Official GNAC release (HTML)
 
PORTLAND, Ore. – From the time he signed her to join the Seattle Pacific women's track and field program, coach Karl Lerum knew that Scout Cai could make a big impact.
 
Just a few months into her college career, she already is proving him right.
 
After leading a 1-2-3 SPU sweep in the pentathlon and adding individual points in the pole vault and high jump Cai has been the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Women's Freshman of the Year for the winter indoor season.
 
"That's a really fine honor because of the quality of the freshmen in the GNAC this year," said Lerum, who had his own piece of the spotlight on Friday for earning a piece of the Women's Coach of the Year award. "It's an acknowledgment of how impressive it is for a freshman to be as skilled at the number of events as Scout has been this season."
 
Voting for the postseason awards was conducted by GNAC coaches and announced by the conference office on Friday.
 
Cai (Colfax, Wash. / Colfax HS) teamed up with fellow freshman Brooke Benner and sophomore Geneva Lehnert to give the Falcons 24 team points in the pentathlon on the first day of the GNAC Championships last month in Nampa, Idaho. She finished with 3,499 points, putting her into the NCAA Division II provisional qualifying list. That ultimately as the 22nd-best score in D2.
 
Consistency was Cai's calling card throughout the five events, setting personal-best marks in all of them. She placed third in the 60-meter hurdles, second in the high jump, fourth in the shot put, sixth in the long jump, and third in the 800 meters. She took the lead after the high jump, and kept it the rest of the way.
 
After a quick breather, Cai came back for the individual long jump competition later that afternoon, and placed 16^th. The next morning, she tied for seventh in the high jump at 5 feet, 1¼ inches, then was fourth in the pole vault at 12-0½. The pole mark also was an NCA provisional qualifier.
 
Now that the spring outdoor season has started, Cai has just kept going. At last week's Hornet Invitational in Sacramento, she made the NCAA provisional list in the heptathlon with 4,781 points.
 
Lerum and Simon Fraser's Brit Townsend shared the Coach of the Year honor – and appropriately so, since it was their teams who battled literally down to the final strides of the meet-ending 4x400 relay to determine who would claim the team title. The Falcons prevailed by 3½ points, 124 to 120½ -- the narrowest margin in conference history.
 
That was the 11th title for the Falcons in the 14 years that the conference has sponsored indoor track. Lerum has been in charge for nine of those.
 
It was the eighth GNAC coaching award for Lerum. He also has six West Region indoor coaching honors, and has been the GNAC outdoor Coach of the Year seven times.
 
 
GNAC 2017 INDOOR TRACK AND FIELD AWARDS
Male Athlete of the Year: David Ribich, Western Oregon.
Female Athlete of the Year: Addy Townsend, Simon Fraser.
Male Freshman of the Year: Adam Brown, Concordia.
Female Freshman of the Year: Scout Cai, Seattle Pacific.
Male Newcomer of the Year: Dustin Nading, Western Oregon.
Female Newcomer of the Year: None selected.
Men's Coaches of the Year: Michael Friess, Alaska Anchorage & Mike Johnson, Western Oregon.
Women's Coaches of the Year: Karl Lerum, Seattle Pacific, and Brit Townsend, Simon Fraser.