PORTLAND, Ore. – With the completion of the 2026 outdoor track & field season, the special award winners from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference were announced on Friday.
 
2026 GNAC Outdoor Track & Field Special Award Winners
Men's Track Athlete of the Year - Maurice Woodring, Western Washington
Men's Field Athlete of the Year - Laurenz Waldbauer, Northwest Nazarene
Men's Freshman of the Year - Colton Magruder, Central Washington
Men's Coach of the Year - Ben Stensland, Western Washington
Women's Track Athlete of the Year - Raiya Matonovich, Simon Fraser
Women's Field Athlete of the Year - Vivien Liessfeld, Alaska Anchorage
Women's Freshman of the Year - Raiya Matonovich, Simon Fraser
Women's Coach of the Year - Ben Stensland, Western Washington
 
Headlining the list with the conference’s top performance of the outdoor season was Northwest Nazarene senior Laurenz Waldbauer, who was unanimously selected as the GNAC Men’s Field Athlete of the Year. He capped a historic campaign by winning the NCAA Division II national title last Saturday in Emporia, Kan., throwing 241-3 feet (73.53 meters) to bring home the conference’s second javelin gold medal. Waldbauer finished first or second in the javelin in all nine of the meets that he competed in during the outdoor season, with his two second-place finishes coming against non-Division II/unattached competitors. Waldbauer also won his second-career GNAC Outdoor Championships gold medal in the javelin, throwing 217-10 feet (66.39 meters) on May 5 in Ellensburg, Wash. He provided early evidence of a special season, winning the Broward Elite competition on Jan. 25 with a personal-best throw of 243-1 feet (74.09 meters), a mark that etched his name No. 2 in GNAC history in the javelin throw. Also claiming this award after his national runner-up javelin throw in 2025, Waldbauer became the first Nighthawk to win multiple GNAC outdoor track & field athlete of the year awards.
 
A third-place national finish in the men’s 400-meter hurdles earned Western Washington junior Maurice Woodring the GNAC Men’s Track Athlete of the Year honor. Solidifying himself as the top 400-meter hurdler in conference history, Woodring broke his own GNAC record in the final race of the season as he went 50.50 around the track to claim the NCAA bronze medal. He narrowly missed out on the national title, with the champion Rinaldo Moore of Minnesota State running just 50.25 seconds. Woodring won his third GNAC Championships title in the event earlier this spring, running what was at the time a conference record of 50.73 seconds. He finished in a top-three spot in his primary event in five of the six meets that he competed in this spring. Woodring became the fourth Viking to claim the top outdoor athlete honor and the first since Slater Hirst in 2015. He is also the eighth in conference history to win GNAC Freshman of the Year (2023) as well as athlete of the year.
 
Top men’s freshman honors went to Colton Magruder of Central Washington University. Magruder capped a memorable debut collegiate campaign with a pair of silver medals at the GNAC Championships, finishing as the runner-up in both the 100-meters and on the 4x100-meter relay, while adding a bronze medal in the 200-meters. Magruder followed up on a stellar indoor season by running the fourth-fastest times in conference history in both of the short sprints, hitting PRs of 10.35 seconds in the 100-meters and 21.04 seconds in the 200-meters. Magruder became the third man in Wildcat history to take the outdoor GNAC Freshman of the Year award, joining 2018 winner Braydon Maier and 2010 winner Anthony Wright.
 
Simon Fraser’s Raiya Matonovich took home two of the top women’s honors, landing both GNAC Track Athlete of the Year and GNAC Freshman of the Year. She capped her decorated debut collegiate season with a bronze medal in the 1,500-meters at the NCAA Championships last week, running a time of 4:20.15 minutes. Mataonovich finished just 0.85 seconds behind national champion Aria Hawkins of Lee, earning her first individual All-American trophy. The freshman dominated her events at the GNAC Championships, winning the 1,500-meters title in 4:30.16 minutes and claiming the 800-meters told medal with a PR run of 2:06.38 minutes. Her season-best 1,500-meters time of 4:19.28 minutes was the third-fastest in GNAC history, while her 800-meters PR stands as 10th-fastest by a GNAC runner. She became the second woman in school history to win the outdoor top freshman award, joining Marie-Eloise Leclair (2022). It was the sixth women’s athlete of the year honor for SFU since it joined the conference in 2010-11. Matonovich is the ninth woman in conference history to win both awards and just the third to do so in the same season, joining Seattle Pacific’s Jessica Pixler in 2007 and SPU’s Danielle Ayers-Stamper in 2003.
 
Alaska Anchorage’s Vivien Liessfeld capped a medal-filled outdoor season with GNAC Field Athlete of the Year recognition. She finished her season taking 12th place in the long jump at the NCAA Championships, as she cleared 19-1.25 feet (5.82 meters) in the final meet of 2026. Liessfeld won the heptathlon and the long jump gold medals at the GNAC Outdoor Championships, earning Field Athlete of the Meet and the high point scorer awards. At the Pacific Coast Invitational on April 16, Liessfeld posted a long jump of 20-2.5 feet (6.16 meters) which stands as the second-farthest leap by any GNAC athlete in outdoor history. It is the fourth outdoor athlete of the year honor for a Seawolf and the first since Caroline Kurgat claimed back-to-back wins in 2018 and 2019.
 
Earning the GNAC Coach of the Year awards on both the women’s and men’s sides was Western Washington head coach Ben Stensland. Once again piloting his teams to the GNAC trophies, Stensland helped extend the Vikings streak of team wins across the sports of outdoor track & field, indoor track & field and cross country to 20 in-a-row dating back to the spring of 2023. It came down to the narrowest margin in conference history on the women’s side, but the Vikings held of Central Washington 208.5-206.5 to win the conference trophy for the fourth consecutive season. It was another blowout victory on the men’s side, as WWU racked up 254 points to win by 128.25 points ahead of runner-up Central Washington. It was WWU’s seventh consecutive men’s team outdoor trophy and its conference-record 13th overall. Stensland joined former Viking head coach Pee Wee Halsell as the second men’s coach to win four straight awards, and it marks the first time in league outdoor history a women’s coach has received four consecutive honors.