Complete Mt. SAC running results
Complete Mt. SAC field results
Complete Bryan Clay Invitational results
WALNUT, Calif. -- One school record -- and one conference record -- wasn't enough.
The Seattle Pacific Falcons broke two of each on Friday.
Melissa Peaslee hit new pole vault high in the afternoon, then Jessica Pixler took the stopwatch to new lows in the 1,500 meters in the evening at the prestigious Mt. SAC Relays.
Senior distance star Pixler (Sammamish, Wash./Eastlake HS) finished the elite-level 1,500 meter invitational in 4 minutes, 11.06 seconds -- fourth-fastest in the world so far this year. And while she had to settle for second place after Katie Follett from the University of Washington surged past her in the final 100 meters to win in 4:10.66 (second-fastest in the world for 2010), Pixler nevertheless took down the previous SPU school record of 4:13.12, set in 1988 by Gitte Karlshoj.
That also broke her own conference record of 4:17.68, which she set last April in the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational at UCLA.
Peaslee (Fox Island, Wash./Gig Harbor HS), a junior, cleared 12 feet, 5½ inches to win her flight of the pole vault open event. That was 1½ inches higher than the previous SPU outdoor record of 12-4 set by Ally Studer in 2003. That mark by Studer also was the old GNAC record, which Western Washington's Christy Miller tied last year.
She also beat her previous outdoor best of 12-3½, set in 2008. Her all-time career best is an indoor clearance of 12-9. Prior to Friday's performance, her best this season was 11-11¾, set just last weekend in Spokane at The War III meet.
While some athletes just know when it's going to be a good day, Peaslee admitted that she didn't have any such intuition as she headed to Hilmer Lodge Stadium on Friday morning.
“When I woke this morning, I didn't think it was going to be like that,” she said. “I was feeling really heavy from the flight and everything. I loosened up a little, but this was a pleasant surprise.
“It was more of a mental win than a physical win,” Peaslee added. “It did a lot for my confidence.”
Added coach Karl Lerum, “It was nice conditions and she was feeling good, and she did what she is very capable of doing.”
Peaslee already was the Great Northwest Athletic Conference leader and an NCAA Division II provisional qualifier in the pole vault. She is now just six inches shy of the NCAA automatic mark of 12-11½. She took a shot at 12-9½ on Friday, which would have been her all-time best indoors or outdoors, but came up short.
“I was really close, but my poles were a little too small,” she said. “I just wasn't on the right pole at the right time.”
Pixler's 1,500 time, along with senior teammate Jane Larson's 4:23.05 logged at the Stanford Track & Field Invitational on March 26, gives SPU the top two spots in the NCAA Division II rankings for that event as of Friday night.
It's the second time in three weeks that Pixler has come up with a world-caliber performance. At that same Stanford meet on March 26, she won the 5,000 meters in 15:44.07, which then ranked fifth in the world.
It was just last Saturday that the current world-leading time of 2010 went into the books when Kenya's Ann Karindi Mwangi ran 4:09.41 in Kumamoto, Japan.
Larson won her section of the open 1,500 meters in 4 minutes, 26.54 seconds, placing her fourth overall. Senior teammate Kate Harline (Orem, Utah) logged a 4:42.62 for 66th overall.
SPU senior Latasha Essien (Portland, Ore.) made her 2010 outdoor debut with a strong run in the 100-meter dash, crossing the line in 12.35 seconds for a GNAC automatic qualifying time. That time also stands as the best in the conference so far this spring -- by the bare minimum one-hundredth of a second ahead of the 12.36 posted by Western Washington sophomore Joana Houplin on Thursday at the Cal State L.A. Twilight Open.
Senior Lisa Anderberg (Edmonds, Wash./Kamiak HS) ran fourth in her section and 14th overall in the 800 meters in 2:11.76.
In the Bryan Clay Invitational at nearby Azusa Pacific University, junior Crystal Sims (Portland, Ore.) ran a season- and SPU career-best time of 58.01 seconds in the 400 meters. That bettered her previous mark of 58.36, set just last weekend at War III in Spokane.
Seattle Pacific's only other competitor in that meet, sophomore Alison Worthen (Coos Bay, Ore.), cleared 5-3 in the high jump.
All of the Falcon women who are in California except for Peaslee are set to compete at the Beach Invitational in Cerritos on Saturday. The bulk of the SPU team, both men and women, will be at the Spike Arlt Invitational on the campus of Central Washington University in Ellensburg beginning at 9 a.m.
NCAA Women's Track & Field
Mt. SAC Relays
Friday, April 16, 2010
Walnut, Calif.
100 -- 1, Dominique' Maloy(Ariz. St.) 11.94 (11.933). SPU placer -- 28, Latasha Essien 12.35.
800 -- 1, Althea Chambers (Jamaica) 2:07.49. SPU placer -- 14, Lisa Anderberg 2:11.76.
1500 open -- 1, Laura Esther Galvan (Mexico) 4:25.20. SPU placers -- 4, Jane Larson 4:26.54; 66, Kate Harline 4:42.62.
1500 invitational -- 1, Katie Follett (Washington) 4:10.66. SPU placer -- 2, Jessica Pixler 4:11.06.
Pole vault -- 1, Melissa Peaslee (SPU) 12-5 1/2 (3.80m). No other SPU competitors.
