THE SCHEDULE:    Seattle Pacific at NCAA Division II Championships
                                  Thursday-Saturday, May 23-25, 2013
                                  Neta & Eddie DeRose ThunderBowl / Pueblo, Colo.
                                 THURSDAY: 
                                 Heptathlon, 10 a.m.; women's 1500 prelims, 4:10 p.m.;
                                 men's 1500 prelims, 4:25 p.m. (all PDT)
                                 FRIDAY:
                                 Heptathlon 10 a.m.; women's 800 prelims, 5 p.m.;
                                 women's 4x400 relay prelims, 5:30 p.m. (all PDT)
                                 SATURDAY:
                                 Women's jav 1:50 p.m.; women's 1500 finals 4:35.;               
                                 men's 1500 finals, 4:45 p.m.; women's 800 finals, 5:55 p.m.;
                                 women's 4x400 relay finals, 7:55 p.m. (all PDT) 
                                                                  
        Weekly release, with updated lists and qualifier bios (PDF)
        NCAA Championships home page
        Women's preliminary heat sheets (PDF)
        Men's preliminary heat sheets (PDF)
        Complete meet schedule (PDF)

SEATTLE – The Seattle Pacific Falcons certainly won't be lonely in Colorado this week.
 
A contingent of eight SPU athletes – seven women and one man – will be keeping each other company on the track and in the field as they and more than 700 others converge on Pueblo for the NCAA Division II Championships.
 
Competition at the Neta & Eddie DeRose ThunderBowl on the campus of Colorado State University-Pueblo begins on Thursday morning and concludes Saturday evening.
 
Senior Ali Worthen, the strong favorite to win the women's heptathlon title, leads the flock of Falcons, who will represent the school in six different events.
 
Worthen and fellow senior Katy Gross begin the heptathlon on Thursday, followed by freshman Lynelle Decker in the women's 1,500 preliminaries, and senior Seth Pierson in the men's 1,500 prelims.
 
The hep winds up on Friday. Later that afternoon, junior McKayla Fricker will run in the 800 prelims, then will join junior Kishia Mitchell, senior Emily Quatier, and sophomore Jasmine Johnson in the 4x400 relay prelims.
 
Gross is back for the women's javelin on Saturday morning. Decker, Pierson, Fricker, and the relay will run in finals later in the day if they advance from their prelim heats.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Fans will be able to keep up with the action all three days from the ThunderBowl. Live results are expected to be available from the first event through the last by clicking on www.pttiming.com.
 
Live Webcasts also will be available all three days by clicking onto these links or www.ncaa.com/liveschedule. Webcast start times (all Pacific) are 3:45 p.m. on Thursday, 4:30 on Friday, and 4:00 on Saturday. Given the schedule start times, the focus of the Webcast likely will be on the running events.
 
HOW HIGH IS HIGH?
Go most anywhere in Colorado, and you're dealing with altitude. The elevation in Pueblo is listed at between 4,650 feet and 4,700 feet, according to various reference sites. That's a bit lower than Denver, where the top step of the state capitol is exactly one mile above sea level.
 
HOW HOT IS HOT?
At least the Falcons won't have to worry about rain or cold this week – although they might be wishing for some Pacific Northwest mildness by the time they're done. The forecast for Thursday is pleasant enough, with a high of 71. But on Friday, the temperature is expected to soar to 90, and it will be in that neighborhood again on Saturday, with a high of 91. Rain? Nowhere in sight.
 




SCOUTING THE NCAAs
She still has to go out and get it done in all seven events. But if Ali Worthen is anywhere close to her best, then she'll be very tough to catch in the women's heptathlon.
 
Worthen's top-seeded entry score of 5,492 is based on the marks she had on April 11-12 at the MONDO Mid-Major Challenge in Sacramento. (That score would rank No. 16 in Division I, and No. 3 in the Pacific-12.) Since then, she has gone faster in the 800, farther in the long jump, and farther in the shot put, as well. Taken collectively, her seven season-best numbers would put her at 5,601 points.
 
But sophomore Jordan Gray of Angelo State (Texas), who has been No. 2 behind Worthen almost all season, has stepped up her pace, too. Her seeded score is 5,083, but if she were at least to match her seven season-bests, she would total 5,206 points.
 
Worthen comes into the meet with one top mark (19-8 in the long jump), a pair of No. 2s (24.96 in the 200, 5-7 ¾ in the high jump), a No. 3 (2:17.77 in the 800) and a No. 4 (14.16 in the 100 hurdles). She has the eighth-best javelin distance among the 17 competitors (118-2), and the 11th-best shot put distance (35-7 ¼).
 
Gray is close to Worthen in two events: She has the second-best long jump mark (19-3 ¾) and is No. 5 in the 100 hurdles (14.24). The only heptathlete with more than one top mark is Academy of Art senior Jesseka Raymond. She is seeded eighth overall with 4,972 points and has the leading times in the 100 hurdles (13.68) and 200-meter dash (24.23). Her season bests add up to 5,074.
 
Katy Gross is well positioned to top 5,000 points for the first time, coming in at 4,992. Thanks to career-best performances in the long jump and javelin at GNAC, her current marks would total 5,050. Furthermore, Gross' javelin mark of 139-6 ¾ is 8 feet, 1 ¾ inches farther than the second-best distance. When Gross went to nationals as a sophomore in 2011, she was 13th in total points, but won the jav at 129-7.
 
McKayla Fricker is the No. 8 seed in the 800 at 2:09.42, but is one of five runners bunched in the 2:09 range, beginning with fourth-seeded Marissa Bongers of Nebraska-Kearney. Simon Fraser senior Helen Crofts is heavily favored to win. Crofts, who did not race the 800 at GNAC (she won the 400 and 1,500), is at 2:04.53, a gap of three seconds on No. 2 seed Jaylen Rodgers of Angelo State.
 
The top eight seeds are GNAC-dominated, with five competitors: Crofts, No. 3 Lindsey Butterworth and No. 5 Sarah Sawatzky, all of Simon Fraser, No. 7 Ivy O'Guinn of Alaska Anchorage, and Fricker. At No. 19 is Emily Quatier with her 2:11.71.
 
Fricker and Quatier will be busy on Friday. The 800 prelims are at 5 p.m. Pacific; the 4x400 relay prelims are at 5:30. They will be joined by junior Kishia Mitchell (Puyallup, Wash. / Rogers HS) and sophomore Jasmine Johnson (Federal Way, Wash. / Federal Way HS) in the latter. SPU is the No. 7 seed at 3:43.44, potentially within reach of as high as third place. (St. Augustine's is No. 1 at 3:33.63; Lincoln-Missouri is next at 3:34.52.)
 
Freshman Lynelle Decker (Vancouver, Wash. / Mountain View HS) is the No. 13 seed in the 1,500 at 4:29.74, but is less than a second away from a spot in the top eight.

Likewise, Seth Pierson is No. 17 in the men's 1,500 at 3:50.40. However, of the 20 runners, Nos. 11-20 are just a second apart, and a place in the top eight is about two seconds away (3:48.42).
 
If Pierson were to get into the finals and score, he would be the first SPU male since Chris Randolph won the sdecathlon in 2006 to earn points at nationals.
 
BEST IN THE WEST
A total of eight Falcons earned places on the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-West Region team.
 
Ali Worthen gained four such honors: heptathlon, high jump, long jump, and 4x100 relay. Also being named to the relay were junior Kishia Mitchell, junior BryAnne Wochnick (Portland, Ore.), and sophomore Tasia Baldwin. McKayla Fricker made it in the 800, as did Katy Gross in the javelin.
 
On the men's side, Seth Pierson got onto the 1,500 list, and senior AJ Baker was named in the 3,000 steeplechase.
 
All-Region status is awarded to the top five individuals in each event and the top three relays. For the West, those marks are taken from the GNAC, California Collegiate Athletic Association, and Pacific West Conference.
 




UP, UP, UP FOR GROSS
May has been nothing short of magnificent in the javelin for Katy Gross. The Falcon senior gradually had been improving her performance throughout the season, going from 126-8 ½ at the end of March to 135-1 ¼ by the end of April.
 
But on May 4 in the Shannon-Foreman Invitational at Husky Track, she threw career-best marks of 137-5 and 137-6 in a span of 15 minutes. The following Friday at the GNAC Championships in Monmouth, Ore., she was even better – two full feet better, to be precise – throwing 139-6 ¾, essentially securing her place at nationals.
 
DOWN, DOWN, DOWN FOR QUATIER
Emily Quatier's marks in the 800 are going the opposite direction of Gross – down – but that's a good thing. After her initial effort of 2 minutes, 15.80 seconds on March 30 at the Club Northwest Spring Break Open in West Seattle – fast enough to make the GNAC provisional qualifying list – she ran that race every week for the next four weeks.
 
That's a tough assignment for any distance runner, but Quatier thrived on it, getting faster every time: 2:15.17 in the rain and cold in Tacoma, 2:14.70 in the wind in Spokane, 2:13.16 under sunny skies in Azusa, Calif., and 2:11.71 on a pleasant evening in Bellingham. The Azusa time put her onto the NCAA provisional list and the Bellingham clocking moved her up high enough that she ultimately made the cut for NCAAs.
 
WORTHEN: ONE CAREER, TWO CENTURIES
Or, two century marks, to be precise. With her three victories and two third-place finishes, Ali Worthen finished with 115 career points in the GNAC Championships. That tied the record set by former Western Oregon star and current GNAC assistant commissioner Bridget Johnson (2003-06), and made Worthen the third woman in conference history to tally 100 or more. (No male athlete has hit 100.) What's more, she did it in just three meets: In 2009 and 2010, Worthen was injured.
 
Her final haul: seven championships, two second places, three thirds, two fifths, and one sixth. Additionally, she factored into 30 relay points, running on three victorious 4x100 squads.
 
But Worthen is no stranger to triple-digit scoring. In 2012, she became the first GNAC athlete, male or female, to top 100 points for the conference indoor meet. She finished that portion of her career with 110 points and seven titles.
 
PRECEDENT IN PUEBLO
SPU already knows what it's like to have athletes on the awards stand at the ThunderBowl. Last year, Brittany Aanstad stood on the top step after winning the javelin title with a toss of 168 feet, 1 inch.
 
Ali Worthen got there, as well, working her way up from fifth place on the final day of the heptathlon to snare the bronze medal.
 
THREE-FERS
For most athletes, getting to one NCAA competition in any year is an accomplishment. But three of the Falcons in Colorado will be experiencing their third nationals in 2012-13.
 
McKayla Fricker, Jasmine Johnson, and Lynelle Decker were all part of the cross country team that ran in Joplin, Mo., last November. All three factored into SPU's scoring: Fricker was the No. 2 Falcon across the finish line, Decker was No. 4, and Johnson was No. 5.
 
At NCAA indoors in March, Fricker ran to an All-American fourth-place finish in the 800, and was part of the All-American sixth-place 4x400 relay, as was Johnson. Decker competed in the 800-meter preliminaries.
 
POLLING PLACE
After climbing the ladder for three straight weeks, the SPU women remained in the No. 13 spot in this week's U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association national rankings. Seattle Pacific had been ranked No. 23 as recently as April 22.
 
On the final West Region list, released May 14 after the GNAC Championships, the Falcons advanced two places. Grand Canyon finished on top, and Alaska Anchorage was the highest-ranked GNAC team at No. 4.

Unlike most other sports, the USTFCCCA lists are not determined by voting from coaches. They are based strictly on performance.
 
UP NEXT
Season over. Competition resumes in September with the start of the cross country season, and indoor track gets going again next January.