THE SCHEDULE:                Seattle Pacific at Doris Heritage Track Festival
                                                Saturday, March 24, 2018
                                                West Seattle Stadium / Seattle, Wash.
                                                Field events, 10:00 a.m.
                                                Track events, 12 noon
                                                Live results        No live Webcast
 

        Weekly release, with updated performance lists (PDF) 
          Meet information (PDF)
          FINAL meet schedule (PDF)
        Meet program (PDF)
        Preliminary heat sheets (PDF)
 
SEATTLE – Home. It's a place where the Seattle Pacific Falcons don't get to compete very often during the track and field season.
 
But home is where the competition is this week, as SPU prepares to host the Doris Heritage Track Festival.
 
The third annual edition of the meet is set for Saturday at West Seattle Stadium. The first field event is set for 10:00 a.m.; followed by half a dozen more field events at 11:30.
 
Races on the track begin at 12 noon. The final event is a coed 10,000 meters, set to begin at 3:15 p.m.
 
This is one of two Seattle-area meets for the Falcons, although it is the only one on the home schedule. Their other one is the Ken Shannon Invitational at the University of Washington's Husky Track on Saturday, May 6, to wind up the regular season.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Live results will be available throughout the day. The appropriate link can be found at the top of this story. The meet will not have a live Webcast.
 
DRESS IN LAYERS – WARM LAYERS
Remember the first Doris Heritage meet in 2016 when it was pleasant-enough day to shed jackets?
 
Those jackets are staying on this year – and they'll probably be heavy jackets, too.
 
The Saturday forecast calls for cloudy skies, a chance of some rain, and chilly. Temperatures will be coming off overnight lows in the mid 30s, and gradually will work their way up toward 50. The one plus is it's not expected to be windy.
 
SPLIT PERSONALITY
While most events will take place at West Seattle Stadium, the pole vault will be contested at Husky Track. The men start at 11:00 a.m., and the women follow 90 minutes later at 12:30 p.m. The reason for the different venue is because the stadium's new pole vault pits have not arrived and will not arrive in time for the meet.

 

 BREAKING IT IN
When the athletes entered in the men's 1500 meters step to the starting line at high noon, they will be part of the first official college race on the newly resurfaced West Seattle Stadium track.
 
The project began after last spring's track season and was completed at the end of September by the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department, which provided $950,000 to get it done.
 
One high school meet has taken place on the track prior to this weekend.
 
PARKING AND TICKETS
Fans won't need their wallets to attend the meet. Parking and admission are both free.
 
However, there is one caveat on parking: The stadium shares the lot with the adjacent West Seattle Golf Course. Although Saturday's forecast isn't particularly golf-friendly, some folks are still likely to be there wanting to get in an early-season round on the links. The best advice for getting a parking space is to arrive early.
 
Some extremely limited on-street parking is available adjacent to the stadium.
 
SALUTE TO A LEGEND
Saturday's meet is named in honor of Seattle distance running legend Doris Heritage, highly regarded as a pioneer for women's sports in general and women's running in particular. She won five straight international cross country titles, was a two-time Olympian, and coached track and cross country through four decades of service at Seattle Pacific University.

 

This meet has been part of the Seattle track and field calendar since 1989, Through the first 27 years, it was put on by Club Northwest and was known as the Spring Break Open. SPU took over operation of the meet in 2016, and it was known as the Doris Heritage Distance Festival for the past two years before becoming the Track Festival this spring.
 
This year's meet has expanded. Added to the card are the 100-meter dash, the 4x100 relay, and the triple jump. With that, track events now will include everything except the hurdles, and field events will include all except the discus.
 
SENIOR DAY AT THE TRACK
For the first time, Seattle Pacific track and field athletes will get to be part of a long-standing tradition by celebrating Senior Day.
 
The Falcons will honor their 10 senior athletes midway through the Doris Heritage Track Festival. The ceremony will begin at approximately 1:50 p.m. after SPU legend Heritage is introduced to the athletes, coaches, and fans.
 
A total of five senior men and five senior women will be saluted. On the men's side, it's Chris Bench, Miles Flett, Ben Halladay, Peyton Harris, and Brysten James. For the women, it will be Sophie Carroll, Mary Charleson, Becca Houk, Hailey Kettel, and Chynna Phan.
 
Senior Day / Night is celebrated annually at the season's final home contests for men's and women's soccer, men's and women's basketball, volleyball, and gymnastics. The Falcons do not host a home cross country meet, and the Heritage Festival is their only home track meet of the year.
 




SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- Every Falcon on the active roster is entered in at least one individual event, and most are entered in at least one relay.
-- In the first two editions of the Heritage Festival, six meet records have been set. Of those, five were rewritten last year: the women's 400, 1500, 3000 steeplechase, hammer, and the men's shot put.
-- Athletes from the University of Washington were responsible for four of those five records (all except the women's steeple).
-- Based on entry marks, records might be a bit harder to come by this year. Of the 30 individual events, just three – the women's 200-meter dash, the women's 1500, and the women's long jump – have entry marks better than the current meet record.
--The Falcons won seven events last year – five on the women's side and two on the men's.
 

-- Geneva Lehnert pulled off a women's triple, taking the high jump, long jump, and running the second leg on the victorious 4x400 relay.
-- That gives the SPU junior four wins altogether. She has captured the high jump at both Heritage meets.
 

-- Peyton Harris, now a senior, was part of two men's wins last year, capturing the men's long jump and running the third leg on the winning 4x400.
-- Harris has won the long jump both years and has factored into three wins altogether.
-- Other SPU winners last year were Chynna Phan in the women's 800 and Sammi Markham in the javelin. Joining Lehnert on the winning women's 4-by-4 were Kate Lilly, Hannah Calvert, and Kyra Brannan. With Harris on the men's 4-by-4 were Lazarus Scarbrough, David Choi, and Brysten James.
-- The Falcons posted two NCAA provisional qualifying marks at last year's meet: Phan in the 800 and Markham in the javelin. Markham graduated, and Phan is not doing the 800 this week, opting for the 1500 instead.
 
SCOUTING REPORT
After taking last weekend off following the NCAA indoor championships, distance runners Mary Charleson and Kate Lilly will make their spring debuts this week. Both are entered in the 1500 meters. Both are also entered on a 4.x400 relay.
 
 

In fact, the 1500 will be loaded with all of SPU's leading distance runners. Joining Charleson and Lilly will be the other five who ran in the NCAA West Regional cross country meet last November: seniors Chynna Phan and Hailey Kettel, sophomores Alyssa Foote and Katherine Walter, and freshman Dania Holmberg.
 
The three heptathletes who went second (Scout Cai), eighth (Kellie May) and 11^th (Renick Meyer) in Sacramento last Friday and Saturday are back this week doing … well, multiple events, although not all seven. Cai and May are entered in the 200, long jump and javelin; May also is penciled in for the triple jump. Meyer, the GNAC leader in the 100-meter dash, is entered in that, along with the high jump and long jump.
  
Doubling up in the sprints are senior Becca Houk, sophomore Brooke Benner, and freshman Julia Stepper, all in the 200 and 400.

Junior Geneva Lehnert will go after a third straight Heritage Festival high jump title. She's also in the long jump.
 
 

Senior Ben Halladay has not raced since last fall's GNAC cross country championships. He's ready to get his track season going and will step to the line in the 800 and 1500.

 

Most of SPU's West Regional men's cross country competitors – freshmen Shad Galloway, Royce Garcia and Elius Graff – will join him in the 1500. This will be Graff's third time at that distance. He opened the season with a 4:06.88 on March 3, then dropped to 4:03.88 a week later.

Senior Brysten James, and freshman  Ben Hansen, the Falcons' other two regional XC runner, areentered in the 800.
 
Since this meet doesn't have hurdles races, senior Peyton Harris will focus on the long jump. He also will race in the 200 and run on a relay.
 
MULTI-EVENT MARATHON FOR CAI
Last year, Scout Cai was the first Falcon to put her name onto the NCAA Division II provisional qualifying list. She did so in the heptathlon at the Hornet Invitational in Sacramento, Calif. Cai racked up 4,781 points.

 

One year later, it's Cai once again as the first SPU athlete to jump into the national picture. And once again, it was in the heptathlon at the Hornet Invitational, this time with 4,710 points.
 
What's more, Cai made provisional this year with just a few days of rest. On Saturday, March 10, she did the pentathlon at the NCAA indoor championships in Kansas. That's all five events on the same day, and she placed fifth to become an All-American.
 
Cai flew back to Seattle on Sunday the 11^th, then hopped a plane to Sacramento last Thursday, March 15. The first four events of the Hornet Invite heptathlon were last Friday, and the final there were on Saturday.
 
So, counting the pole vault Cai did on Friday the 9^th at nationals, that's 13 events, two plane rides totaling seven hours and covering nearly 2,600 miles (Kansas City back to Seattle, then Seattle down to Sacramento) and a two-hour drive from Pittsburg, Kansas back to the airport in KC.
 
SWEEPING THE SPRINTS … SO FAR, ANYWAY
If the early-season times are any kind of an indicator, Seattle Pacific has some definite speed on the track. In short: SPU athletes rank No. 1 in the three shortest races among their fellow Great Northwest Athletic Conference competitors.
 
 

Freshman Renick Meyer is atop two of those lists. Her 12.41 leads the 100-meter dash, although sophomore Marie Ries of Alaska Anchorage is virtually dead-even with her at 12.42.
 
The 200 also has Meyer on top. This time, it's a 1-2 combination with Falcons teammate Grace Bley. Meyer is at 25.15; Bley has a 25.28. SPU's Becca Houk and Julia Stepper rank No. 5 and No. 6, respectively.
 
Sophomore Lani Taylor has the top 400-meter dash time of 56.71, slightly more than half a second ahead of Anchorage's Vanessa Aniteye at 57.38.

 

Another sophomore, Alyssa Foote, has the leading time in the 1500 meters at 4:39.57, about six seconds ahead of Western Washington's Jane Barr (4:45.26).
 
Coming off last weekend's Hornet Invitational, SPU's Scout Cai, Kellie May, and Meyer are 1-2-3 in the heptathlon, led by Cai's 4,710 points.
 
Click on this link to see how all of the GNAC athletes stack up. Click on this link for a look at national NCAA D2 leaders.
 
POLLING PLACE
The Seattle Pacific women are No. 12 in the first set of national rankings as compiled by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
 
The Falcons, with 81.72 points, are one of 14 West Region teams in the national top 25. Sitting atop that list is San Francisco State with 199.72. The West has nine of the top 12 spots, and three of those are GNAC schools: No. 6 Concordia-Portland, No. 8 Central Washington, and No. 12 SPU.
 
In the season's first set of West Region rankings, the Falcon women are No. 8 with 170.85 points. San Francisco State is No. 1 with 289.49 points. The only other GNAC team on the West list is Central Washington, sitting No. 6 with 179.75 points.
 
UP NEXT
Seattle Pacific will be in two meets at opposite ends of the Pacific coast next Friday. A small group will head south for the San Francisco State Distance Carnival. Everyone else will go north, crossing the border into Canada for the UBC Open in Vancouver. The meet will take place at the Rashpal Dhillon oval on the UBC campus, with field events starting at 10:30 a.m. and track races at 11:00 a.m. Click on the UBC Open link above for driving directions and parking information.