HELENA — Cade VanVleet of Montana Tech and Zach Gacnik of Carroll College were acknowledged as the Frontier Conference men's outdoor track and field weekly athlete of the week recipients on Tuesday.
VanVleet was the the Field Athlete of the Week winner. The junior from Noxon qualified for the NAIA Outdoor Track & Field National Championships after throwing the ‘A’ automatic mark of 174 feet, 4 inches in discus, collecting a runner-up honor at the Whitworth Peace Meet (featuring full field of NCAA Division I athletes) for the Orediggers. VanVleet’s discus mark is currently fifth best in the NAIA as of Tuesday per a Frontier press release.
He added a season-best 54 feet, 8 inch effort in the shot put, placing third in the event. His shot-put mark is the NAIA ‘B’ provisional qualifying mark and seventh best in the NAIA.
Gacnik, a junior from Conifer, Colorado, was chosen as the Track Athlete of the Week.
Gacnik won the 10,000-meter run title at the Whitworth Peach meet, coming within one second of his personal record time for the Saints. He finished the race with a time of 30 minutes, 42.26 seconds.
His time is currently the sixth fastest in the NAIA 10,000-meter run as of Tuesday, per the Frontier press release. He qualified for the national meet after recording the NAIA ‘B’ provisional qualifying time.
