Complete NCAA women's indoor entries (PDF)
 
SEATTLE – McKayla Fricker and Lynelle Decker are on their way to another NCAA national championship meet.
 
The Seattle Pacific runners have earned tickets to Winston-Salem, N.C., for next weekend's Division II indoor track and field finals. Both will compete in the 800 meters.
 
For Falcons senior Fricker (Canby, Ore.), this will be her third straight year in the indoor 800. Her previous two trips have ended with All-American finishes: fifth place 2:11.69 at Mankato, Minn., in 2012, and fourth last year in 2:10.76 at Birmingham, Ala.
 
Fricker comes as the No. 4 seed with a time of 2:10.53. The top four are bunched within one second of each other. Top-seeded Shawnee Carnett of Concord (W.V.) is at 2:09.52; No. 2 Sarah Sawatzky of Simon Fraser is at 2:10.05, and No. 3 Marissa Bongers of Nebraska-Kearney is at 2:10.17. Fricker's 2:10.53 is a converted time from the 2:09.04 she on Feb. 1 at the UW Invitational.
 
In addition to two previous indoor meets, Fricker has run in two NCAA cross country meets, and was at last year's NCAA outdoor finals in Pueblo, Colo., in the 800 and the 4x400 relay.
 
Sophomore Decker (Vancouver, Wash. / Mountain View HS) continues her string of competing at nationals for every season she has run at SPU: twice in cross country, once in outdoor track (the 1,500 last spring), and now twice at indoor track (both in the 800).
 
Decker comes in as the No. 12 seed with a 2:13.49. That's a conversion from her PR of 2:11.97 in last Saturday's Seattle Pacific Final Qualifier. In last year's nationals, Decker finished 15th last year at Birmingham in 2:13.06.
               
Barely missing out on a national trip was the Falcons' 4x400 relay. Kishia Mitchell, Tasia Baldwin, Jasmine Johnson, and Fricker posted a season-best time of 3:48.40 in the Final Qualifier last Saturday, which was the third-fastest mark in Great Northwest Athletic Conference history. They were in 11th place nationally as of Saturday evening, but two schools ran faster times on Sunday.
 
That left them in 13th, their converted time of 3:51.44 just five-hundredths of a second behind No. 12 Findlay (Ohio). But only the minimum of 12 relays were accepted this season. Last year, 14 teams were accepted, and the SPU contingent of Mitchell, Johnson, Fricker, and now-graduated Emily Quatier went to Alabama as the 14th seed. They wound up an All-American sixth.
 
A maximum of 270 athletes of each gender are allowed into the meet. After the minimums are met (16 for individual events, 14 for the pentathlon and heptathlon, and 12 relays), officials add entrants at their discretion in various events to reach 270 competitors. Although most events have more than the minimums, no event is guaranteed that.