Complete results (PDF)
 
SEATTLE – A year ago, Emily Quatier wouldn't have imagined herself in the 800 meters. The successful Seattle Pacific sprinter was more likely to be found in the 100, 200, 400, and on a relay or two.
 
On Saturday, Quatier ran twice as far as she ever had run in Falcon colors, winning the 800 in an unofficial time of 2 minutes, 15.80 seconds at the Club Northwest Spring Break Open track and field meet.
 
Quatier's time at West Seattle Stadium easily beat the GNAC provisional qualifying standard of 2:18.20.
 




“I thought it was really fun – I enjoyed running it,” said Quatier (Portland, Ore.). “I definitely looked at it as just a race day, just training – nothing really huge. That took a lot of pressure off.”
 
Quatier, who went in front to stay heading down the final backstretch and then hung on at the end to out-lean the University of Washington's Jordan Carlson at the wire. Carlson, the UW school record-holder in the 400 meters, had a 2:15.88, just eight hundredths off Quatier's mark.
 
“Before the race, I was asking McKayla (Fricker) and Jasmine (Johnson) and Karl (SPU head coach Lerum) how I should be running it and where I should be timewise at each 100,” she said. “I thought about it a lot during the race, but then I just kind of went out and tried to stay with the pack.”
 
Quatier's performance was one of numerous noteworthy ones for the Falcons as they won eight events on the track and one in the field on a warm Easter weekend afternoon.
 
Senior Ali Worthen accounted for three of those victories. Worthen (Coos Bay, Ore.) took the 100 meters in 12.58 seconds, the 200 in 25.66, and the 100 hurdles in 14.47. The 100 was her first-ever race in that event, high school or college. Her 100 and 200 times were GNAC provisional qualifiers; her hurdles clocking was GNAC automatic and just .07 away from NCAA provisional.
 
Sophomore Tasia Baldwin led a 1-2-3 SPU sweep of the long jump with a leap of 17 feet, 1 ¼ inches – just 3 ¼ inches away from her career best. Fellow sophomore Maliea Luquin (Portland, Ore.) did come up with a personal-best – and in a big way. Luquin went 17-1 ¾, nearly a foot farther than her previous best of 16-2 ¼, set last April.
 
SPU junior Fricker, coming off a national-caliber 800-meter run two weeks ago at the Oregon Preview in Eugene, took a break from that race and won the 1,500 in 4:38.59, a GNAC provisional. Fricker (Canby, Ore.) and freshman Lynelle Decker (Vancouver, Wash. / Mountain View HS), who both were at NCAA indoor nationals earlier this month in the 800 (Fricker was an All-American fourth-place finisher) were within a stride of each other most of the way.
 
Decker surged in front momentarily going around the penultimate curve. But Fricker quickly bumped it up a gear and pulled away to win. Decker was second in 4:40.44, and freshman Katie Morris (Spokane, Wash. / Shadle Park HS) took fourth.
 
“I kind of got caught up in my pace and gradually picking up, and I saw (Decker) coming up on me, and I go, 'Whoa – I gotta go,'” Fricker said of Decker's outstanding effort. “It feels awesome to get that PR and finally break 4:40. (Her previous best was 4:46.32 at last year's Spring Break Open.) The race felt really good.”
 
Sophomore Jasmine Johnson (Federal Way, Wash. / Federal Way HS) hit the GNAC automatic standard of 57.56 right on the money in the 400 meters to win that race. That's the second-best time in the conference so far, trailing only the 57.16 of Quatier.
 
Senior Katie Thralls (Livermore, Calif.) was an easy winner in the 5,000 meters. It was at last year's Spring Break Open that Thralls made her collegiate track debut after finishing her third basketball season with the Falcons, running unattached in the 1,500 meters. On Saturday, she took the lead immediately in the 5K and came across the line in 17:50.75. That obliterated her previous personal best of 18:17.94 and has her No. 3 on the GNAC list.
 
Freshman Molly Grager (Kirkland, Wash. / Juanita HS), with just a few practices under her belt after finishing basketball season, took second in the high jump at 5-3, earning an automatic ticket to GNAC.
                                                                                                                                                                                 
Seattle Pacific will return to competition next Saturday in the JD Shotwell Invitational at Baker Stadium on the University of Puget Sound campus in Tacoma.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD
Club Northwest Spring Break Open
Saturday, March 30, 2013
West Seattle Stadium / Seattle, Wash.
 
Team scores – Not kept.
 
100 – 1, Ali Worthen (SPU) 12.58*. Other SPU placers – 3, Tasia Baldwin 12.75; 5, Kelsey Chase 12.78; 6, BryAnne Wochnick 12.86; 11, Lindsay LeBrun 13.75.
200 – 1, Ali Worthen (SPU) 25.66*. Other SPU placers – 3, BryAnne Wochnick 26.34; 4, Kelsey Chase 26.64; 9, Katy Gross 27.26; 14, Lindsay LeBrun 28.43.
400 – 1, Jasmine Johnson (SPU) 57.56!. No other SPU competitors.
800 – 1, Emily Quatier (SPU) 2:15.80*. Other SPU placer – 8, Gabriella Serventi 2:31.05.
1500 – 1, McKayla Fricker (SPU) 4:38.59*. Other SPU placers – 2, Lynelle Decker 4:40.44*; 4, Katie Morris 4:50.79.
3000 – 1, Melissa Bosserman (Unattached) 17:28.90. No SPU competitors.
5000 – 1, Katie Thralls (SPU) 17:50.75!. Other SPU placers – 4, Anna Patti 18:38.64; 10, Elizabeth Doe 19:49.04.
10,000 – 1, Rachel Cundy (Everett CC) 38:29.58. No SPU competitors.
4x100 relay – 1, Central Washington 50.44. No SPU team.       
4x400 relay – 1, Seattle Pacific (Tasia Baldwin, Lynelle decker, McKayla fricker, Jasmine Johnson) 3:53.84. Other SPU placer – 2, Seattle Pacific (Kishia Mitchell, Emily Quatier, Ali Worthen, Maliea Luquin) 3:59.48.
100 hurdles – 1, Ali Worthen (SPU) 14.47!. Other SPU placers – 3, Maliea Luquin 15.15*; 7, Katy Gross 15.38*.
400 hurdles – 1, Nicole Harris (UW) 1:04.95. No SPU competitors.
3000 steeplechase – 1, Catie Arrigoni (Everett CC) 11:34.89. No SPU competitors.
High jump – 1, Tayler Fettig (C. Washington) 5-8 ¾ / 1.75m. SPU placers – 2, Molly Grager 5-3 / 1.60m!; 7, Maliea Luquin 4-9 / 1.45m.
Pole vault – 1, Ashley Schapp (UW) 11-5 ¾ / 3.50m. No SPU competitors.
Long jump – 1, Tasia Baldwin (SPU) 17-11 ¼ / 5.47m!. Other SPU placers – 2, Maliea Luquin 17-1 ¾ / 5.23m*; 3, Trinna Miranda 16-10 / 5.13m; 8, Anne Mueller 14-7 ½ / 4.46m.
Triple jump – 1, Chloe Stigglebout (UW) 36-4 / 11.07m. SPU placers – 2, Trinna Miranda 35-6 / 10.82m; 5, Anne Mueller 32-4 ¼ / 9.86m.
Shot put – 1, Mary Parker (Unattached) 42-2 ¼ / 12.86m. No SPU competitors.
Discus – 1, Mary Parker (Unattached) 149-8 / 45.62m. No SPU competitors.
Hammer – 1, Lindsay Wells (W. Washington) 159-7 / 48.64m. No SPU competitors.         
Javelin – 1, Bethany Drake (W. Washington) 142-1 ½ / 43.33m. SPU placers – 4, Katy Gross 126-8 ½ / 38.63m*; 7, Ali Worthen 109-0 / 33.22m; 10, Emily Corona 101-1 ½ / 30.83nm; 11, Maliea Luquin 89-8 ½ / 27.35m.

!  GNAC automatic qualifying
* GNAC provisional qualifying