THE SCHEDULE:    UW Invitational
                                  Friday-Saturday, January 27-28, 2012
                                  Dempsey Indoor (UW) / Seattle, Wash.
                                  Friday: Running events 2 p.m. Field events 2:45 p.m.
                                  Saturday: All events 10 a.m.
                                  Meet schedule        Heat sheets        Live results
                                                         
 
        Weekly release, with complete updated stats (PDF)
 
SEATTLE – The competition gets tougher on the track and in the field this week for Seattle Pacific. But for the Falcons, who are always thinking long-term, the toughest competition is still against themselves, the watch and the tape.
 
A select group of SPU athletes will head across town to Dempsey Indoor on the University of Washington campus for the UW Invitational. The two-day meet begins Friday afternoon at 2 with an abbreviated schedule, and has a full day in store for Saturday beginning at 10 a.m.
 
While virtually every Falcon athlete who wanted to compete was able to do so at the season-opening UW Indoor Preview two weeks ago, the entry standards were more stringent for this meet. Even so, Seattle Pacific is sending a sizable contingent of 21.
 
That group includes three athletes – Katy Gross, Ali Worthen, and Nate Johnson – in what likely will be their only opportunity at multi-event competition (the pentathlon for Gross and Worthen; the heptathlon for Johnson) prior to next month's Great Northwest Athletic Conference championships.
 
TEMPORARY NEW HOME
For the next two months, SPU athletes will be training at Ballard High School, a few minutes north of campus. That's because Wallace Field, their regular training site just outside of Royal Brougham Pavilion, is being used by Tent City 3, an encampment for some of Seattle's homeless population. Tent City moved into Wallace on Jan. 21, and will remain until March 24.
 




SPEAKING OF THE FALCONS
Coach Karl Lerum says his athletes are training hard, but also are trying to train smart through the indoor season.
 
“We're trying not to peak yet,” he said. “It's a big meet (this weekend), but we're keeping it in perspective.”
 
Lerum is particularly excited about the multi-event competition on the UW Invite docket.
 
“Nate (Johnson) has had a great fall of training, and Ali (Worthen) had has a great fall. They're coming off the best training of their careers and are ready to post some strong marks,” Lerum said.
 
Lerum was pleased with what he saw at the season-opening UW Indoor Preview two weeks ago, both in the results and in the efforts that were put forth.
 
“I felt like some of the marks and times were good for the first meet of the year. But I was really excited about the way our athletes were competing in the races they were running,” he said. “We had 13 heat winners”
 
FALCONS 5K SET FOR SATURDAY
The fourth annual Falcons 5K Fun Run and Walk is scheduled for this Homecoming Saturday, Jan. 28, at 10 a.m. at Green Lake. The cost is $15 for adults, $5 for current SPU students, and free to runners under age 10. Registration begins at 9 a.m. Proceeds will be split between the Seattle Pacific track and cross country programs and Redeeming Soles, which provides Seattle-area organizations with new and gently used shoes, socks, and other assorted footwear.
 
T-shirts will be available for $5, and prizes will be awarded after the race. In conjunction with the run, the Falcons will conduct a shoe drive for Redeeming Soles. More information is available by calling (206) 281-2000.
                                                                                    
SCOUTING THE UW INVITATIONAL
Without question, the women's pentathlon and the men's heptathlon will be two of the biggest events this weekend for the Falcons. Junior Katy Gross (Everett, Wash./Cascade HS) is the defending Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's pent champion, and fellow junior Nate Johnson (Boise, Idaho) is the current conference title holder in the men's hep.
 
At last year's UW Invite, Gross finished ninth with 3,245 points, with her best placing a tie for sixth in the high jump at 5 feet, 1 inch. Johnson did not compete in the heptathlon at this meet.
 
Meanwhile, senior Ali Worthen (Coos Bay, Ore.) has her own multi-event championship credentials, as she is the reigning queen of the outdoor heptathlon in the GNAC. She did not do the pentathlon at the 2011 UW Invite. Two weeks ago at the Indoor Preview, Worthen posted NCAA Division II provisional qualifying marks of 8.85 in the 60-meter hurdles and 5-6 in the high jump.
 
The women's 400 also has the potential for some solid SPU results. Senior Myisha Valentine (Mountlake Terrace, Wash./North Sound Christian HS) and junior Emily Quatier (Portland, Ore.) are both within half a second of making the GNAC automatic list. Sophomore speedsters Kishia Mitchell (Puyallup, Wash./Rogers HS) and BryAnne Wochnick (Portland, Ore.) are taking their first shot at that event this season.
 
Speaking of the 400, sophomore Dusty Duncan (Lynden, Wash./Lynden HS), coming off of a personal-best and GNAC automatic 50.15 two weeks ago, is back in that event, as he gets ever closer to the school record of 49.99, set in 2005.
 
Nate Seely (Lynden, Wash./Lynden HS) will see if he can do even better in the 800 than he did on Jan. 14. Seely, in his first race since last spring's outdoor season, went the distance in 1 minute, 53.60 seconds to get onto the NCAA Division II provisional qualifying list.
 
ADD 'EM UP IN THE MULTIS
The NCAA qualifying standards for the women's pentathlon are 3,813 points for automatic and 3,300 for provisional. Ali Worthen has a personal-best total of 3,447; Katy Gross' best is 3,297.
 
But if both were to meet, beat, or even come close to their PRs in all five events, they would surpass that provisional qualifying total. Based on those current PRs, Worthen would total 3,731 points, and Gross would finish with 3,353.
 
In the men's heptathlon, the NCAA automatic qualifying total is 5,192 points; the provisional is 4,600. Nate Johnson's current personal bests in the seven events add up to 5,361.
 




NATIONALLY SPEAKING
-- Nate Seely is seventh on the 800-meter list heading into this weekend's meet. His time of 1:53.60 for the UW's 307-meter track converts to 1:54.20 for a 200-meter flat track, which is the standard used on the national list.
-- Ali Worthen is tied for 11^th in the high jump at 5 feet, 6 inches, and is 23^rd in the 60-meter hurdles at 8.85 seconds.
 
POLLING PLACE
The first U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) regional rankings are out this week, and Seattle Pacific is on both lists.
 
The Falcon women are No. 6 with 164.43 points, close behind No. 5 Western Washington (167.75). Grand Canyon is on top with 355.59, more than 100 points ahead of No. 2 Northwest Nazarene. The SPU men are No. 9 with 120.42. Grand Canyon is No. 1 with 475.72, a margin of almost 155 points.
 
The USTFCCCA rankings are not based on voting by coaches or others, as is the case with most sports. Instead, they are determined strictly on the marks of each team's individual athletes. The final point totals in each set of rankings are formula-generated based on those marks.

SO LONG, LETIWE
Letiwe Patton, who has served as an SPU assistant coach for track and cross country since the spring of 2010, has left to accept the head coaching job for both sports at Eastside Catholic High School in Sammamish, about 20 miles east of Seattle. Patton served as a volunteer assistant for track during 2010, then became the interim head cross country coach in the fall of that year while Erika Daligcon was on maternity leave.
 
In addition to coaching, the native of Zimbabwe has been back in training with the hope of representing her country in the steeplechase at this year's London Olympic Games.

ON THE HONOR ROLL
Ali Worthen earned a share of the GNAC women's track and field Athlete of the Week award on Jan. 16 for her performance at the UW Indoor Preview. Worthen ran a personal-best 8.85 seconds to win her heat of the two-heat finals. That was her first time breaking 9.0 seconds, made her an NCAA provisional qualifier, and was the second-fastest time in GNAC history, trailing only the 8.66 posted in 2005 by former Seattle Pacific star Danielle Ayers-Stamper. Worthen also made NCAA provisional in the high jump by clearing 5 feet, 6 inches. The AOW award was her fourth overall, three of which have been indoors.
 
RETRACING THEIR STEPS: UW INDOOR PREVIEW
--Ali Worthen logged a personal-best time of 8.85 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles, winning her finals heat at the UW Indoor Preview, taking sixth place overall, and giving her the inside track toward a ticket to Albuquerque for the Division II nationals in March. Then, just for good measure, Worthen (Coos Bay, Ore.) measured up to national standards in the high jump as well, clearing 5 feet, 6 inches to tie for fourth place and earn a spot on that NCAA provisional list.

-- Nate Seely, the two-time defending GNAC indoor champion in the 800 meters, returned to action in speedy style, going the distance in 1 minute, 53.60 seconds to hit the NCAA Division II provisional qualifying standard right on the money in the men's  UW Indoor Preview. Seely's time easily eclipsed his previous PR of 1:54.35, which he set twice – most recently last Feb. 19 when he ran to his second straight GNAC indoor 800 title. It also made him an automatic qualifier for next month's conference championships.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons have next week off, then return to Dempsey for their final GNAC tune-ups on Feb. 10, 11 and 11. The first two days are the Husky Classic, and similar to this week's UW Invite, only a select group will be able to participate in that meet. Action starts at 4 p.m. on Friday the 10th, and at 9 a.m. on Saturday the 11th.

But on Sunday the 12th is the UW Open, and that will include virtually every member of the SPU team. Competition begins at 9 a.m.