Women's 4x400 relay preliminary results (PDF)
Women's 800-meter preliminary results (PDF)
Complete meet results
VIDEO: 4x400 relay preliminary heat
PUEBLO, Colo.— As she walked back toward the recovery area to pick up her things, Emily Quatier glanced down at the folded up sticker in her hand with a '9' on it – her hip number signifying Seattle Pacific's lane in the 4x400 relay.
“I hung onto this because I thought it was going to be my last race,” Quatier said.
Not quite.
Quatier and relay teammates Kishia Mitchell, McKayla Fricker and Jasmine Johnson live to race another day, as they finished fifth in their preliminary heat and eighth overall in the 4-by-4 on Friday.
That gave the Falcons a spot in Saturday's title race of the NCAA Division II Track & Field Championship at the Neta & Eddie DeRose ThunderBowl.
With Mitchell leading off, Quatier running second, Fricker third, and Johnson on anchor, Seattle Pacific came across the line in 3 minutes, 45.11 seconds. That was off a bit from their qualifying time of 3:43.44 from the Shannon-Foreman Invitational on May 4 in Seattle.
But it was fast enough to get them to the last day of the season in what will be the next-to-last race on Saturday night.
“I'm so happy – I had no idea what we were going to come out here and do,” said Johnson (Federal Way, Wash. / Federal Way HS), a sophomore. “But right when we started running, I knew that's what I wanted us to accomplish for today, and we did it. We're eighth place, and all of us will be fresh tomorrow, so I'm hoping to get better than eighth and get a trophy.”
If the Falcons do finish in the top eight, they will be the first relay – female or male – in the 12-year history of the GNAC to earn All-American honors.
The Nos. 5-9 qualifiers are bunched within one second of each other. St. Augustine's is the top seed at 3:38.26.
On a hot night as temperatures gradually cooled down from near 90, Johnson and junior teammate Mitchell (Puyallup, Wash. / Rogers HS) were in their first race of the night. Fricker (Canby, Ore.) and Quatier (Portland, Ore.) were in their second, having run the 800 meters about two hours earlier.
For Fricker, the 800 didn't work out the way she had in mind. She came in as the No. 8 seed, and finished third in her preliminary heat, but 11th overall in 2:11.86. That ultimately was a quarter-second short of getting into the finals.
“That was definitely disappointing,” she said. “But in looking back, there's not a whole more I could have done. At the finish, I was giving it my all – even when I was hurting, I pushed a little bit more. I just didn't have the extra oomph to get there.”
Quatier, seeded 22nd coming in, moved up 18th in 2:17.06.
Running in the second of three prelim heats, Fricker was in back of the seven-runner pack early on, but shifted to the outside and had moved up to fifth by 400 meters. Racing up the backstretch, she passed two more to get into third.
But heading for home, Simon Fraser rival Sarah Sawatzky and Angelo State's Jaylen Rodgers stayed just out of Fricker's reach. Sawatzky came across the line in 2:11.16, Rodgers in 2:11.36, and Fricker in 2:11.86.
Fricker didn't want to blame the heat and the altitude, since everyone was running in the same conditions. But she said she did feel its effects.
“Usually when I go into the last 200, I don't tighten up,” she said. “I started tightening up and just wasn't able to get them – and they were so close to me.
“I felt like I was in the race and I was under control,” she added. “It was a good race – it was just one of those nights.”
The relay made up for that.
“I'm just so glad to have these girls to race with,” she said. “We were nervous, and Emily and I were hurting after the 8. But to be able to come through and finish and get in the finals is such a blessing.”
NCAA WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD
NCAA Division II Championships
Friday, May 24, 2013
Neta & Eddie DeRose ThunderBowl / Pueblo, Colo.
PRELIMINARIES
800 – 1, Lovan Palmer (Lincoln-Mo.) 2:10.36. SPU placers – 11, McKayla Fricker, 2:11.86 (did not qualify for finals); 18, Emily Quatier 2:17.06.
4x400 relay – 1, St. Augustine's 3:38.26. SPU placer – 8, Seattle Pacific (Kishia Mitchell, Quatier, Fricker, Jasmine Johnson) 3:45.11. (SPU qualifies for finals).
