THE SCHEDULE:                Seattle Pacific at Mike Fanelli Track Classic
                                                Thursday-Friday, March 28-29, 2019
                                                Chabot College / Hayward, Calif.
                                                THURSDAY: 4:30 p.m.     FRIDAY: 3:55 p.m.    SATURDAY: 11:10 a.m.
                                                Live results        Live Webcast (pay-per-view)
 
                                             Seattle Pacific at Stanford Invitational
                                                Friday-Saturday, March 29-30, 2019
                                                Cobb Track & Angell Field / Stanford, Calif.
                                                FRIDAY: Noon     SATURDAY: 1:00 p.m.
                                                Live results        Live Webcast (pay-per-view)
               
 
        Weekly release, with updated season performance lists (HTML)

SEATTLE – The Bay Area is beckoning. And the Seattle Pacific Falcons are off to answer the call, as fast, as high, and as far as they possibly can when they head to Northern California for a pair of meets this week.
 
The distance runners will be at the Mike Fanelli Track Classic. Races are at Chabot College in Hayward, on the east side of San Francisco Bay, on Thursday through Saturday. This meet was formerly known as the San Francisco State Distance Carnival before adopting its new moniker this spring.
 
Falcon sprinters and jumpers will be about 22 miles away on the other side of the Bay at the Stanford Invitational. That meet is set for Friday and Saturday.
 
Both meets, especially Stanford, will have a considerable presence of NCAA Division I competitors.
 
This is the second straight week of California competition for SPU athletes. Last weekend, eight Falcon women were in San Diego at the Aztec Invitational. The team will have one more Cali trip in mid-April to Azusa and to Long Beach.
 
KEEPING TRACK OF THINGS
Both meets will have live Webcasts on a pay-per-view basis through FloTrack. Free live results also will be available from both venues. The appropriate links can be found at the top of this story.
 
ONCE AGAIN, IT'LL FEEL LIKE HOME
As was the case in San Diego a week ago, SPU athletes will be able to compete in conditions pretty close to what they've been training in at home this month. The forecast for Hayward calls for a mixture of clouds and sun on Thursday with the possibility of a few showers, and highs in the low 60s. On Friday, it'll be mostly sunny and in the low to mid 60, and then in the mid 60s again on Saturday.
 
Stanford, being nearby, will have essentially similar conditions on Friday. But those competing on Saturday can expect warmer temperatures as high move toward the upper 60s.
 
CAI CLAIMS WEEKLY HONOR
Falcons junior Scout Cai, who racked up 5,001 heptathlon points at last week's Aztec Invitational, earned a share of the GNAC Women's Field Athlete of the Week award for March 18-24.

 

Through this early stage of the season, Cai is one of just three D2 athletes so far to have topped 5,000 points.
 
Cai closed out the two-day, seven-event hep by winning the 800-meter run. She also placed fourth in the high jump and shot put portions, and fifth in the 200-meter dash and javelin.
 
Her total was just 16 points away from the career-best 5,017 she scored at last year's GNAC Multi-Event Championships.
 
This is Cai's first outdoor Athlete of the Week honor, to go along with an indoor award during her sophomore season in 2018.
 
Cai shared this week's honor with Alaska Anchorage's Chrisalyn Johnson, who won the long jump and triple jump at the Willamette Invitational.

 

 













SCOUTING THE MIKE FANELLI TRACK CLASSIC
Just two events are scheduled for Thursday – the 3000 steeplechase and the 10,000 meters – but the Falcons will have competitors in both.
 
The women's steeple will include freshman Kaylee Mitchell. She ran that race for the first time on March 9 at the PLU Open in Tacoma, and immediately put herself on to the NCAA Division II provisional qualifying list with a time of 10:51.22. Coming into this week, that still ranks No. 4 in country. Also entered in the steeple (although they ultimately might not be same heat) is Simon Fraser senior Chelsea Riberio, who just happens to have the current top-ranked D2 time of 10:38.40. Mitchell also will pursue the school record of 10:45.54, set in 2008 by Suzie Strickler.
 
Colby Otero and Jared Putney are in the men's steeple, and each of them has a win this spring: Otero at PLU, and Putney at the Ed Boitano / Puget Sound Invite.
 
The 10,000 will have junior Sedona McNerney in the women's race and sophomore Colin Boutin in the men's. Both scored in that event at GNAC last year.
 
Saturday's schedule will include a traditional mile, even though that event isn't part of the NCAA outdoor card any more. Dania Holmberg, Kate Lilly and Kelsey Washenberger will run in the women's race. Lilly also is in Friday's 1500; the other two, along with Katherine Walter, are in the 5000 on Friday.
 
SCOUTING THE STANFORD INVITATIONAL
Just one week after setting a school record in the 4-by-100 relay at the Aztec Invite, SPU's foursome of Peace Igbonagwam, Jenna Bouyer, Grace Bley, and Julia Stepper will try to go even faster. The freshman-freshman-junior-sophomore combo clocked 46.23 in San Diego. That is No. 2 nationally. That race is on Saturday.
 
Bley and Bouyer also are in the 200 meters. Bley already has gone 25.10 and 25.17 this season; her PR is 24.70 at last year's GNAC meet. Bouyer has a 25.47 outdoors and a 24.91 indoors.
 
Igbonagwam will be plenty busy. In addition to the relay, she is entered in the 100-meter dash and long jump, both on Friday, and the triple jump on Saturday. She hit the 19-foot mark in the long spot on at the Aztec.
 
Also going for three events are junior Scout Cai and sophomore Renick Meyer. Cai is focusing strictly on field events with the high jump, pole vault, and javelin. Meyer already has a 19-foot long jump this spring, going 19-2 at the Aztec Invitational heptathlon last week. She also will do the 200-meter dash and 100-meter hurdles.
 
Freshman Madison Licari is looking to continue her upward trend in the pole vault, having gone from 10-0 to 10-6 to 10-11 ¾.
 




SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- Over the years, the Bay Area has yielded some big performances for the Falcons. In the 2017 Distance Carnival, Mary Charleson, then a senior, broke 17 minutes in the 5000 (16:59.29, an NCAA provisional qualifying time). The 2016 meet saw Chynna Phan (800) and Charleson (5000) make the provisional list.
--On the men's side, Turner Wiley set school 10K records in consecutive years at the Carnival: 31:03.58 as a junior in 2015, then 30:53.09 in 2016, making him the first (and still only) Falcon man in the 30s for that distance.
-- The last time Seattle Pacific athletes competed at Stanford was in 2016. All of them have since graduated except for Geneva Lehnert, who's now a senior. She was ninth in the high jump that year (5-3) and 12^th in the long jump (16-2 ¾.). She is in the high jump this week.
--Heading into the week, Julia Stepper and Grace Bley are 1-2 in the GNAC in the 100-meter dash (12.15 and 12.16, respectively). Bley, Stepper, Jenna Bouyer, and Renick Meyer are 1-2-4-5 in the 200; Emma Lambert is tied for No. 1 in the pole vault (11-5 ¾), Meyer and Peace Igbonagwam are 1-2 in the long jump; Scout Cai and Meyer are 1-3 in the heptathlon, and the 4-by-1 relay of Igbonagwam, Bouyer, Bley, and Stepper is No. 1.
 
IT'S ALL IN HOW YOU STACK IT
When the SPU unit of Peace Igbonagwam, Jenna Bouyer, Grace Bley, and Julia Stepper set the school 4-by-100 relay record last Friday in San Diego, some meticulous planning went into deciding who would run leadoff, second leg, third leg, and anchor.
 
 

As assistant coach / sprint coach Audra Smith explained it, "Peace really gets out (of the starting blocks), Jenna runs a phenomenal backstretch, you want to put your best 200 runner on the corner, and that's Grace, and Julia has shown she can run a fast 60 to 100 meters."
 
That same foursome will run get a shot to go even faster on Saturday at Stanford.
 
"Right now, I like this order," Smith said. "There's always room to get better – and they'll do it."
 
POLLING PLACE
SPU's women have climbed into the national top 10.
 
The Falcons, who were No. 14 a week ago, moved all the up to No. 6, with 114.09 points in the computer-generated rankings. They are earning points in 13 of the 21 events, and 12 athletes are factoring into those points. Renick Meyer is listed in three events (100 hurdles, long jump, heptathlon). Grace Bley (100, 200), Kaylee Mitchell (1500, steeplechase), Scout Cai (high jump, heptathlon), and Peace Igbonagwam (long jump, triple jump) are in two apiece.
 
Bley, Igbonagwam, and Jenna Bouyer also are on the 4-by-1 and 4-by-4 relays that are in the points.
 
Angelo State of Texas is No. 1 with 183.199.
 
On the West Region list, SPU is No. 5 with 393.15 points.. UC San Diego occupies the top spot with 555.73.
 
UP NEXT
The full Falcon squads will be in action next Friday when they head to Civic Stadium in Bellingham for the Western Washington Team Invitational. SPU will join Saint Martin's, British Columbia, and the host Vikings for the meet that will include team scoring. Field events begin at 2:00 p.m., and the first race on track is the 3000 steeplechase at 3;00 p.m. The last event on the schedule is the women's 4-by-400 relay at 7:05.