THE SCHEDULE:         California Multis
                                       Wednesday-Thursday, March 23-24, 2011
                                       Edwards Stadium and Goldman Field/Berkeley, Calif.
                                       First events 8:30 a.m.
                                       Live results

                                      Stanford Invitational
                                      Friday-Saturday, March 25-26, 2011
                                      Cobb Track and Angell Field/Stanford, Calif.
                                      First events 9 a.m. both days
                                      Live results        Meet information

                                     Club Northwest Spring Break Open            
                                     Saturday, March 26, 2011
                                     Husky Stadium/Seattle, Wash.
                                     First event 10 a.m.
                                     No live results        Meet information        Schedule


        Weekly release, with updated performance lists (PDF)

SEATTLE – From the shores of Lake Washington to San Francisco Bay, Seattle Pacific track and field athletes will be performing all along the West Coast this week.

A select group of Falcons is in California for the prestigious Stanford Invitational. That meet features competitors from all three NCAA divisions (several Pacific-10 schools are among the D-1 entrants), and includes SPU's Great Northwest Athletic Conference rivals Central Washington, Alaska Anchorage, Western Oregon and Northwest Nazarene.





Seattle Pacific's talented corps of multi-event athletes will compete at the California Multis. The Falcons will have four women – including last spring's 1-3-4 GNAC finishers Crystal Sims (Portland, Ore.), Jennifer Pike (Vancouver, Wash./Skyview HS) and Katy Gross (Everett, Wash./Cascade HS), along with junior Ali Worthen (Coos Bay, Ore.) in the heptathlon. Sophomore Nate Johnson (Boise, Idaho), winner of the GNAC indoor heptathlon in February, will be in the men's decathlon.

Finally, those Falcons not in California will be in action close to home at the Club Northwest Spring Break Invitational. That meet starts at 10 a.m. Saturday at Husky Stadium.





SPEAKING OF THE FALCONS
One of the marks of a good athlete – or a group of good ones – is the ability to take something that didn't quite work out and turn it into something positive. Coach Karl Lerum is seeing that so far this spring.

“While it would have been great to have some more kids qualify to get into that national indoor meet … the up side is the kids are a little more prepared and we're a little healthier to go into the early portion of the outdoor season,” Lerum said.

The results are speaking for themselves, with numerous individual victories and a growing list of GNAC qualifiers through the first three meets of the season.

“I'm just optimistic about the level they're competing at right now,” Lerum said. “I'm not overly surprised that we're having some of the success that we've had. Give us another couple of months, and we can put together something special in some of these event areas.

“Coaches and athletes have to remember it's a long process,” Lerum added, “and you have to work the process – and hopefully enjoy the trip as you go.”

SCOUTING THE STANFORD INVITATIONAL
If momentum counts for anything, then Seattle Pacific is bringing plenty of it to Stanford. Of the dozen Falcons entered, nine of them posted season-best marks in their respective events last week at either the Oregon Preview in Eugene or at the Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open in Portland.

That list includes freshman Kishia Mitchell (Puyallup, Wash./Rogers HS) with her 25.83 in the 200 at Oregon. If she can get that down to 25.77 or faster, she'll move from the provisional to the automatic qualifying list for the GNAC Championships.

In fact, Mitchell will be the busiest SPU athlete at Stanford. She's also entered in the 400 and is slated to join Crystal Sims, sophomore Emily Quatier (Portland, Ore.) and freshman BryAnne Wochnick (Portland, Ore.) on the 4x400 relay.

Wochnick will be in the open 400 off a season-best 59.07 at the Oregon Preview, a time that's just six-hundredths of a second away from GNAC automatic.

Junior Terra Schumacher (Sublimity, Ore.) matched her 2011 best of 15.3 seconds in the 100 hurdles in Eugene, and, in her first outdoor pole vault competition in an SPU uniform, cleared 11 feet, 1¾ inches (3.40 meters). She has identical season- and career-best times of 15.3 in her last two 100-meter hurdles races and will take another crack at the GNAC automatic mark of 15.19.

Juniors Brittany Aanstad (Lake Stevens, Wash./Lake Stevens HS) and Carly Andrews (Issaquah, Wash./Issaquah HS) are already NCAA provisional qualifiers in the javelin. Both improved their season-best marks last weekend at Oregon, with Aanstad placing second at 143 feet, 5 inches (43.71 meters) and Andrews throwing a career-best 133-9 (40.76 meters) for seventh.

All three SPU men entered at Stanford logged their best performances of 2011 last week. Sophomore Nate Seely (Lynden, Wash./Lynden HS) went 1:55.94 in the 800 at the Oregon Preview. At that same meet, sophomore Ryan Endresen (Portland, Ore.) went 54.89 in the 100 hurdles to jump onto the GNAC automatic qualifying list and come within a quarter-second of his career-best 54.65. And freshman Dusty Duncan (Lynden, Wash./Lynden HS) logged a 49.95 in the 400 at the Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open, one-tenth away from GNAC automatic.

SCOUTING THE CLUB NORTHWEST SPRING BREAK OPEN
Falcon junior distance star Natty Plunkett (Bellevue, Wash./Newport HS) will make her 2011 outdoor debut when she competes in the 1,500 meters. She'll be joined by freshman Robyn Zeidler (Wayzata, Minn.), who ran in the two season-opening cross country dual meets in Fairbanks last September, then was injured and hasn't competed since then.

Among those competing on the men's side is junior newcomer Ray Zoellick (Bothell, Wash./Cedar Park Christian HS) in the pole vault. Last week at the Oregon Preview, Zoellick added 19¼ inches to his previous season best in pole vault, clearing 14-1¼ to bring him within half an inch of a GNAC automatic qualifying mark. Sophomore thrower Billy Martin, already a GNAC provisional qualifier for hammer and javelin, will try to add the shot put to his list.

FALCON REPLAY: SPU AT OREGON PREVIEW
Ali Worthen and Katy Gross both tied their personal best in the high jump on Saturday – and the same height, at that. But Seattle Pacific junior Worthen got there first, and that ultimately gave her first place at the Oregon Preview. Worthen cleared 5 feet, 5 ¾ inches (1.67 meters) on her initial try, and Falcon sophomore Gross made it over the bar on her third attempt, thus swinging the tiebreaker in Worthen's favor at Hayward Field in Eugene.

Sophomore Ryan Endresen had yet another strong run in the 400-meter hurdles for the SPU men, winding up third in 54.89 seconds. That's now just less than a full second away from the NCAA provisional time of 53.90. Junior Ray Zoellick exceeded his outdoor PR in the pole vault by more than a foot and a half. Zoellick cleared 14 feet, 1¼ inches (4.30 meters), way beyond the 12-6 he went on March 12 at the PLU Invitational.

FALCON REPLAY: SPU AT L&C SPRING BREAK OPEN
Falcons freshman Evan Bradford (Santa Barbara, Calif.) ran his way into the collegiate win column. Just one week after taking second in his inaugural college outdoor 1,500-meter race, Bradford (Santa Barbara, Calif.) posted a convincing first-place finish in the 1,500 at the Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open. He went the distance on the track at L&C's Griswold Stadium in 4 minutes, 0.5 seconds – way ahead of runner up Bryan Cobb from Corvallis Running Project, who logged a 4:06.07.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN FAST FOR PIXLER
Former Seattle Pacific star Jessica Pixler made her NCAA Division I outdoor debut with the University of Colorado last Saturday, breezing to victory in the 1,500 meters at the Potts Invitational in Boulder. Pixler won in 4 minutes, 29.55 seconds. Wyoming's Christine Nelson was a distant second in 4:47.91.

Pixler won 12 NCAA Division II titles at Seattle Pacific, with three of those in the outdoor 1,500. She is at Colorado pursuing graduate work and has this one season of outdoor eligibility remaining because she missed her sophomore outdoor season at SPU with a back injury.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS FOR WORTHEN
As a Seattle Pacific freshman in 2009, Ali Worthen was on the brink of a top-three finish in the heptathlon at the UC Davis Multi-Meet. She was in fourth place with only the meet-ending 800-meter run still to go, but then had to scratch out of it after sustaining what then was thought to be a minor hamstring injury in the long jump.

It turned out to be the start of a very long healing process. Worthen never competed again that year. She gradually worked her way back, winning the hep at the Ralph Vernacchia Invite in Bellingham last April. This winter, she added her second GNAC indoor titles in the high jump and long jump.

This week, she's returning to the Golden State – albeit it to Berkeley this time – for the California Multis. Worthen, back in good health, will be aiming to complete all seven events this time, almost two years to the day (March 26, 2009) when that hamstring injury first happened.

Through Wednesday's first day of competition, Worthen was in fifth place in her group and seventh overall, but well within striking range of a top-5 finish.

FAMILY MATTERS
There was no shortage of Simses at the Oregon Preview last Saturday in Eugene. Seattle Pacific senior Crystal Sims was there, taking fifth place in the long jump, and also competing in the 100-meter hurdles. Younger sister Catherine Sims, a sophomore at Concordia-Portland also was in Eugene, placing third in the 400 meters. Right ahead of Catherine in the 400 was her and Crystal's cousin NyEma Sims. She finished second in that race, four-tenths of a second in front of Catherine, and also was third in the 200.

NyEma was a one-time Seattle Pacific athlete, and still owns the school indoor record for the 60-meter dash that she set in 2007. She is the sister of SPU women's basketball star Nyesha Sims.

BATTING 1.000 FOR PERSONAL BESTS
Different sport, but same idea: Falcon junior Carly Andrews and Heidi Laabs-Johnson, and sophomore Trinna Miranda are a perfect 2 for 2 so far when it comes to setting PRs.

Andrews came into the outdoor season with an all-time best of 132 feet, 5 inches (40.36 meters) in the javelin. At the season-opening UPS Outdoor Preview on March 5 in Tacoma, she improved that to 133-2 (40.59), then upped it to 133-9 (40.76) last weekend at the Oregon Preview.

Miranda's longest triple jump coming into 2010 was 35-6 (10.82 meters). She immediately bettered that to 36-0 (10.97) at UPS, then obliterated that mark last weekend in Eugene with a leap of 37-0½ (11.29).

Laabs-Johnson (Salt Lake City), out for track for the first time after playing soccer at Seattle Pacific, also has gotten steadily faster in the 1,500 meters. After establishing her initial time of 4:58.06 at UPS, she dropped to 4:56.19 a week later at the PLU Invitational, then clocked 4:55.10 last week in Eugene.

NATIONALLY SPEAKING
--SPU juniors Brittany Aanstad and Carly Andrews are both among the early-season NCAA Division II top 10 for the javelin. Aanstad currently is No. 4 with her throw of 143-5 (43.71 meters). Andrews is at No. 8 with her mark of 133-9 (40.76).
--Junior Terra Schumacher is No. 7 in the pole vault at 11-1¾ (3.40 meters).
--Junior Ali Worthen and sophomore Katy Gross are tied for eighth in the high jump at 5-5¾ (1.67 meters).
--Freshman Alli Cutting (Sequim, Wash./Sequim HS) is No. 8 in the 1,500 at 4:42.20.
--The top early-season national rank for the SPU men is sophomore Ryan Endresen, who is No. 18 in the 400-meter hurdles at 54.89 seconds.

MITCHELL IS NO. 1 – TIMES TWO
A week ago, Seattle Pacific did not have any GNAC leaders. Now, the Falcons have a few – and freshman Kishia Mitchell has two of them. Mitchell has the top times in the 100 meters (12.51) and the 200 (25.83), both from last week's Oregon Preview in Eugene.

Also atop the GNAC pile this week is sophomore Emily Quatier in the 400 (57.84), along with Ali Worthen and Katy Gross in the high jump (5-5¾ / 1.67 meters).

And, while Brittany Aanstad ranks No. 4 nationally in the javelin, she is just No. 2 in the GNAC. Western Oregon sophomore Amanda Schumaker has thrown 145-10 (44.45 meters) to lead the conference and sit No. 2 in the nation.

Click on this link to see how Seattle Pacific and GNAC athletes stack up.

TEAM RANKINGS ON THE WAY
Seattle Pacific and the rest of the NCAA Division II programs will find out next week where they fit into the national picture when the preseason rankings are released by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

Rather than a customary coaches poll, these rankings will be computer-generated and based on returning athletes whose best marks from 2010 meet or beat standards established by the USTFCCCA. The preseason list will be released on Tuesday, March 29. The first regular-season list, along with the first regional rankings, are due out on Tuesday, April 5.

UP NEXT
All of the Falcons are back home next week for the JD Shotwell Invitational on Saturday, April 2, at the University of Puget Sound's Baker Stadium in Tacoma. The first events begin at 10 a.m.

After the Shotwell, three other nearby meets remain on Seattle Pacific's schedule. The Western Washington Twilight is set for Civic Stadium in Bellingham on Friday, April 22, and SPU also is set to take part in the Saint Martin's Invitational in Lacey on Saturday, April 30. The big finale is the Ken Foreman-Ken Shannon Invitational on Saturday, May 7 at Husky Stadium.

AROUND THE GNAC
Click on this link for a look at news, schedules and results from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.