Complete women's results (PDF)
        Complete men's results (PDF)
 
SEATTLE – These. Freshmen. Are. Fast.
 
Fast, as in school record-breaking fast.
 
Fast, as in on-the-brink-of-NCAA-qualifying fast.
 
That kind of fast.
 
Mario Lopez and Chris Moreton both bettered a 10-year old Seattle Pacific indoor track record in the men's 400 meters, and Becca Houk made her college debut by coming within three-hundredths of a second of the NCAA Division II provisional qualifying standard in the 60-meter dash on Saturday at the UW Indoor Preview.

Junior distance runner Lynelle Decker did make the NCAA cut in the women's 800, clocking 2:12.83 and easily getting under the provisional standard of 2:15.44.

Houk came to the Falcons fresh off of winning Oregon large-school outdoor state titles in the 100 and 200 meters last May. She finished second in her qualification heat of the 60-meter dash in 7.76 seconds, then clocked 7.79 in the preliminaries. Both of those were just barely shy of the NCAA provisional mark of 7.73.
 
She later ran the 200, going 25.85. Another Falcon newbie, junior transfer Jahzelle Ambus (Portland, Ore.) was even faster, finishing in 25.37, giving her 11th place overall.
 
"The 60 went well for me today. I didn't know what to expect because I never ran it before," Houk said after competing indoors for the first time in her life. "The 200 felt all right. I felt like I could have run a little faster, but it's the first meet, so I felt like I have room for improvement."

 

Decker's time of 2:12.83 in the 800 gave her fifth place in the field of 31 runners. It also put her in good position right from the get-go to make NCAAs for the third year in a row. Last year, Decker (Vancouver, Wash. / Mountain View HS) was one of 17 runners to make the national cut, and the slowest of those 17 times was 2:14.37. Decker's qualifying time in 2014 was 2:13.49, so she's already ahead of that.
 
SPU junior Anna Patti shattered her personal best in the 3,000 meters by a whopping 24 seconds. She went the distance in 10:04.56 for 26^th place among the 55 who ran it. The NCAA provisional time is 10:01.47.
 
Senior Tasia Baldwin came up big in the 60, shaving nearly a full tenth off her PR by clocking 7.87. The previous mark for Baldwin (Tacoma, Wash. / Foss HS) was 7.963.
 




Lopez and Moreton came to SPU from opposite ends of the West Coast – Lopez from Chino, Calif., and Moreton from nearby Everett, where he attended Kamiak High School.

In Saturday's third heat at Dempsey Indoor on the University of Washington campus, Lopez was first across the finish line, stopping the watch in 49.91 seconds. That broke the old record of 49.99 set by former Falcon multi-event star Chris Randolph on Feb. 19, 2005 at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships in Nampa, Idaho.

The closest any Falcon had come to breaking 50 seconds since then was Dusty Duncan's 50.16 in 2012.
 
"It was very different, coming from California – we don't have any indoor tracks," Lopez said. "Being here was a huge difference. It felt a lot faster than my outdoor races."
 
Moments after Lopez' race, Moreton won Heat 4 in 49.94 seconds – also fast enough to beat Randolph's mark, though just barely behind Lopez.
 
"I've run indoor before in high school. But being in a college uniform is a different feeling," Moreton said. "It was a big point-7 (seven-tenths of a second) indoor PR for me, and I'm extremely happy with that. Mario got the record and we ran pretty much the same time, so it was a great start for us."

 

Seattle Pacific head coach Karl Lerum knew Lopez and Moreton both had that kind of potential when they joined his program – Lopez broke 50 seconds three times during last spring's outdoor season, with a personal best of 49.56. Morton went faster than 50 on seven occasions, with a best of 49.22.
 
"I've never had men run sub-50s back-to-back," said Lerum, now in his 10^th year. "It's exciting to know that this is their first meet in college indoor, and Dempsey Indoor is not traditionally a fast track for the 400. It points to pretty exciting futures for both of them."

Seattle Pacific returns to action on Jan. 30-31 at the UW Invitational.
 
FORMER FALCONS STILL FLYING
Kishia Mitchell and McKayla Fricker might have hung up their SPU uniforms, but they haven't hung up their racing shoes.
 
Mitchell ran her fastest-ever 60-meter dash, going 7.55 in a qualifying race. That beat her college PR of 7.73.
 
Fricker, the NCAA outdoor champion and indoor runner-up in the 800, was second in that event on Saturday in 2:08.63. The only runner ahead of her was Mary Cain of the Nike Oregon Project in 2:07.21. The time for Fricker, now competing for Athletics Northwest, was her first in the 2:08s indoor, eclipsing her old PR of 2:09.04 set on the same Dempsey track last Feb. 1.
 

NCAA WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD
UW Indoor Preview
Saturday, January 17, 2015
Dempsey Indoor / Seattle, Wash.
 
60-meter dash – 1, Jasmine Todd (Oregon) 7.15. SPU placers – 15, Becca Houk 7.76; 24, Tasia Baldwin 7.87; 34, Kyra Brannan 8.07. Other placer – Kishia Mitchell (Seattle Speed) 7.55.
200 – 1, Tynia Gaither (USC) 23.62. SPU placers – 11, Jahzelle Ambus 25.37; 19, Houk 25.85; 40, Kelsey Chase 27.70.
400 – 1, Jaide Stepter (USC) 53.76. SPU placers – 15, Jasmine Johnson 58.51;
600 – 1, Olivia Baker (Stanford) 1:29.42. SPU placer – 19, Jessie Mathison 1:39.92.
800 – 1, Mary Cain (Nike Oregon) 2:07.21. SPU placers – 5, Lynelle Decker 2:12.83; 23, Mary Charleson 2:23.46; 24, Hannah Calvert 2:23.56; 26, Hailey Kettel 2:23.77; 27, Chynna Phan 2:24.06; 28, Jessica Rawlins 2:24.32; 31, Sophie Carroll 2:30.79. Other placer – 2, McKayla Fricker (Athletics Northwest) 2:08.63.
1000 – 1, Shannon Bowbury (Nike Oregon) 2:40.25. No SPU competitors.
Mile – 1, Shannon Bowbury (Nike Oregon) 4:27.86. SPU placers – 29, Rawlins 5:06.70; 39, Charleson 5:14.84; 41, Kettel 5:15.62; 51, Makayla Santos 5:35.86.
3000 – 1, Jessica O'Connell (UCAC) 9:09.15. SPU placers – 26, Anna Patti 10:04.56; 44, Sarah Macdonald 10:33.04.
60 hurdles – 1, Sasha Wallace (Oregon) 8.27. SPU placers – 18, Cheryl Hong 9.50; 32, Jade Crawford 10.16; 36, Maddi Hommes 10.67.
4x400 relay – 1, Washington 'A' 3:46.33. SPU placer – 5, Seattle Pacific 'A' (Ambus, Johnson, Decker, Phan) 3:57.64; 18, Seattle Pacific 'B' (Mathison, Ali Sowers, Calvert, Carroll) 4:15.87.
4x800 relay – 1, Trinity Western 'A' 8:52.76.
High jump – 1, Linda Rainwater (Movin Shoes) 5-10 ½ / 1.79m. SPU placers – T9, Naphtali Ward 5-2 ½ / 1.59m; T15, Crawford 5-0 ½ / 1.54m; T17, Maddi Hommes 4-10 ½ / 1.49m.
Pole vault – 1, Diam Plannel Cruz (UW) 13-3 ½ / 4.05m. SPU placers – T12, Michaella Kahns 10-10 / 3.30m; T21, Michelle Louie and Madi Webster 9-10 / 3.00m.
Long jump – 1, Skye Morrison (Unattached) 19-7 / 5.97m. SPU placers – 14, Brannan 17-9 ½ / 5.42m; T19, Baldwin 17-5 ½ / 5.32m.
Triple jump – 1, Melia Cox (USC) 40-1 ½ / 12.23m. No SPU competitors.
Shot put – 1, Gina Flint (UW) 51-5 ½ / 15.68m. SPU placer – 20, Sammi Markham 38-5 / 11.71m.
Weight throw – 1, Caressa Sims (Unattached) 59-5 / 18.12m. No SPU competitors.
 

NCAA MEN'S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD
UW Indoor Preview
Saturday, January 17, 2015
Dempsey Indoor / Seattle, Wash.
 
60-meter dash – 1, Joe Morris (Ultimate Speed) 6.55. No SPU competitors.
200 --  1, Mike Berry (Nike) 21.44. SPU placers – 22, David Ferguson 23.09; 30, RJ Straker 23.36.
400 – 1, Ricky Morgan (USC) 47.63. SPU placers – 14, Mario Lopez 49.91; 15, Chris Moreton 49.94.
600 – 1, Jacob Sealby (Unattached) 1:17.81. No SPU competitors.
800 – 1, Evan Jager (Bowerman Track Club Pro) 1:50.13. SPU placer – 24, Adam Avischious 2:03.13.
1000 – 1, Matthew Centrowitz (Nike Oregon) 2:19.53. No SPU competitors.
Mile – 1, Matthew Centrowitz (Nike Oregon) 3:58.60. No SPU competitors.
3000 – 1, Matt Jablonski (Oregon) 8:03.73. SPU placer – 49, Turner Wiley 9:03.79.
60 hurdles – 1, Calum Innes (Trinity Western) 8.07. No SPU competitors.
4x400 relay – 1, Washington 'A' 3:14.74. SPU placer – 8, Seattle Pacific (Ferguson, Moreton, Lopez, Straker) 3:23.96.
4x800 relay – 1, Stanford 'A' 7:40.17. No SPU team.
High jump – 1, Mike Mason (Valley Royals), Anthony Johnson (Evergreen State) and Mikel Smith (Saint Martin's) 7-0 ½ / 2.15m (Mason win on fewer misses tiebreaker). No SPU competitors.
Pole vault – 1, Jax Thoirs (UW) 18-0 ½ / 5.50m. No SPU competitors.
Long jump – 1, Norris Frederick (Unattached) 24-7 / 7.49m. No SPU competitors.
Triple jump – 1, Darian Brooks (Stanford) 50-2 / 15.29m. No SPU competitors.
Shot put – 1, Darien Moore (Unattached) 61-6 ¾ / 18.76m. No SPU competitors.
Weight throw – 1, Darien Moore (Unattached) 66-5 / 20.24m. No SPU competitors.