SEATTLE – Three lifetimes.
 
If McKayla Fricker could work her will, that's how many she would have.
 
"One would be for running, one would be for horses, and one would be for music," she said.
 
The horses, which she rides in cutting horse competition, will still be there when she returns home to Oregon next month after graduating from Seattle Pacific. The musical opportunities, whether it's singing in a choir or continuing to learn guitar and piano, will be there, too.
 But running – at least so far as competing collegiately for SPU – will be there for just one more weekend.
 
And it's here.
 
Fricker and five Falcon teammates are already in the western part of Michigan for the NCAA Division II Track & Field Championships.
 
The meet begins Thursday at Grand Valley Track & Field Stadium on the main campus of Grand Valley State University in Allendale, a suburb of Grand Rapids.
 
The 22-year-old Fricker won't race until Friday evening in the preliminaries of the 800 meters (6:15 p.m. in Michigan; three hours earlier for those following along from the Pacific time zone).
 
Once she's on the blue track, the goal will be straight-forward: Finish in the top two of her heat (she's in the first of the three preliminary races), or have one of the next three fastest times overall from any of the three heats, and come back for Saturday night's finals (7:05 / 4:05 Pacific).
 
"It's going to be so intense," said Fricker, the No. 3-ranked runner in D2. "It really depends on how the prelims play out, if I have to go all-out, or sit back a little bit.
 
"I'm just looking at getting top-two, and staying on pace."
 
MIXED EMOTIONS TO THE MAX
In a coast-to-coast telephone conversation after the NCAA indoor 800-meter final on March 15 in North Carolina, McKayla Fricker said all the right things.
 
"I'm happy because it was my best place I've gotten. But I wanted to win and I could have," Fricker said after finshing an agonizingly close No. 2 (by 49 hundredths of a second) to Shawnee Carnett of Concord (W.V.). "But she ran a real good race and ran real smart. … I thought I might catch her coming around the last curve. If it had been 20 meters longer, I could have."
 Left unsaid was that Fricker was … well, ticked off. Not at Carnett, who won fair and square. Not at some of the circumstances of it ("I got caught up in a lot of tripping and pushing in certain parts of the race," she said).
 
Rather, it was just at the fact that she had the opportunity to win it, and wasn't able to.
 
"I'm sure she's thinking back on different things about how the race went," head coach Karl Lerum said on that same afternoon from Winston-Salem. "But we talked about it, and in that moment, she ran great."
 
That was 10 weeks ago – and the disappointment of March long since has given way to the hunger of May.
 
MOVING FORWARD – AND FAST
In fact, Fricker needed just one week to get back on track, such as it were.
 
On March 22 at the University of Oregon's Historic Hayward Field in Eugene – site of numerous United States Olympic Trials, U.S. national championships, and NCAA Division I finals – Fricker overcame a slower-than-desired first lap and powered across the finish line of the 800 in 2 minutes, 8 seconds flat.
 
It was her first time below a 2:09 after several close-but-not-quites. It also was an NCAA automatic qualifying time, and, for about a week, stood as the best time in Division II.
  
"I did 2:08 and it felt easy – that's pretty exciting," said Fricker, who actually had considered not racing that day. "It was definitely hard to get that motivation just coming off last weekend that was so mentally and physically draining.
 
"But I got to the starting line and said, 'I have to seize this opportunity. I can't waste it."
 
Four weeks after that, she was at the prestigious Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif., and went even faster – 2:06.85, the time that ultimately made her the third seed for Friday's prelims, with Carnett the top seed at 2:06.19, and Chante Roberts of Adams State (Colo.) at No. 2 in 2:06.35.
 
"I would love to run a faster time. But the focus also is racing for place," said Fricker, 11^th overall last year in Pueblo, Colo., 26 hundredths shy of a finals berth. "I have to pay attention to myself and my pace – and then just race it."
 
STRUGGLING AT THE START, FLYING AT THE FINISH
As Fricker prepares for what figure to be four more laps as a Falcon – two on Friday, two more on Saturday – it's easy to forget that things weren't always this good – or this fast.
 
She arrived in the fall of 2010 as a highly regarded freshman. As many freshmen do, no matter what their specialties are, she struggled. Now running in the 2:06s, she didn't break 2:18 outdoors during her first year in maroon, although  injuries had something to do with that.
 
"There was a lot of frustration all around," she said. "I came back sophomore year just ready and determined to show the coaches and the school who I was as a runner, get back on my feet, and find that confidence again and prove myself."
  
Fricker readily gives credit where it's due for helping her get there. She offers a chunk of that to her dad, Mark, a former star at Oregon State, sub four-minute miler, and two-time U.S. Olympic  trialist, and whose voice she can always pick out during a race just as she picks out those of the Falcon coaches.
 
"Something I definitely learned from him a lot was dedication and determination and just perseverance," Fricker said. "What I realized was that perseverance was a big part – that's a word that makes my four years. I've been injured every year, but I never let it get to me. When seasons didn't go the way I wanted them to, I would get fired up for the next season and prove myself there."
 No one has been happier to see her do that than SPU head coach Lerum.
 
"This is the longest period she has been able to string together (consecutive months of training) in her four years – and her results are speaking to that," Lerum said. "And confidence can't be overstated. She's confident in her ability and confident in her race plans."
 
Fricker, an aspiring grade school teacher who hopes to keep competing after college at the club level, says she's keeping the pressure off as she approaches her final college meet.
                                                                                 
"That just comes a lot from my faith and putting a lot of trust in the Lord," she said. "It has been my goal to accomplish what I've accomplished, and go out with a bang. You can imagine it and picture it and strive for it for three years.
 
"But once you're in the moment, it's incredible."