Complete women's results
Complete men's results
WOMEN'S PHOTO GALLERY
MEN'S PHOTO GALLERY
SEATTLE -- Melissa Peaslee is believing again.
Clearing ever-higher heights will do that for a pole vaulter.
The Seattle Pacific junior flew a season-best 11 feet, 9 3/4 inches at the UW Indoor Open on Sunday, high enough to put her onto the NCAA Division II indoor track provisional qualifying list.
Peaslee (Fox Island, Wash./Gig Harbor HS) is still reaching for the 12 feet, 9 inches that she cleared indoors as a freshman to claim the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship.
But between a back injury that she has dealt with for nearly two years and a shot to her confidence after not clearing the opening height at last spring's NCAA outdoor championships, Peaslee has been hovering closer to the ground than she would like.
On Sunday, she left the ground a little farther below her in beating the 11-6 provisional qual standard for nationals.
“I haven't jumped this high in over a year,” a beaming Peaslee said. “I no-heighted at nationals last year, and I lost all the confidence I had built up. But I've been improving my height every meet and I've been doing lots of practice and visualization.”
Her confidence clearly boosted by Sunday's performance, Peaslee is visualizing her career-best mark as she eyes this coming Saturday's GNAC Championships, for which she already was an automatic qualifier. That meet is set for Jackson's Track at the Idaho Sports Complex in Nampa.
“I want to go 12-9 at conference. I think that's perfectly within reach,” Peaslee said.
As for the lingering effects of the back injury, “I'm still dealing with it. I'm definitely feeling it,” Peaslee said. “But I've got to push past it.”.
While Peaslee was the only Falcon to join an NCAA qualifying list on Sunday, several teammates assured themselves of a berth in the GNACs.
Among the seven SPU athletes to join the automatic qualifying list for conference was sophomore Alison Worthen (Coos Bay, Ore.). Worthen, the defending GNAC high jump and long jump champion, assured herself a berth in the former by clearing 5-5 on Sunday. She also got onto the provisional long jump qualifying list for conference by going 16-3¼.
This weekend marked Worthen's first action in an SPU uniform since she injured a hamstring at an outdoor multi-event meet late last March.
Falcon freshmen Katy Gross (Everett, Wash./Cascade HS) and Kelly Jenkins (Hillsboro, Ore.) and sophomore Michaela Caldwell (Marysville, Wash./Marysville-Pilchuck HS) moved out of the provisional and into the automatic qualifying group for GNACs. Gross made it in the high jump (5-5), Jenkins in the long jump (17-4½), and Caldwell in the pole vault (10-10).
SPU junior Crystal Sims, in her first try at the 60 meters this season, posted an automatic GNAC qualifying time of 8.11. She already is on the provisional list in the 200, 400, high jump and long jump.
Sophomore Lisette Peterson (Eugene, Ore.) earned an automatic spot in the 60 meters (8.25) and provisional berths in the 200 (26.76) and 400 (1:03.62).
Freshmen Amanda Alvarez (Vancouver, Wash./Columbia River HS) and Trinna Miranda (Tigard, Ore.), both on the GNAC automatic list in one event, each made it two. Miranda already is in the triple jump and on Sunday clinched a berth in the long jump, going 17 feet, 1½ inches. Miranda did likewise, also going 17-1½ in the long to add to her previously secured spot in the triple.
Alvarez won the triple jump on Sunday at 36-7 3/4, although she has gone as far as 38-4.
Seattle Pacific senior Chad Meis (Renton, Wash./Seattle Christian HS), a GNAC automatic and NCAA provisional mile qualifier, added a GNAC automatic spot in the 800 with a 1:56.08.
The Falcons had three other women and one man make the conference provisional list: senior Jocelyn Charette (Lakewood, Wash./Curtis HS) in the triple jump, freshman Emily Quatier (Portland, Ore.) in the 200 at 26.83, freshman Kelsey Brown (Colorado Springs, Colo.) in the 800 at 2:23.09, and sophomore Nathanael Sleight (Bellevue, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS) in the 800 at 2:00.27. Quatier already had a GNAC automatic time in the 60-meter dash.
Charette is better known for her starring role on the SPU women's soccer team. She is turning out for college track for the first time.
