Complete results, with team scores (PDF)

        ACTION VIDEOS:
        4x100 relay
        800 meters
        High jump

MONMOUTH, Ore. – Come up short in a close meet, and it's easy to count up where an extra point or two could have been scored.
                             
Come up on the long end of a close one, and it just as easy – and much more enjoyable – to count up where that extra point or two did come from.
 
For the Seattle Pacific Falcons on Saturday, they came from just about everywhere.
 
SPU won just four of 21 events – McKayla Fricker in the 800 meters, the 4x100 and 4x400 relays on Saturday, and Ali Worthen in the heptathlon last week – and scored its other 148 points on depth to come from behind and edge Alaska Anchorage for the Falcons' third straight Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's track and field title.
 




Seattle Pacific, which had to make up about 30 points on the Seawolves coming into Saturday's finals at McArthur Field on the Western Oregon University campus, edged UAA for the crown, 188-183.
 
“We did the math, and we knew where we had to do better, and where we had chances to do better,” coach Karl Lerum said. “There's so many stories when it goes into a two-day track meet like this. It's not just the winners or thbe top three or four. It's kids jumping up and grabbing that point for eighth place that they're not necessarily slated to take. That's important when you win by five.”
 
At the conclusion of Friday night's preliminary heats and counting the finals that already had been completed, Anchorage was on track to score 198 points, while SPU was seeded for 170 heading into Saturday. But in event by event, the Falcons chipped away.
 
The last race on the track was the 4x400 relay, and Seattle Pacific quickly took command of that one. Senior Myisha Valentine (Mountlake Terrace, Wash./North Sound Christian HS) led it off, and handed the baton to junior Emily Quatier (Portland, Ore.), who put it firmly in the Falcons' control by the time she came out of the first curve. Freshman Jasmine Johnson (Federal Way) and sophomore Fricker (Canby, Ore.) brought it home in an NCAA provisional time of 3 minutes, 48.79 seconds, nearly a full second faster than they ran just a week ago in Bellingham.
 
That was the last race on the track, and left Anchorage still on top, 180-176. But the high jump was still in progress. Worthen got into a jump-off with Western Washington's Brittany Grandy. The Viking won it at 5-6 ½, but Worthen's eight points for second, plus four points for fifth place by senior Brittany Aanstad (Lake Stevens, Wash./Lake Stevens HS) was enough to push the Falcons over the top.
 
Worthen, who personally accounted for 34 of SPU's 188 points and was named Female Athlete of the Meet, knew those points were crucial.
 
“I didn't think about it too much in the jump-off. But definitely warming up and watching the 5K, we knew we were going to need points in the high jump,” she said. “We knew it was going to come down to those points after Natty (Plunkett) and Heidi (Laabs-Johnson) did so well in the 5K.”
 
That 5,000 was one of the key races. Anchorage was seeded for seven of the top eight spots. Only Plunkett (Bellevue, Wash./Newport HS) was among seven Seawolves, seeded No. 7, and Laabs-Johnson (Salt Lake City) was seeded 12^th – not even in the points. But Laabs-Johnson wound up fourth, and Plunkett moved up to fifth.
 




Then there was Fricker's performance in the 800. The GNAC indoor 800 champion in February was the No. 2 seed coming into Friday's prelims, but wound up with just the fifth-fastest time. In Saturday's finals, she was boxed in by three Simon Fraser runners, but last, she found an opening with about 200 to go, slipped outside, moved around the pack – and won going away, coming through the wire in 2 minutes, 11.79 seconds. Sarah Sawatzky of Simon Fraser was second in 2:12.50.
 
“I was looking and looking and looking (for an opening). I knew it would come, but it needed to come sooner,” said Fricker, who was hoping to better her NCAA provisional qual time of 2:11.57 that had her on the national bubble coming into the weekend. “They had me so boxed in, there was nowhere for me to move. Finally, there was an opening. I made a move, and since it was so slow, I had the kick, and I just went for the finish.”
 
Valentine led the SPU sprint crew with a second-place finish in the 400 and a third in the 200. She combined with sophomore BryAnne Wochnick (Portland, Ore.), Worthen and Kishia Mitchell (Puyallup, Wash./Rogers HS) for a meet-record time of 47.22 in the 4x100 relay.
 
Senior Natalie Nobbs (Yakima, Wash./Riverview Christian HS) polished off her career with a second-place finish and a PR time of 1:04.37 in the 400 hurdles. The Falcons also got a big day from junior Trinna Miranda (Tigard, Ore.), who went 37-5 ¼ in the triple jump to go from a non-scoring 10^th seed to picking up four points for a fifth-place finish."




 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD
GNAC Championships
Saturday, May 11, 2012
McArthur Field / Monmouth, Ore.
 
Team scores – 1, Seattle Pacific 188; 2, Alaska Anchorage 183; 3, Western Washington 137 1/2/ 4, Western Oregon 77; 5, Northwest Nazarene 74; 6, Simon Fraser 63; 7, Central Washington 57; 8, Montana State Billings 33; 9, Saint Martin's 6 ½.
 
SATURDAY'S FINALS
100 – 1, Grace Morgan (UAA) 11.91 (meet record, breaks old record of 12.11 set by Latasha Essien of SPU in 2010 GNAC prelims). SPU placers – 3, Kishia Mitchell 12.17; 4, BryAnne Wochnick 12.32; 5, Tasia Baldwin 12.38.  UAA 1-8, SPU 3-4-5.
200 – 1, Morgan (UAA) 24.61 (meet record, breaks old record of 24.74 set by Morgan in Friday's prelims). SPU placers – 3, Myisha Valentine 25.22; 5, Ali Worthen 25.37; 6, Mitchell 25.65; 7, Baldwin 25.72..
400 – 1, Eleanor Siler (WWU) 55.73. SPU placers – 2, Myisha Valentine 55.76; 3, Jasmine  Johnson 56.85; 5, Emily Quatier 57.44.
800 – 1, McKayla Fricker (SPU) 2:11.79. No other SPU competitors.
1500 – 1, Lindsey Butterworth (SFU) 4:28.77. No SPU placers. Other SPU competitors --  11, Katie Thralls 4:54.03; 16, Alli Cutting 5:00.72.
5000 – 1, Susan Tanui (UAA) 17:31.67. SPU placers – 4, Heidi Laabs-Johnson 17:49.17; 5, Natty Plunkett 17:53.42. Other SPU competitors – 9, Katie Thralls 18:17.84; 14, Robyn Zeidler 18:34.62.
4x100 relay – 1, Seattle Pacific (BryAnne Wochnick, Ali Worthen, Valentine, Mitchell) 47.22 (meet record, breaks old record of 47.23 set by SPU in 2011).
4x400 relay – 1, Seattle Pacific (Valentine, Quatier, Johnson,Fricker) 3:48.79.
100 hurdles – 1, Haleigh Lloyd (UAA) 14.23. SPU placers – 2, Ali Worthen 14.29; 4, Maliea Luquin 14.73.
400 hurdles – 1, Michelle Howe (WWU) 1:03.06. SPU placer – 2, Natalie Nobbs 1:04.37.
High jump – 1, Brittany Grandy (WWU) 5-6 ½ / 1.69m (jump-off). SPU placers – 2, Worthen 5-6 ½ / 1.69m; 5, Brittany Aanstad 5-4 ½ / 1.64m.
Triple jump – 1, Ashley Potter (WOU) 40-9 / 12.42m. SPU placer – 5, Trinna Miranda 37-5 ¼ / 11.41m.
Shot put – 1, Joy Warrington (NNU) 45-10 ¾ / 13.99m. No SPU competitors.
Hammer – 1, Lindsay Wells (WWU) 166-6 ¾ / 50.76m. No SPU competitors.
 
FRIDAY'S FINALS
3000 steeplechase – 1, Susan Tanua (UAA) 10:24.44 (meet record, breaks old record of 10:50.62 set by Courtney Olsen of W. Washington in 2010). SPU placer – 4, Robyn Zeidler 11:09.78#.
10,000 – 1, Ruth Keino (UAA) 36:37.97. SPU placers – 3, Natty Plunkett 36:55.54; 4, Heidi Laabs-Johnson 37:42.56.
Pole vault – 1, Karis Anderson (WWU) 12-6 ¾ / 3.83m (meet record, breaks old record of 12-4 / 3.76m set by Ally Studer of SPU in 2003). SPU placer – 3, Terra Schumacher 11-7 / 3.53m.
Long jump – 1, Emily Warman (WWU) 19-1 ½ / 5.83m (meet record, breaks old record of 19-0 ¾ / 5.81m set by Danielle Ayers-Stamper of SPU in 2005). SPU placers – 3, Tasia Baldwin 18-2 ½ / 5.55m; 5, Ali Worthen 18-1 ½ / 5.52m; 6, Trinna Miranda 17-9 ¾ / 5.43m. Other SPU competitors – 15, Katy Gross 16-8 / 5.08m; 17, Natalie Nobbs 16-1 ½ / 4.91m.
Discus – 1, Jade Richardson (SFU) 139-6 / 42.53m. No SPU competitors.
Javelin – 1, Amanda Schumaker (WOU) 154-1 / 46.97m. SPU placers – 2, Brittany Aanstad 144-6 / 44.05m#; 4, Katy Gross 136-3 / 41.53m#; 5, Michaela Farner 134-3 / 40.93m; 10, Carly Andrews 123-6 ¼ / 37.64m; 11, Brittany Tri 123-0 ¼ / 37.49m.