THE SCHEDULE:                Seattle Pacific at Jim Hammer Meet
                                                Saturday, April 14, 2018
                                                Saint Martin's Track / Lacey, Wash.
                                                Field events, 10:00 a.m.   Track events 10:30 a.m.
                                                No live Webcast or live results
                                               

       Weekly release, with updated season performance lists (PDF) 
        Jay Hammer Meet home page (HTML)
        Meet information and schedule (PDF)
        Heat sheets (PDF)
 
SEATTLE – The second half of the outdoor track and field season is here for the Seattle Pacific Falcons.
 
With six weeks in the books, SPU has five weeks left on the spring calendar. That starts on Saturday when the teams take a quick trip south to Lacey for the Jay Hammer Meet at Saint Martin's University.
 
Field events begin at 10:00 a.m., and races on the track start at 10:30. The Falcons won't have their first field event until 11:00 (women's javelin and long jump). Their first track race will be at 11:35 with the men's 3,000 meters. Seattle Pacific's final event of the day is the women's 5,000 meters at 4:00 p.m.
 
This is the first year of the Jay Hammer meet. Saint Martin's typically has hosted a meet every year, at various points on the calendar – sometimes in April, sometimes in May as the final meet of the regular season.
 
The Falcons are coming off some strong individual performances at last Friday's Western Washington Team Invitational in Bellingham. The women were third in the team standings, and the men finished fourth.
 
KEEPING TRACK OF THE MEET
Falcon fans who want to follow the action will have to be in Lacey, as the meet will not have live results or a live Webcast. The Saint Martin's track is located in the far northeast corner of the campus, past the Marcus Pavilion gymnasium and adjacent to the baseball diamond. Plenty of parking is available, some in a paved lot, some in a gravel lot.
 
NO SHIRTSLEEVES FOR THIS ONE
After some pleasant weather in Bellingham last Friday that actually allowed for the removal of jackets (for a while, at least), thing are expected to be back to normal on Saturday in Lacey: cool and wet. The forecast calls for periods of rain most of the day, Highs will barely be into the 50s.
 
THAT'S TWO MORE ON THE NCAA LIST
Seattle Pacific added another pair of NCAA Division II provisional qualifying marks at last week's WWU Team Invitational.

 

Sophomore Scout Cai picked up her second one of the season, getting onto the pole vault list by clearing 12 feet, one-half inch, beating the minimum standard of 11-11¼. That puts her in 20^th place nationally heading into the weekend, and third among West Region pole vaulters.
 
Cai now has two NCAA marks, having earlier made it in the heptathlon. Her score of 4,710 points currently ranks 13^th nationally.
 
 

Sophomore Kate Lilly earned her first-ever individual qualifying time, clocking 4 minutes, 33.34 seconds in the 1500 meters. That beat the 4:33.86 minimum time and has her in 27^th place this week.
 
The NCAA has a "desired minimum" of 20 competitors in the individual events, and 16 in the heptathlon. Last year, 21 were accepted for the 1500, with a cutoff time of 4:32.35. The pole vault also had 21, with 12-6 being the last qualifying height. The hep was filled to its maximum of 16, the last score in being 4,978 points.

Click on this link to see a list of NCAA Division II qualifiers. Click on this link to see how the Falcons stack up within the GNAC.
 
SCOUTING THE JAY HAMMER MEET
The Falcon sprinters have been getting the job done this spring, and they'll have a chance to do some more on Saturday.
 
The highlight very well could be the 4x100 relay with freshman Renick Meyer, freshman Julia Stepper, senior Becca Houk, and sophomore Grace Bley, This will be their third straight week together, and they're on an upward trend (or, downward on the stopwatch).
 
At the UBC Open on March 30, that foursome came through in 47.41 seconds. Last Friday in Bellingham, they lowered that to 47.09. That still ranks No. 1 in the GNAC and is nearly a full second ahead of No. 2 Western Washington (48.08). It also is 17^th overall in D2, although the Falcons still have to meet the NCAA provisional time of 46.85. (Just nine schools have made provi so far.)
 
Those four will do other events, as well – the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, and javelin for Meyer, the 200 and long jump for Stepper, the 100 meters for Houk, and the 400 meters for Bley.
 
Meyer's busy schedule is part of her preparation for next week's heptathlon at the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa, California. Also getting ready for that hep are sophomore Scout Cai and freshman Kellie May, so they will have a full docket on Saturday, as well. Both are in the 100 hurdles and javelin; Cai will add the long jump, and May will do the high jump.
 
Most of the distance runners are taking this week off as a breather before the Clay and the Beach Invite in Southern California. Penciled in to see action are freshman Dania Holmberg in the 1500, sophomore Sedona McNerney in the 5000, and freshman Elizabeth Thompson in the 800 and 1500.
 
McNerney's 5K will be her second of the year, having gone 18:48 59 at the Sacramento State Hornet Invitational on March 17. Holmberg, who missed most of the winter indoor season with an injury has steadily dropped time in the 1500, with a season-best 4:47.14 last Friday.
 
SPU's men are loading up the 3000 meters with half a dozen competitors. Since that's not an official NCAA outdoor event, it's not offered at very many meets.
 
All six of the Falcons on the entry list will be doing the 3K for the first time on an outdoor oval at the college level – although three of them – sophomore Joseph Perkins, and freshmen Shad Galloway and Royce Garcia – have raced it in high school. In fact, Garcia was fifth in last year's Hawaii high school state meet in 9:24.40, and Galloway placed 10^th in last year's Class 6A (large school) Oregon state meet with a time of 8:50.60.
 
Freshman Aidan Manley is entered in a distance double, racing the 3000, then coming back 2½ hours later for the 1500
 
Another freshman, pole vaulter Davis Flintoff, will try to make it two straight career-high bars, having cleared 13-8¼ last week in Bellingham.
 




SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- This is the first time since 2015 that the Falcons have been to a meet at Saint Martin's. They did not attend the 2016 meet, and the Saints did not host one last year.
-- The meet will have team scoring. In 2015, the Falcon women tied with Central Washington for the title, each tallying 145 points. The SPU men were third with 106, trailing Saint Martin's (183) and Central Washington (117).
-- Of the 10 current Falcon seniors, six of them were in that 2015 meet. Peyton Harris won the 110-meter hurdles, ran the second leg on the winning 4x100 relay, and was second in the long jump. (He's entered in the long and on the relay again.) Becca Houk led off the winning women's 4x100 and was second in the open 100. (She's entered in both.) Ben Halladay was seventh in the 1500. (He's in the 3000 this time.) Chynna Phan (second in the 800), Mary Charleson (sixth in the 1500) and Hailey Kettel (10^th in 1500) are not racing this week.
-- The Falcons will see some familiar faces, as GNAC stablemates Western Washington, Central Washington, and Concordia-Portland will be among the 16 schools in the meet. Seattle University also is coming.
-- The men's 4x400 team of of senior Peyton Harris and sophomores Shayne Carpenter, David Choi, and Christian Wong will race for the fifth time this season. They will be going for another best time as they attempt to climb into the GNAC's top eight. The Harris-Carpenter-Choi-Wong combo went 46.04 in the season opener on March  3 at UPS, 45.94 at the PLU Open on March 10, lowered that to 44.99 at UBC on March 30, then hit the wire in 44.36 last week at WWU. That puts them No. 9 on the conference list, just 29 hundredths of a second behind No. 8 Central Washington (44.57).
-- The meet is named after Jay Hammer, a long-time Saint Martin's track and field supporter and program donor.
 
RETURN TO THE RANKINGS
Following a three-week absence, the SPU women are back among the West Region's top 10 in the rankings released this week by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
 
The Falcons check in at No. 10 on the West list, totaling 135.40 points. That moved them up six places from the No. 16 spot they occupied last week.
 
Seattle Pacific was No. 8 in the first set of West rankings released on March 20. It fell to No. 20 the following week before moving up to No. 16 on last week's list.
 
The Falcons still are not back among the national top 25, sitting at No. 81 this week.
 
The USTFCCCA rankings are computer-generated, based strictly on season performances rather than on voting by coaches.
 
AFTER 6 YEARS, McPHEE BACK ON THE TRACK
She just concluded her college basketball career by scoring her 1,000^th career point and earning All-America honors both on the court and in the classroom.

 

Now, Jordan McPhee will don a different kind of SPU uniform when she puts on a track singlet for the 1500 meters on Saturday at Saint Martin's.
 
Although this will be her first college meet – and her first track competition of any kind since 2012 – McPhee is no novice when it cones to racing. At Mount Rainier High School in Des Moines (near Sea-Tac Airport), McPhee won the Washington state Class 4A (large school) 1600-meter championship as a sophomore in 2012, coming through the finish line in 5 minutes, 1.27 seconds. In fact, she ran the 1600 six times that year, winning all six. She posted a PR of 4:57.26 at the West Central District meet.
 
As a freshman, McPhee was third in the 1600 at state. She also was second in the 3200 meters both years. And, she won the Class 4A state cross country title as a sophomore in the fall of 2011.
 
CHASING THE WILDCATS
With the season essentially at its midpoint, Central Washington still has the edge in pursuit of the GNAC women's team title.
 
Based on marks in the national data system, the Wildcats would be seeded for 146½ points. Concordia-Portland is next with 128, the SPU at 123½ and Alaska Anchorage at 114½.
 
Central begins the weekend with 28 slots among the top 8 in the 21 events. That includes five top rankings. Seattle Pacific has 27 slots in the top 8, with three No. 1s: Julia Stepper in the 100-meter dash, Renick Meyer in the long jump, and the 4x100 relay of Meyer, Stepper, Becca Houk, and Grace Bley.
 
Concordia has 22 in the top 8, with four No. 1s. Furthermore, of those 22 slots for the Cavaliers, 16 are in the four throwing events, including Nos. 1 through 6 in the shot put. Alaska Anchorage has 23 slots in the top 8, with four No. 1s.
 
THE WINS KEEP COMING
With seven event victories last week at the Western Washington Team Invitational, the Seattle Pacific women now have 23 for the season.
 
Julia Stepper (100), Grace Bley (200), Lani Taylor (400), Renick Meyer (100 hurdles, long jump), and both relays accounted for the W's in Bellingham.
 
Meyer now has factored into 11 wins this spring: five individually, one in the Hornet Invite heptathlon (the 200-meter dash), and five relays. Stepper and Houk each have three individual wins and have run on four victorious relays. Bley has one individual win and has been on four winning relays.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons take their annual trip to Southern California next week. First stop is Azusa for the Bryan Clay Invitational. Heptathletes Scout Cai, Kellie May, and Renick Meyer will compete on Wednesday and Thursday. The 3000 steeplechase and 5000 meters also are set for Thursday. The rest of the meet is Friday, with running and field events both starting at 9:00 a.m. On Saturday, it's a 35-mile trip south to Long Beach for the Beach Invitational. Running and field events both start at 9:00 a.m.