SEATTLE – The Seattle Pacific women's distance medley relay team of Jane Larson, Crystal Sims, Lisa Anderberg and Jessica Pixler, along with Falcons men's distance star Chad Meis, have earned their respective Great Northwest Athletic Conference Athlete of the Week awards for indoor track and field.

Falcon senior Larson (Fall City, Wash./Cedar Park Christian HS), junior Sims (Portland, Ore.), senior Anderberg (Edmonds, Wash./Kamiak HS) and senior Pixler (Sammamish, Wash./Eastlake HS) posted an NCAA Division II automatic qualifying time of 11 minutes, 32.23 seconds in the UW Indoor Preview at the Dempsey Indoor facility on the University of Washington campus.

That time was well below the NCAA Division II automatic standard of 11:47.90, and shattered the school and GNAC records. It would have placed second in last year's D-2 nationals. The previous Seattle Pacific and GNAC mark of 11:38.24 was set in 2008 by Larson, Latasha Essien, Anderberg and Pixler.

SPU senior Meis (Renton, Wash./Seattle Christian HS) set a school indoor mile record and posted an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 4:11.39 at the UW meet, giving him 12th place overall. Meis is back on the indoor track scene after taking last winter off to focus on outdoor training.

The Falcons have this week off. They return to action next Friday and Saturday, January 29 and 30 in the UW Invitational at Dempsey Indoor.

Also coming up next week is the second Falcon 5K. The race will take place at Green Lake on Jan. 30 at 10 a.m. Registration will be on site. Click on this link for a race brochure.