THE SCHEDULE:        Seattle Pacific at Hornet Invitational
                                                Friday-Saturday, March 17-18, 2017
                                                FRIDAY: Heptathlon 1:30 p.m.
                                                SATURDAY: Heptathlon 9:45 a.m.,
                                                                   field 9:30 a.m., track 10:15 a.m.
                                                Hornet Stadium / Sacramento, Calif.
                                                No live Webcast        Live results
  
                                         Seattle Pacific at Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open
                                                Saturday, March 18, 2017
                                                Field 9:00 a.m., track 11:00 a.m.
                                                Griswold Stadium / Portland, Ore.
                                                No live Webcast or live results


        Weekly release, with updated season performance lists (PDF)
        Hornet Invitational meet info, with schedule (PDF)
        L&C Spring Break Open schedule (PDF)
 
SEATTLE – The Seattle Pacific Falcons are taking their early-season track and field show on the road to two different states this week.
 
A select group of sprinters and field event specialists – including the multi-event trio of Scout Cai, Brooke Benner, and Geneva Lehnert – will head to California for the Hornet Invitational at Sacramento State. Friday will be about the first half of the heptathlon, and then everyone will get to compete in their specialties on Saturday.
 
The rest of the Falcons will head to Oregon for the Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open. Competition at Griswold Stadium on the L&C campus in the southwest part of Portland begins at 9:00 a.m. for field events and 11 a.m. on the track.
 
After the season-opening Ed Boitano / Puget Sound Invitational two weeks ago in Tacoma, the Falcons (and almost all other schools) took a break from outdoor competition last week to focus on the NCAA national indoor championships.
 
But from here through mid May, every Saturday (and even a few Fridays) on the calendar is filled.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Neither meet will have a live Webcast. However, live results will be available both days from the Hornet Invitational. The appropriate link is at the top of this story.
 
AT LEAST IT'LL FEEL LIKE SPRING IN SAC
After training in less-than-ideal conditions pretty much every day for most of the last several weeks, the SPU group competing in California actually will be able to enjoy some warmer weather for a couple of days. The forecast in the Sacramento area calls for mostly sunny on Friday, with highs pushing up toward the mid 70s. The clouds will be back on Saturday, along with the possibility of some showers, but temps will still be in the 60s.
 
Those heading to Portland won't find much relief from what they're getting in Seattle. The outlook is for periods of rain, with highs heading into the mid 50s.
 
DORIS HERITAGE MEET SET FOR MARCH 25
Seattle Pacific will host the second Doris Heritage Distance Festival next Saturday, March 25. Once again, the meet will be at West Seattle Stadium. Competition is set to begin at 10:00 a.m. on the field and 12 noon on the track.
  The meet is named in honor of Heritage, a pioneer in women's sports, and sometimes referred to as the First Lady of American distance running. She won five straight international cross country titles, was a two-time Olympian, and at one time owned every American record from 440 yards to a mile.
 
Washington-based GNAC schools, plus others from nearby, are among the expected participants.
 
Heritage will be on hand to welcome the competitors and she will be invited to fire the starting gun for the 1,500-meter races, the first of which is scheduled for 12 noon.

 

SCOUTING THE HORNET INVITATIONAL
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect about this meet for the Falcons will be the heptathlon, with freshmen Scout Cai (Colfax, Wash. / Colfax HS) and Brooke Benner (Naches, Wash. / Naches Valley HS) and sophomore Geneva Lehnert (Eugene, Ore.).
 
Those three – in that exact order – claimed gold, silver, and bronze in the pentathlon at last month's GNAC indoor championship meet. They were separated by just 88 points, from Cai's 3,499 to Benner's 3,461 to Lehnert's 3,411, all of which beat the NCAA provisional qualifying standard of 3,285.
 
This week, they'll do seven events instead of five, with the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, and 200-meter dash on Friday, followed by the long jump, javelin, and 800-meter run on Saturday. Based on their marks from indoors and the first outdoor meet (all three did the 100 hurdles and the javelin on March 4 in Tacoma), Cai projects out to be in the 4,600-point range, Benner in the 4,400s, and Lehnert in the 4,300s. The NCAA provisional minimum in 4,442; last year's final qualifier for nationals got in with 4,951.
 
Senior Kyra Brannan (Kennewick, Wash. / Kamiakin HS) will take aim at the 19-foot mark in the long jump, having gotten there once last spring outdoors, and once this winter indoors. She's also in the 100-meter dash. The Falcons are loading up a 4x100 relay, with Becca Houk, Cheryl Hong, Brannan, and freshman Lani Taylor.
 
Junior Peyton Harris (Boise, Idaho), coming off a 15.68 in the 110 hurdles at UPS two weeks ago, is setting his sights on an even better time, with the expected better conditions. He didn't long jump in Tacoma, but will this week, aiming to meet or beat the mark of 23-5 ½ that won him the GNAC outdoor title last May. Senior Justin Ramsey takes aim at a sub-50 time in the 400-meter dash, his best being 49.86 last April at Simon Fraser.
 
SCOUTING THE L&C SPRING BREAK OPEN
Senior distance runner Hannah Calvert decided last spring that she was going to focus on the 3,000-meter steeplechase this year, and she'll get her first chance on Saturday. Calvert (Enumclaw, Wash. / Enumclaw HS) placed eighth at GNAC with an 11:22.74. Junior Hailey Kettel (Edmonds, Wash. / Edmonds-Woodway HS), who took her first try at the steeple two weeks ago and broke 12 minutes, gets another crack at it.
 
The 1,500 will include Falcon freshmen Alyssa Foote (Beaverton, Ore.), Kate Lilly (Renton, Wash. / Hazen HS), Katherine Walter (Brier, Wash. / Mountlake Terrace HS).
 
The SPU men's distance crew also will focus on the 1,500, with juniors Ben Halladay (Mukilteo, Wash. / Kamiak HS) and Brysten James (Warsaw, Ind.), and senior Joseph Walker (Auburn, Wash. / Jefferson HS) all entered. The Falcons also have multiple entries in the 100 and 200.
 
SCOUTING THE 2017 FALCONS
Three in a row. That's what the Seattle Pacific women have in mind for the 2017 outdoor season.
 
With another indoor championship in their collective pocket, the Falcons will be out to make it three straight outdoor crowns. They certainly have become very adept at handling close calls, having won the 2016 outdoor title by five points ahead of Central Washington. Then in February, SPU came from an underdog position to edge Simon Fraser by 3½ points for the indoor championship.
 
On the one hand, the Falcons lost seven athletes who were top-8 placers at last year's GNACs, including Female Athlete of the Meet and three-event champion Maliea Luquin (heptathlon, long jump, 100 hurdles), and individual champions Jahzelle Ambus (400) and Lynelle Decker (1,500).
 
On the other hand, they have 10 of those top-8 placers back in the fold.

 

Leading that group is multi-talented senior Kyra Brannan, who contributed key points in four events at GNAC, taking fourth in the 100-meter dash, fifth in the 200, running on the third-place 4x100 relay and the fourth-place 4x400. She won the long jump title as a sophomore in 2015, and is coming off winning the GNAC indoor long jump crown this winter.
 
Also among those 10 are six with national meet experience. Junior Chynna Phan is a two-time indoor All-American on the indoor distance medley relay. This year's All-American DMR also included junior Mary Charleson, who came within one spot in the 1,500 and two spots in the 5,000 of making outdoor nationals last spring. Senior Cheryl Hong was part of last season's indoor All-American 4x400 relay.

 

Also with NCAA credentials are senior Hannah Calvert (cross country), junior Becca Houk (indoor track), and sophomore Geneva Lehnert (high jump in both indoor and outdoor track as a freshman). And, although she wasn't a top-8 placer at GNAC last spring, Sarah Macdonald is having an outstanding senior year. She led off the distance medley relay at nationals for her first All-American honor, and was SPU's front runner at the West Regional cross country meet this past November.
 
The pole vaulting tandem of senior Michaella Kahns and sophomore Emma Lambert are back. Kahns took the outdoor crown in 2015 and was second last year, with Lambert third.

 

A talented crop of freshman has come aboard. Among them is Lani Taylor, last year's Washington state high school champion in the 400 meters for medium-sized schools. She ran the 400 leg on the distance medley at NCAAs, so is already an All-American. Scout Cai won back-to-back Washington state small-school pole vault titles, and won the GNAC indoor pentathlon. Brooke Benner was second in the pentathlon, part of a 1-2-3 SPU finish (along with Lehnert), and came up big in the triple jump at conference.

 

Juniors Peyton Harris and Ben Halladay lead the way for the men's team. Harris won the long jump championship by a quarter of an inch last spring with a personal-best performance of 23 feet, 5 ½ inches. He also scored in the 110-meter hurdles (7th).
 
Halladay was the No. 1 runner for most of last fall on the cross country team.
 
Also giving a boost on the distance side is sophomore Jesse Phan, who has proven to be a solid 800-meter runner.
 
Senior Justin Ramsey returns in the 400 meters. He made it into the GNAC finals last spring, placing 8th.
 
AN ALL-AMERICAN INDOOR FINISH
 

Some familiar names are missing from Saturday's outdoor lineups, but there's a good reason for that. Senior Sarah Macdonald and juniors Chynna Phan and Mary Charleson are taking the weekend off after helping the Falcons race to All-American honors in the distance medley relay at last week's NCAA Division II indoor championships.

Macdonald (Tucson, Ariz.), Phan (Bellingham, Wash. / Mt. Baker HS), and Charleson (Mill Creek, Wash. / Henry M. Jackson HS) along with freshman Lani Taylor (Seattle / West Seattle HS) helped the Falcons make the awards podium and All-American with an eighth-place finish for their 4,000 meters' worth of work in Birmingham, Ala. Coming in as the 12th seed among the 13 teams with a time of 11 minutes, 42.22 seconds, Seattle Pacific finished in 11:36.02.
 
The All-American award was the first for Macdonald, Taylor, and Charleson. It was the second for Phan, who ran the 800-meter leg on last year's fifth-place national team in Kansas.
 
Taylor is slated to compete this weekend. She is entered in the 200 and 400, and is on the 4x100 relay at the Hornet Invitational in Sacramento.
 
MADAM PRESIDENT
 

If you want something done, ask a busy person. Keana Fine certainly qualifies as one of those.
 
And her life is about to get even busier.
 
A sophomore from Yakima in Eastern Washington, Fine has been elected as Seattle Pacific's student body president for the 2017-18 academic year. Results of the voting by SPU students were announced last Thursday.
 
When she's not running on the track for the Falcons (she is entered in the 800 meters at Lewis & Clark on Saturday), Fine is focusing on her studies as a computer engineering major.
 
 

HOOPIN' IT UP
For the second straight meet to start the outdoor campaign, the SPU men will be getting some crossover help from the basketball team.
 
At the Ed Boitano / Puget Sound Invitational on March 4, senior Chris Bench was in uniform, and did the 100-meter dash and the long jump. He clocked 13.36 for the former, and was measured at 16 feet, 4 ½ inches in the latter.
 
This week, Olivier-Paul Betu is in the lineup. The native of Montreal, Canada, started 27 of 28 games for the Falcons this winter. He did track during his senior year (2011-12) at Worcester Academy in Massachusetts, placing third in the long jump (20 feet, 3 ¾ inches) and 10th in the 100-meter dash (11.97 seconds) at the New England Prep School Track Association meet. Betu is entered in those two events for the Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open.
 
QUALIFYING MARKS LOOK FAMILIAR
Seattle Pacific athletes with aspirations of making it to Florida in May for the NCAA Division II national meet will still need some big marks to get there, whether on the stopwatch or on the measuring tape.
 
But, with just one exception, those marks won't need to be any bigger than last year.
 
That's because of the 42 total events – 21 for each gender – only two qualifying marks changed from 2016 to 2017. One is the women's 3K steeplechase, in which it will take a 10:21.33 (down from 10:27.15) to become an automatic qualifier. The other is the women's 200, with a 24.53 required to make the provisional list, down from last year's 24.54.
 
A handful of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference qualifying marks did change. But those aren't quite as significant as in the past. Last year, the GNAC eliminated provisional qualifying standards. Instead, the top 20 athletes in each event, as listed in the national database, will qualify for the conference championships in May at Western Oregon University in Monmouth.