Complete final results (PDF)
        ACTION VIDEOS:  100    High jump    100 hurdles

MONMOUTH, Ore. – One of these days, Kishia Mitchell is going to find her voice. When she does, the world is going to sit up and listen.

For now, the very polite, but very quiet Seattle Pacific freshman lets her races do most of the talking.

The track and field world is already listening.

Mitchell and teammate Crystal Sims went 1-2 in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes and ran on the victorious 4x100 relay team, Sims took the 100-meter hurdles, and Ali Worthen was tops in the high jump on Saturday, helping the SPU women win their second straight Great Northwest Athletic Conference title.

The Falcons, who were the big favorites coming into the meet, finished with 206 ½ points in the competition at McArthur Field on the Western Oregon University campus. Western Washington was a distant second with 121.





Mitchell won the 100 in12.39 seconds, out-leaning Sims at the line. Sims clocked 12.52. In the 200, it was even closer: Mitchell in 25.52, Sims in 25.58.

“I'm just glad I'm done,” said Mitchell (Puyallup, Wash./Rogers HS), who ran 100- and 200-meter semifinal heats on Friday, then ran those two finals, plus the 4x100 and 4x400 relays on Saturday. “I just wanted to be fast, and I think it happened that way.”

Falcons sophomore Emily Quatier (Portland, Ore.), who ran on both of the relays with Mitchell, wasn't nearly as shy about adding to the conversation.


“She's a beast,” Quatier said, flashing a grin toward Mitchell.

Mitchell's titles were just two of SPU's seven altogether:

-- Sims in the 100 hurdles.

-- Worthen in the heptathlon, long jump and high jump.

-- The 4x100 relay team.

All of that helped Seattle Pacific run away with the team championship, winning it not only for the second straight year, but for the fifth time in the 10-year history of the GNAC. And, the Falcons put their fourth indoor-outdoor title double into the conference books.

“Every year is different. But we rode on the shoulders of some of those same kids (who contributed to last year's win),” SPU head coach Karl Lerum said. “Across the board, we had our stars deliver in one race after another.

Indeed, Mitchell wasn't the only multiple champion for the Falcons.

Multi-talented junior Worthen (Coos Bay, Ore.) won the GNAC heptathlon last week in Nampa, Idaho, with 4,904 poits, leading a 1-2-3-4 SPU finish in that event. On Friday's first night of competition in Monmouth, she won the long jump, going 18 feet, 5 inches / 5.61 meters.

On Saturday, Worthen stepped away from the triple jump competition for a few moments to run the second leg on the 4x100 relay – factoring into a meet-record time and NCAA Division II provisional-qualifying time of 47.23 seconds – then came back to finish sixth in the triple (36-7 / 11.15 meters), third in the 100 hurdles (14.95) and win the high jump (5-5 ¾ / 1.67 meters).

Worthen is now one of just seven athletes to win three individual titles in a single GNAC meet. And, with the relay victory added in, she is just the fourth person in GNAC history to factor into four wins in one conference meet.





Then there senior Sims (Portland, Ore.), another multi-talent type who was third in the hep, ran the anchor leg on the 4x100 relay, followed that a short while later by leading a 1-2-3 SPU finish in the 100-meter hurdles, then ran stride for stride with Mitchell in the two sprint finals.

“We have some real warriors in the women's program. (Some of them) come out and compete in five or six events – and win most of them,” Lerum said.

Added Sims, “It actually went a little better (than I thought it would). After we won the 4-by-1, I got a little bit hyped up – it was time to go. Those 100 hurdles, they've been shaky this year. But I just remembered Karl's voice in my head to run and just be an athlete.”

Sims, seeded just fifth for the finals, came across the line in 14.71 seconds. Junior Terra Schumacher (Sublimity, Ore.) was second in 14.78, and Worthen was right behind with her 14.95. Schumacher as the fourth seed and Worthen was seventh coming into the race.

Like Mitchell, Sims had a busy day on Friday, running three semis (100, 200, 100 hurdles) and placing third in the long jump at 17-9 / 5.41 meters.

“After a long day the day before, it was hard to come back and still be able to perform. So I'm glad I was able to perform,” Sims said. “Everybody came through. Some people didn't do what they wanted to do (in terms of times or distances), but they still brought it home for us, so I appreciate them for that.”

The 47.23 posted by Mitchell, Worthen, Quatier and Sims in the 4x100 relay bettered the old meet record mark of 47.73 set by Western Washington in 2005. It did get the Falcon foursome onto the national list at a tie for No. 44 among all automatic and provisional qualifiers, but the cutoff is usually the top 16.

Sophomore Katy Gross got onto the top-3 awards podium for the Falcons on Saturday by tying for second place in the high jump at 5-3 ¾ / 1.62 meters.

The 4x400 relay squad of Mitchell, Quatier, freshman BryAnne Wochnick (Portland, Ore.) and Sims finished second to Simon Fraser in 3:50.73, again just barely shy of the NCAA provisional qual time of 3:50.00.

The Division II nationals are set for May 26-28 at Cal State Stanislaus University in Turlock, Calif. 


NCAA WOMEN'S TRACK AND FIELD
GNAC Championships
Saturday, May 14, 2011
McArthur Field at Western Oregon University/Monmouth, Ore.

Final team scores – 1, Seattle Pacific 206 ½; 2, Western Washington 121; 3, Western Oregon 109; 4, Central Washington 97; 5, Northwest Nazarene 88 ½; 6, Alaska Anchorage 86; 7, Simon Fraser 79; 8, Montana State Billings 21; 9, Saint Martin's 15.

SATURDAY'S FINALS
(Top 8 score: 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1)

100 – 1, Kishia Mitchell (SPU) 12.39. Other SPU placer – 2, Crystal Sims 12.52.
200 – 1, Mitchell (SPU) 25.52. Other SPU placers – 2, Sims 25.58; 8, Myisha Valentine 26.65.
400 – 1, Helen Crofts (SFU) 55.25. SPU placers – 4, Emily Quatier 57.14; 8, Myisha Valentine 59.35.
800 – 1, Jessica Smith (SFU) 2:09.21. No SPU placers.
1500 – 1, Crofts (SFU) 4:25.90. SPU placer – 12, Alli Cutting 4:46.80.
5000 – 1, Ruth Keino (UAA) 17:23.81. SPU placers – 8, Robyn Zeidler 18:33.53; 9, Heidi Laabs-Johnson 18:34.17; 13, Cutting 19:51.44.
100 hurdles – 1, Sims 14.73. Other SPU placers – 2, Terra Schumacher 14.78; 3, Ali Worthen 14.95.
400 hurdles – 1, Kaitlyn Reid (WOU) 1:02.94. SPU placer – 4, Jennifer Pike 1:05.28.
4x100 relay – 1, Seattle Pacific (Mitchell, Worthen, Quatier, Sims) 47.23 (meet record, breaks old record of 47.73 set by Western Washington in 2005).
4x400 relay – 1, Simon Fraser 3:46.17. SPU placer – 2, Seattle Pacific (Mitchell, Quatier, BryAnne Wochnick, Sims) 3:50.73.
High jump – 1, Worthen (SPU) 5-5 ¾ / 1.67m. Other SPU placers – T2, Katy Gross 5-3 ¾ / 1.62m (fewer misses); 4, Brittany Aanstad 5-3 ¾ / 1.62m; T9, Brittany Tri 4-11 ¾ / 1.52m.
Triple jump – 1, Ashley Potter (WOU) 38-9 ½ / 11.82m. SPU placers – 6, Worthen 36-7 / 11.15m; 7, Trinna Miranda 36-6 ¼ / 11.13m; 12, Athena Nye 35-5 ¼ / 10.80m.
Shot put – 1, Anica Knispel (MSUB) 46-0 ¾ / 14.04m. No SPU competitors.
Hammer – 1, Torrie Self (CWU) 175-5 / 53.48m. No SPU competitors.