (2005-06).
 
DeGroot meanwhile posted event wins in the 100-meter hurdles at 14.38 seconds, the shot put at 38-11.75 feet (11.88 meters) and the 200-meters at 25.07 seconds to keep herself in contention for the title. She cruised to a third-place finish in the 800-meters to close out the event with 766 points, as she wound up just shy of Liessfeld. It was the junior’s best-ever finish at the outdoor championships, as she took fifth place in the heptathlon in both 2023 and 2024. DeGroot was the 2024 indoor GNAC champion in the pentathlon, making this her second-career GNAC multis medal.
 
Huber finished in the top five in all but two events on her way to matching last year’s third-place finish. The CWU senior finished strong, recording her lone win in the 800-meters with a time of 2:19.32. Huber is fresh off a silver medal in the pentathlon at the 2026 GNAC Indoor Championships, as she has now made the podium in the multis three times throughout her track & field career.
 
 
Larsen’s title came in the form of a career-high 6,969 total points across the 10-event competition, as he posted the seventh-highest decathlon point total in GNAC history. That was enough to hold off 2024 decathlon champion Drew Klein of Central Washington, who racked up a career-best 6,908 points for the eighth-highest in conference history to claim the silver medal. CWU’s Josh Boast finished a distant third, also with a career best of 6,496 points.
 
Larsen built a big lead in Monday’s opening round of events, finishing no worse than third in the five events that were contested. That included his three victories during the decathlon, as he won the 100-meters in 10.89 seconds, the shot put at 40-9 feet (12.42 meters) and the high jump at 6-2.75 feet (1.90 meters). Larsen also finished second in the 400-meters with a time of 48.87 seconds. Carrying a 71-point cushion heading into the 1,500-meters – Tuesday’s final event – Larsen kept pace with Klein posting a time of 5:04.73 minutes to finish in sixth place and secure his first gold medal in the decathlon.
 
Larsen joined 2025 champion Tobin Schmidtke and three-time winner Cody Thomas (2013-14, 16) to become the third man in UAA history to claim the multis crown. It also marked just the second time that two different athletes from the same school won back-to-back decathlon titles, with the other duo being Chris Petersen (2003) and Michael Morrison (2004) of Central Washington.
 
Klein’s fourth-career podium in the decathlon (bronze in 2023 & silver in 2022) also featured three individual event victories. He finished first among the field of 10 competitors in the long jump at 23-2.5 feet (7.07 meters), the discus at 126-5 feet (38.55 meters) and the pole vault at 14 feet (4.27 meters). Klein ran a time of 14.60 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles and posted a javelin throw of (50.08 meters) to finish second in each of those events.
 
Last year’s silver medalist in the decathlon, Boast had another strong showing across the two-day competition. His lone victory came in the 400-meters where he ran 48.44 seconds for his highest point total at 888. Boast also used a second-place finish in the 100-meters at 10.93 seconds to make his way onto the podium.
 
CWU’s David Brown broke the decathlon meet record in the 110-meter hurdles, as he won that event at 14.52 seconds. That shattered the previous mark of 14.81 seconds, set by UAA’s Thomas in 2016. Klein at 14.60 seconds and Boast at 14.79 seconds each also topped the previous decathlon meet record in the event.
 
NEXT UP: The 2026 GNAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships continue next week in Ellensburg, with the remainder of events featuring all nine of the conference’s programs. Action runs May 4-5 with live results available online here and tickets available online here.