Complete Club NW Spring Break Open results (PDF)
        Complete Stanford Invitational results (PDF)

SEATTLE – When Ray Zoellick first decided he wanted to pole vault, his high track coach wasn't sure he was serious about it.

“Freshman year, I didn't really know what pole vaulting was, but I saw them doing some drills, and thought, 'That looks great,'” Zoellick recalled. “I told my coach I wanted to try it, and he thought it was funny because I was very small. As a freshman, I weighed 90 pounds and was 5-foot-something – not much.”

“But I started training and went from there.”

On Saturday morning in the Club Northwest Spring Break Open at Husky Stadium, Seattle Pacific junior Zoellick – who now stands almost 5-11 and weighs 140 -- went all the way to an outdoor personal best in the pole vault, clearing 14 feet, 5 1/4 inches (4.42 meters) to snare fourth place.

That makes him an automatic qualifier for the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships in May.

“I felt really good,” said Zoellick (Bothell, Wash./Cedar Park Christian HS), who started at 13 feet, and cleared that, 13-6, 14-0 and 14-5¼ all on his first try at each height, before missing all three – barely – at 14-11. “On my third attempt (at 14-11), I hit it with my elbow when I was going over. But it felt good, considering it started raining.”

Zoellick has been at SPU since his freshman year, but didn't turn out for track until this past winter's indoor season. He took fifth place at the GNAC meet in February, clearing 14-9½ (4.51 meters). A week later at the Seattle Pacific Last Chance indoor meet, he soared a career-best 14-11 – a mark he nearly tied on Saturday except for that errant elbow.

“I've definitely had to work really hard on certain stuff, and there are still some things I have to work on,” Zoellick said.

At the behest of SPU head coach Karl Lerum and assistant coach Carly Dockendorf, Zoellick started working out again last summer. His last serious competition had been his senior year (2008) at Cedar Park Christian, when he went a then-personal best of 13-6 to take third place at the Class 1A state meet.

“They asked me to get back into the swing of things. And I actually PR'd and got 14 feet,” Zoellick said. “Coming into the season, I was really excited to start jumping again – I really missed it. And then getting a PR at four out five indoor meets was really exciting.”

A general engineering major, Zoellick would like nothing more than to engineer an effort that will get him over that 14-11 height by the time the conference championship meet hits the calendar. Two weeks ago at the Pacific Lutheran Invitational, he cleared just 12-6 before going 14-1¼ at the Oregon Preview in Eugene on March 19.

Saturday's mark, pending the outcome of other meets this weekend, ranks No. 2 in the GNAC, trailing only the 14-7¼ (4.45 meters) of Western Oregon's Tim Lundy.

“I'd love to be up toward 15 feet for sure – if not higher,” Zoellick said. “I'll get on a bigger pole and see where that takes me.”

However high it ultimately takes him, Ray Zoellick can be assured of one thing when it comes to pole vaulting:

People know he's serious about it.

ALSO AT THE SPRING BREAK OPEN: SPU sophomore Billy Martin (Edmonds, Wash./King's HS) threw a personal-best distance in the javelin, flinging it 173 feet, 10 inches (52.98 meters) to take fourth place. Falcons teammate Jace Derwin (Snoqualmis, Wash./Mount Si HS) was close behind in fifth with a season-best mark of 171-6 (52.28 meters).


SEASON BEST FOR SEELY AT STANFORD
Sophomore Nate Seely ran a season-best time of 1 minute, 54.15 seconds for a 40th-place overall finish in the 800 meters at the Stanford Invitational on Saturday.

Seely (Lynden, Wash./Lynden HS) was nearly two full seconds faster than his previous best 2011 time of 1:55.94, which he posted at last Saturday's Oregon Preview in Eugene. It also elevated him onto the automatic qualifying list for the GNAC Championships.

Seely was Seattle Pacific's only competitor at Stanford on Saturday. In Friday's competition, sophomore Ryan Endresen (Portland, Ore.) ran 18th in the 400-meter hurdles in 55.43 seconds, and freshman Dusty Duncan (Lynden, Wash./Lynden HS) was 32nd in the 400 meters in 50.53.


NCAA MEN'S TRACK AND FIELD
Club Northwest Spring Break Open
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Husky Stadium/Seattle, Wash.

Team scores – Not kept.

100 – 1, Damion Greene (Pacific Pacers) 11.11. SPU placer – 7, Dustin Bratten 11.54.
200 – 1, Phillip Bennett (Unattached) 22.45. SPU placers – 6, Bratten 23.30; 7, Micah Grounds 23.57.
400 – 1, Kevin Hicks (SETA) 48.80. SPU placer – 11, Grounds 53.27.
3000 – 1, Seth Bridges (Northwest U) 8:36.62. SPU placers – 3, Jacob Wahlenmaier 9:06.19; 5, Nathanael Sleight 9:16.68; 7, Mat Edel 10:13.59.
Pole vault – 1, Ryan Brown (Western Washington) 16-4 ¾ / 5.00m. SPU placer – 4, Ray Zoellick 14-5 ¼ / 4.40m!.
Javelin – 1, Jimmy Brookman (Washington) 187-6 / 57.14m. SPU placers – 4, Billy Martin 173-10 / 52.98m*; 5, Jace Derwin 171-6 / 52.28m*.


Stanford Invitational
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Cobb Track and Angell Field/Stanford, Calif.

Team scores – Not kept.

800 – 1, David Torrence (Nike) 1:50.47. SPU placer – 40, Nate Seely 1:54.15*.

! GNAC automatic qualifying
*GNAC provisional qualifying

In both meets, only events with SPU competitors are listed. Complete results are available by clicking on the appropriate links at the top of this story.