TACOMA, Wash. – For Kelsey Washenberger it was a long-awaited 'W'
 
For Ellie Rising it was her second in two weeks.
 
And Scout Cai? Well, she's 3 for 3.
 
The pair of  distance runners and the All-American pole vaulter were among the Seattle Pacific athletes who accounted for six victories on Saturday at the Ed Boitano Invitational track and field meet.
 
Grace Bley, Renick Meyer, and the 4-by-400 relay team with Bley, Rising, Charisma Smith, and Julia Stepper joined their teammates in the win column at Baker Stadium on the University of Puget Sound campus.
 
 

Washenberger, a sophomore, has raced everything from 800 to 5000 meters, plus the steeplechase, on an outdoor oval. On Saturday, her focus was in the 1500 meters, and she was first across the finish line in 4 minutes, 50.57 seconds for her first college victory. That was a drop of nearly six seconds from what she ran at the PLU Open to start the season on March 6.
 
 

Falcons freshman Rising was triumphant in the 800 meters at last week's Doris Heritage Track Festival. She did it again this week, and in a significantly faster time of 2:13.95. In just her first month of college competition, Rising has dropped six-plus seconds in that race, going from 2:20.04 at PLU to 2:16.18 at the Heritage to Saturday's time.

Dania Holmberg and Elizabeth Thompson combined with Rising to make it a 1-2-3 finish.
 
 

Cai has pole vaulted all three meets, taking the top spot in all of them. This time, she cleared 11 feet, 9¾ inches, getting over on her third attempt.
 
 

Bley posted a season-best time of 24.61 seconds in the 200-meter dash. She got to the wire three-tenths of a second ahead of Pacific Lutheran's Bailey Forsyth. Bley has gone sub-25 in all three meets so far, winning with a 24.81 at PLU and placing second with a 24.95 at the Heritage Festival.
 
It was the second year in a row that Bley won a Boitano Invite event. She took the 400 dash last season.
 
Meyer had by far and away the best long jump of the day, winning at 18 feet, 11½ inches. That one came on her third and final attempt in the preliminaries. The closest one to her was Central Washington's Yareli Ochoa at 17-7¼.
 
 

The last time Meyer jumped competitively was Feb. 29, 2020, when she went 18-10 at the SPU Final Qualifier indoor meet. She did not compete in the long jump the following weekend to begin the outdoor schedule at this same Boitano Invite – and shortly after that, the season was shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic.
 
Meyer's last outdoor jump was 18-6 ¾ at the 2019 Great Northwest Athletic Conference meet, so she's already ahead of that.
 
The Bley-Rising-Smith-Stepper 4-by-400 relay logged a winning time of 3:59.91. It was the first time that combination has competed.
 
AND THAT'S NOT ALL
 

-- Sophomore sprinter Julius Shepherd and freshman Abby Kauffman also got a taste of victory. Shepherd won his heats of the 200- and 400-meter dashes, with times of 23.06 and 51.73. Kauffman took her heat of the 100-meter dash on the women's side, clocking 12.92  That was a drop of three-tenths from her 13.22 at the Heritage Festival.
-- Colin Boutin continues to show why the 10,000 meters has become his favorite event. Competing on Friday, as the 10K was run a day early, Boutin posted a 28-second personal-best time of 32:00.18. His previous best was 32:28.66 at the 2019 GNACs. Last week, Boutin had a 14-second PB in the 5000, giving him 42 seconds' worth of best-ever performances in a span of seven days.
-- Freshman Austin Weese did the 3000-meter steeplechase for the first time, and came home fourth in 9:33.86. Weese did a pair of steeples while at Camas High School, but those were both 2000-meter events.
 

-- Freshman Jon Owen is now a sub-2:00 man in the 800 meters Owen stopped the watch in 1:59.91. His PB coming into the season was 2:09.64. He dropped five seconds at PLU (2:04.36), another two at the Heritage (2:02.43), and now another 2 ½.
-- Freshman Kainoa Lee had a noteworthy improvement in the pole vault, adding 10 inches to his previous best. He got over at 13-11¼, easily topping the 13-1½ he did at PLU.
-- Darius Holmes finally got to compete as a collegian for the first time. The multi-talented freshman was 10^th in the discus at 114 feet, 6 ½ inches, and was 11^th in the pole vault with a clearance of 11-5¾.
-- Team scores were kept. The Falcon women finished third with 127 points, trailing Central Washington (154) and Western Washington (138). The men were sixth with 37 points. Western won with 266.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons will head the opposite direction on Interstate 5 next Saturday, venturing north to Bellingham for the Western Washington Team Invitational. Women's competition begins at 10:00 a.m. in the field and 10:30 on the track. Men's field events begin at 2:30 p.m., and track races start at 3:00.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD
Ed Boitano Invitational
Saturday, March 27, 2021
Baker Stadium / Tacoma, Wash.
 
Team scores – 1, Central Washington 154; 2, Western Washington 138; 3, Seattle Pacific 127; 4, Saint Martin's 91; 5, Pacific Lutheran 86; 6, Puget Sound 49; 7, Everett CC 17; 8, Green River CC 5.
 
100 – 1, Bailey Forsyth (PLU) 12.21. SPU – 2, Grace Bley 12.29; 3, Julia Stepper 12.43; 5, Renick Meyer 12.72; 7, Abby Kauffman 12.92.
200 – 1, Grace Bley (SPU) 24.61. Other SPU – 3, Julia Stepper 25.15; 10, Abby Kauffman 26.87; 12, Charisma Smith 26.89.
400 – 1, Jackilyn Lewis (UPS) 59.58. SPU – 3, Charisma Smith 1:00.79.
800 – 1, Ellie Rising (SPU) 2:13.95. Other SPU – 2, Dania Holmberg 2:17.78; 3, Elizabeth Thompson 2:21.27.
1500 – 1, Kelsey Washenberger (SPU) 4:50.57. Other SPU – 3, Belle Brandenfels 5:00.04; 5, Annika Esvelt 5:02.77.
5000 – 1, Sam Schaffer (UPS) 19:45.59. No SPU.
10,000 – 1, Sarah Paquet (PLU) 38:03.62. No SPU.
100 hurdles – 1, Lauryn Chandler (CWU) 15.29. No SPU.
400 hurdles – 1, McCall Dechenne (CWU) 1:03.02. No SPU.
3000 steeplechase – No competitors.
4x100 relay – 1, Saint Martin's 50.28. No SPU.
4x400 relay – 1, Seattle Pacific (Grace Bley, Ellie Rising, Charisma Smith, Julia Stepper) 3:59.91. No other SPU.
High jump – 1, Lauren Wilson (PLU) 5-5 / 1.65m. No SPU.
Pole vault – 1, Scout Cai 11-9 ¾ / 3.60m. Other SPU – 3, Lizzy Daugherty 10-10 / 3.30m; 9 Emily Northey 9-4 ¼ / 2.85m.
Long jump – 1, Renick Meyer (SPU) 18-11 ½ / 5.78m. Other SPU – 7, Kellie May 16-7 ½ / 5.07m.
Triple jump – 1, Karlie Hurley (WWU) 37-9 ¼ / 11.51m. No SPU.
Shot put – 1, Avery Fisk (CWU) 42-11 ½ / 13.09m. No SPU.
Discus – 1, Avery Fisk (CWU) 136-11 ½ / 41.75m. No SPU.
Hammer – 1, Meagan Smallback (CWU) 159-5 ½ / 48.61m. No SPU.
Javelin – 1, Hannah Nienaber (WWU) 149-0 ½ / 45.43m. SPU – 6, Abby Kauffman 112-8 ½ / 34.35m; 10, Kellie May 94-6 ½ / 28.81m.
 
 
NCAA MEN'S TRACK & FIELD
Ed Boitano Invitational
Saturday, March 27, 2021
Baker Stadium / Tacoma, Wash.
 
Team scores – 1, Western Washington 266; 2, Central Washington 140; 3, Saint Martin's 85; 4, Pacific Lutheran 69; 5, Everett CC 42; 6, Seattle Pacific 37; 7, Puget Sound 32; 8, Multnomah 23.
 
100 – 1, Zachary Davis (CWU) 11.14. No SPU.
200 – 1, Michael Russell (STM) 22.10. SPU – 5, Julius Shepherd 23.06; 12, Evan Carpenter 23.79.
400 – 1, Lukas Brenek (WWU) 49.52. SPU – 6, Julius Shepherd 51.73; 9, Evan Carpenter 53.77.
800 – 1, Calahan Warren (WWU) 1:55.88. SPU – 3, Brayden Schultz 1:58.18; 5, Jon Owen 1:59.91; 6, Elius Graff 2:00.21.
1500 – 1, Jack Farrell (STM) 4:01.22. No SPU.
5000 – 1, Jack Farrell (STM) 15:47.50. No SPU.
10,000 – 1, Calahan Warren (WWU) 29:55.17. SPU – 7, Colin Boutin 32:00.18.
110 hurdles – 1, Koby Okezie (WWU) 14.86. No SPU.
400 hurdles – 1, Cordell Cummings (WWU) 54.13. No SPU.
3000 steeplechase – 1, Kaleb Korta (WWU) 9:19.40. SPU – 4, Austin Weese 9:33.86.
4x100 relay – 1, Multnomah 50.14. No SPU.
4x400 relay – 1, Saint Martin's 3:25.88. SPU – 2, Seattle Pacific (Julius Shepherd, Brayden Schultz, Jon Owen, Evan Carpenter) 3:33.10.
High jump – 1, Damian Mercado (WWU) 6-2 ¾ / 1.90m. No SPU.
Pole vault – 1, Kacey Provo (WWU) 14-11 / 4.55m. SPU – 7, Kainoa Lee 13-11 ¼ / 4.25m; 9, Brad Bowman 12-11 ½ / 3.95m; 11, Darius Holmes 11-5 ¾ / 3.50m.
Long jump – 1, Javon Gray (Evt CC) 22-2 ¼ / 6.76m. No SPU.
Triple jump – 1, Javon Gray (Evt CC) 48-2 ½ / 14.69m. No SPU.
Shot put – 1, Seth Bridge (PLU) 52-9 ¼ / 16.08m. No SPU.
Discus – 1, Aidan Cain (CWU) 149-2 / 45.48m. SPU – 10, Darius Holmes (SPU) 114-6 ½ / 34.91m.
Hammer – 1, Andrew Harris (CWU) 188-8 / 57.50m. No SPU.
Javelin – 1, Mason Salley (WWU) 179-6 ½ / 54.73m. No SPU.