Click on this link for video interview with the relay runners

SEATTLE – No sweating it out. No worrying. No nail biting.
 
For the first time in four years, a Seattle Pacific relay team should be able to relax for the rest of February, knowing that they've very likely run a fast-enough time to make it into the NCAA Division II indoor track and field championship meet.
 
Lynelle Decker, Jahzelle Ambus, Chynna Phan, and Anna Patti teamed up to get the job done and then some in the 4,000-meter distance medley on Friday afternoon, stopping the watch at 11 minutes, 42.34 seconds in the Husky Classic.
 
That time for their combined 13 laps around the oval at Dempsey Indoor on the University of Washington campus – 1,200 meters for senior Decker, 400 for senior Ambus, 800 for sophomore Phan, and 1,600 for senior Patti – is the third-fastest in Division II as of Friday evening.
 
It easily beat the NCAA provisional qualifying standard of 12:10.84, and trails only the 11:35.87 of Minnesota Duluth, and the 11:39.41 that Great Northwest Athletic Conference rival Alaska Anchorage ran in the same heat as the Falcons.

 

"The goal coming in today was to get it done once and not need our second chance (at the SPU Final Qualifier)," Patti said. "It was definitely good and huge pressure off to be pretty confident that we're going to nationals."
 
In each of the past three winters, SPU relays – whether a distance medley or a 4-by-400 – have had to wait until the official entries came out on the Monday afternoon following the final weekend of the season to know whether a ticket to nationals would become a reality.
 

• In 2013, the 4x400 team squeezed in as the final seed, and wound up an All-American sixth.
• In 2014, a different 4x400 team was the last one that didn't make the final cut.
• Last winter, the distance medley of Jessica Rawlins, Becca Houk, Decker, and Patti was the 13th and final entry with an 11;47.33, and climbed to ninth.

 
The time posted by Seattle Pacific on Friday would have been the No. 7 seed in last year's nationals. With three weekends to go (including this one) in the regular season, it's very possible that a few schools could go faster than the Falcons' 11:42.34.
 
But wherever the 2016 cutoff line eventually falls, the odds are very much in SPU's favor of being above it.
 
'We were kind of playing around with who could run what split and that kind of thing," assistant coach Chris Reed said. "But it's all conjecture until it all comes together. Real humans with personalities and pain actually have to do it, and they did it – every single one of them."

 

Decker (Vancouver, Wash. / Mountain View HS), who already is an automatic NCAA qualifier in the 800 meters, led off the 1,200 meter leg. She admitted to being a little nervous, primarily because that's not a distance she runs in any other race.
                                        
"I haven't run a 1,200 since, like, high school," said Decker, who split a 3:32. "I wasn't too sure if I'd go out too slow like mile pace or go out too fast and go an 800 pace. I was really happy that I hit pace and was spot-on, basically."
 
 

Ambus (Portland, Ore.), the defending GNAC indoor and outdoor 400-meter champion, split approximately 56 seconds, precisely what she needed.
 
"On the backstretch there, it felt like we were kind of moving too slow, so I decided to go with a kick," Ambus said. "I was scared that maybe I took off too early, but I was able to finish strong and hand it off to Chynna."

 

Phan (Deming, Wash. / Mt. Baker HS) had run two open 800s at Dempsey this year, going 2:15.52 in one and 2:20.47 in the other. But on Friday, she came through in 2:13, racing hard up the backstretch to surge into the lead.
 
""I've been working on not giving up," she said. "In my first race I had, I did good until the very end, then I kind of gave up. I knew I couldn't do that this time. I had to give everything I had because they were all giving everything they could."
 
The 1,600 anchor leg had the look of a conference final, with Patti, Alaska Anchorage's Joyce Chelimo, and Simon Fraser's Rebecca Bassett. Chelimo surged into the lead heading up the backstretch on the final lap to give UAA its final time of 11:39.41. Patti and Bassett followed her across the line, as all three GNAC schools beat Division1 counterparts UCLA (fourth), Hawaii (fifth), Eastern Washington (sixth), Houston (seventh), and Seattle U (eighth).
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD
Husky Classsic
Friday, February 12, 2016
Dempsey Indoor / Seattle, Wash.
 
Seattle Pacific events only
 
200 – 1, Samantha Dirks (Cal State Northridge) 24.25. SPU placers – 18, Jalen Tims 25.55; 23, Cheryl Hong 25.87; 29, Becca Houk 26.05
4000 distance medley relay – 1, Alaska Anchorage 11:39.44#. SPU placer – 2, Seattle Pacific (Lynelle Decker, Jahzelle Ambus, Chynna Phan, Anna Patti) 11:42.34.#