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AZUSA, Calif. – If the shoes fit, wear them. And if they don't fit …

… race in them.

It worked for Jalen Tims on Friday.

Competing in a slightly-oversized, borrowed pair of footwear after her own racing spikes went mysteriously missing, Tims broke into the double-0's in the 400-meter hurdles for the first time in her life, recording a 1:00.87 for a fifth-place finish at the Bryan Clay Invitational and boosting her chances of making the NCAA Division II nationals.

Coming into this weekend's Southern California trip ranked No. 8 nationally at 1:01.10 from last Saturday's Emilie Mondor Invitational in Canada, Tims (Portland, Ore.) climbed to No. 5 as of Friday evening. She also moved closer to the school record of 1:00.10 set by Jenny Vale in 1993.

"I just tried to execute and do what I knew I could do," Tims said. "Audra (SPU assistant coach Smith) told me just to relax and don't worry. I executed well, and I expected a PR, just based on how I felt."

But hers wasn't the only story with a twist to emerge from Cougar Athletic Stadium.

 

In the final event of the meet, Lynelle Decker ran to the season's second-fastest D2 time in the 1,500 meters. She finished her nearly four laps of the Azusa Pacific University oval in 4 minutes, 27.16 seconds.

As of Friday evening, the only D2 runner in the country ahead of Decker is the only D2 runner who was ahead of her in the meet: Cal Baptist's Veronica Hall, who logged a 4:26.15 in the heat immediately preceding Decker's.

Still ranked No. 1 nationally in the 800 in addition to being No. 2 now in the 1,500, Decker (Vancouver, Wash. / Mountain View HS) wasn't even supposed to be in that race. She had run the 800 earlier in the afternoon, and was penciled in for the second leg of the 4x400 relay.

But when a minor injury sidelined Jahzelle Ambus for the second part of the day (Ambus did anchor Seattle Pacific's NCAA provisional-qualifying 4x100 relay on Friday morning), the relay was scratched, and Decker was allowed to enter the 1,500.
        
She made the most of it, shattering her previous PR of 4:29.60, the time with which she won last year's Great Northwest Athletic Conference crown.

"I wasn't expecting anything. I was just going out to stay in the top (group) and see if I could win," Decker said. (She wound up sixth out of 15 in her section and 24th among the 191 finishers.) "Chris (assistant coach Reed) talked to me and just told me this was a race I could run really fast in, and that really helped. He gave me two good pointers about when to start my move and when to finish my move. With 300 to go, I was finishing my move and going all out."

SO WHERE'D THE SHOES GO?
Tims started her day feeling that was at least going to get into the double-0s in her race.

About 15 minutes before starting time, she was still feeling that way as she finished some initial warm-ups, and went to grab her spikes.

Except they weren't there.

"I called Jahzelle, I looked around, I was asking people – no one had them," Tims said.

 

She asked a couple of the Alaska Anchorage runners if one of them might have a pair she could borrow. They tried to help, but no one had her size. She then asked someone from Simon Fraser, and one of the men had a size 9½ pair.

"I wear a 9," Tims said, "but he let me borrow his. This was like five minutes before the race."

Tims hadn't even practiced going over some hurdles at that point, and she was in the first heat. All she had time to do was get to the starting line.

"We got in the blocks, and I just ran – it was crazy," Tims said. "When I was running, I didn't notice them. In the blocks, I did, and if I had thought about them, I would have."

Instead, all she thought about was getting around the track. Her time spoke for itself. And at Saturday's Beach Invitational about 30 miles down the road in Long Beach, she'll have her own spikes back.

Yes … they finally were found. Turns out Ambus – Tims' bestie – had them.

"She accidentally picked them up and thought they were hers," Tims said. "I'm definitely looking forward to Saturday. I'm in Lane 4, I have good Washington girls on the outside of me, and I feel good going into it. I'm definitely looking forward to going fast."

Tims is still in pursuit of the 1:00.10 school record, set by Jenny Vale in 1993. At the very least, she's looking to drop her time even more to make sure she's above the final cutoff line when the NCAA field is set for next month's nationals in Bradenton, Fla. The last entry into the 2015 meet was 1:00.54.
        
LUQUIN LETS IT RIP
Tims wasn't the only one making her presence felt in the 400 hurdles. Falcons senior teammate Maliea Luquin, a fellow Portlander, blew away her career best, coming across the line in 1:01.93.

Luquin had never even broken 1:03 previously. Skipping clear through the 1:02s put her onto the NCAA provisional list and into the national top 20 … at least for now.

 

"I think mentally, I was just so much more sure of this race, having a couple races under my belt," said Luquin, who earlier delivered a season-best time of 14.34 in the 100 hurdles that was fast enough to win her section, place 11th overall, and leave her just four-hundredths of a second away from provisional and her personal best in that race.

"I didn't feel that fear on the starting line this time," she added. "It was like, 'You know what you're doing; you've done this race before."

She also was pleased with how the 100s came out, and is convinced a sub-14 in that race is well within her reach.

"I feel in my gut that I can run 13.9, 13.8," she said. "After I came back from (indoor) nationals, I felt like that's the kind of runner I know I'm capable of being. Historically, I always do better at Long Beach, so I'm really excited for Saturday."

AND THAT'S NOT ALL
 

--Junior Kyra Brannan had a huge day, by far her best of the spring. She ran the third leg on the provisional-qualifying 4x100 relay that clocked 46.81 seconds. Sophomore Becca Houk led off, followed by Tims, Brannan, and Ambus. The Falcons came within four-hundredths of the school record 46.77, set in 2013.

Before the relay, Brannan (Kennewick, Wash. / Kamiakin HS) delivered a career-best long jump. She went 18 feet, 10¾ inches, finishing eighth and beating her old mark of 18-7 set last April 17 at the Clay Invite. Friday's distance met the NCAA provisional standard right on.

Brannan capped her day with a PR time of 12.34 in the 100-meter dash, beating the 12.37 she had posted twice, most recently last April 25 in Bellingham.

-- Sophomore Chynna Phan improved upon her NCAA provisional qualifying time in the 800. Phan (Deming, Wash. / Mt. Baker HS) ran an outdoor PR of 2:13.14. Her previous best was 2:13.32 on April 1 in San Francisco.
-- The speed in the 400 hurdles carried through to yet another Portland native, freshman Emma Lambert. She finished in 1:05.12 was half a second better than her old PR of 1:05.62 on April 2 at the San Francisco State Distance Carnival.
-- Cheryl Hong sliced half a second off her personal-best in the 400-meter dash. Hong, who has had 55-second splits on the 4x400 relay, broke 57 for the first time in the open 4, clocking 56.92. Her PR coming into the season was 57.89, meaning she's now nearly a full second faster than that.
-- Junior Justin Ramsey came very close to a second straight sub-50 in the men's 400 meters, a mark he broke for the first time in his career last Saturday at the Mondor Invite. Ramsey (Colorado Springs, Colo.) finished in 50.05. He ran 49.86 in Burnaby, B.C.
???

NCAA WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD
Bryan Clay Invitational
Friday, April 15, 2016
Cougar Athletic Stadium / Azusa, Calif.

SPU EVENTS ONLY

Team scores – Not kept.

100 – 1, Desiree Henry (adidas) 11.06. SPU – 34, Kyra Brannan 12.34!; 48, Becca Houk 12.59.
200 – 1, Desiree Henry (adidas) 22.98. SPU – 66, Becca Houk 26.30.
400 – 1, Geisa Cutinho (Brazil) 51.86. SPU – 20, Cheryl Hong 56.92#.
800 – 1, Shelby Houlihan (Nike / Bowerman TC) 2:03.88. SPU – 12, Lynelle Decker 2:09.41#!; 35, Chynna Phan 2:13.14#!.
1500 – 1, Calli Thackery (New Mexico) 4:14.99. SPU – 24, Lynelle Decker 4:27.16#!.
4x100 relay – 1, San Diego State 45.45. SPU – 5, Seattle Pacific (Becca Houk, Jalen Tims, Kyra Brannan, Jahzelle Ambus) 46.81#. 
100 hurdles – 1, Christie Moerman (Legacy Athletics) 13.30. SPU – 15, Maliea Luquin 14.34!.
400 hurdles – 1, Gianna Woodruff (Unattached) 57.63. SPU – 5, Jalen Tims 1:00.87#!; 11, Maliea Luquin 1:01.93#!; 40, Emma Lambert 1:05.12.
High jump – 1, Stephanie Ahrens (Nebraska-Omaha) 5-11 ¼ / 1.81m. SPU – 15, Geneva Lehnert 5-3 / 1.60m; 28, Naphtali Ward 5-1 / 1.55m.
Pole vault – 1, Bonnie Drexler (San Diego St.) 13-3 ½ / 4.05m. SPU – 19, Michaella Kahns 11-4 ¼ / 3.46m; 23, Emma Lambert 10-10 ¼ / 3.31m.
Long jump – 1, Aasha Marler (New Mexico) 19-8 ½ / 6.01m. SPU – 8, Kyra Brannan 18-10 ¾ / 5.76m#!; 41, Geneva Lehnert 16-8 / 5.08m.

# NCAA provisional qualifying     ! GNAC automatic qualifying


NCAA MEN'S TRACK & FIELD
Bryan Clay Invitational
Friday, April 15, 2016
Cougar Athletic Stadium / Azusa, Calif.

SPU EVENTS ONLY

Team scores – Not kept.

400 – 1, Josh Mance (Unattached) 45.79. SPU – 44, Justin Ramsey 50.05.
800 – 1, Lopez Lomong (Nike / Bowerman TC) 1:49.19. SPU – 55, Jesse Phan 1:55.04.
1500 – 1, Jack Bruce (Arkansas) 3:41.67. SPU – 138, Adam Avischious 4:01.34.
110 hurdles – 1, Siddanth Thingalaya (Evo / India) 14.00. SPU – 23, Peyton Harris 15.73.
Long jump – 1, Luis Rivera (Nike) 26-2 ¼ / 7.98m. SPU – T17, Peyton Harris 22-3 ¾ / 6.80m.