TACOMA – When it comes to steady, you-can-count-on-her performances, Scout Cai and Grace Bley know how to deliver.
 
Saturday was no different.
 
Bley was first across the finish line in the 200-meter dash, and Cai won the pole vault for Seattle Pacific at the Peyton-Shotwell Invitational.
 
Julia Stepper (100-meter dash), Ellie Rising (800) and Dania Holmberg (5000) also notched women's victories. David Njeri (long jump) was triumphant on the men's side.
 
Cai now has eight straight first-place finishes in the pole vault. On Saturday inside Baker Stadium at the University of Puget Sound, the senior cleared 12 feet, 3½ inches – her second-highest bar of the season. The only better one was 12-11 ½ at the PLU Open on March 6. Freshman Lizzy Daugherty made it a 1-2 finish with Cai by getting over at 10 feet, 4 inches.
 
Falcons senior Bley has raced in seven meets this spring and has picked up at least one 'W' in six of them. She has 11 altogether – six in individual events, five in relays.
 
She clocked 25.12 in Saturday's 200, combining with senior teammate Stepper (25.61) for a 1-2 finish.
 
Of Bley's six individual wins, four have come in the 200, the race in which she has won three Great Northwest Athletic Conference championships – two outdoors, one indoors.
 
 

Stepper ran to a season-best time of 12.20 seconds to take the 100. That gave her sole occupancy of the top rung on the GNAC list. She came into the weekend tied with Western Oregon sophomore Maya Hopwood for No. 1 at 12.25.
 
  Rising recorded her third straight win in the 800 meters, this one in 2:15.64.

 
 

Holmberg stopped the watch in a season-best time of 16:57.67 in the 5000. That was a seven-second drop from the 17:04.76 that she ran on March 20 at the Doris Heritage Track Festival. She now has five event wins for the year, with two of those in the 5K.
 
 

Njeri's season got a late start as he dealt with in injury. His first competition of the spring was in the dual meet against Seattle University on April 9, when he went 20-4½ in the long jump. At last week's CWU Wildcat Invitational in Ellensburg, he went considerably farther at 21-10¼. The sophomore topped that on Saturday with a leap of 22-4¼. That beat his previous best of 22-2 ½, set in 2019 when he was a freshman at Wingate University in North Carolina.
 
AND THAT'S NOT ALL
-- For the first time since her sophomore year of high school in 2016, Peace Igbonagwam ran the 400-meter dash, and clocked 57.26 seconds, good for second place. That's fastest among the Falcons. She has run seven 4-by-400 relays for SPU, split among the indoor and outdoor seasons, but this was her first open 400 in a maroon uniform. For the record, her lone high school time in that race was 1:06.13.
-- Freshman Aniya Green won her heat of the women's 200 in 26.56 seconds. She was fifth overall.
-- Another freshman, Julius Shepherd, won his heat of the men's 400-meter hurdles in 58.05. That gave him fifth place overall.
-- Darius Holmes, also a freshman, won his heat of the men's discus with a toss of 121 feet, 7 inches, good for seventh place overall.
-- Senior Kate Lilly ran the 3000 steeplechase for the first time ever, and was second in 11:57.59.
-- Team scores were kept. The SPU women were second with 111 points. Central Washington won with 257. The Falcon men scored 53 points and were fifth. Central won that one with 184.
 
UP NEXT
SPU heads to Whitworth University in Spokane next Friday, for the Buc Scoring Invitational. It will be the first time for the Falcons in that meet. Track races begin at 1:50 p.m., and field events start at 2:00. Fans will not be admitted.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD
Peyton / Shotwell Invitational
Saturday, April 24, 2021
Baker Stadium / Tacoma, Wash.
 
Team scoring – 1, Central Washington 257; 2, Seattle Pacific 111; 3, Pacific Lutheran 94; 4, Saint Martin's 83; 5, Western Washington 74; 6, Puget Sound 47; 7, Everett CC 26; 8, Multnomah 12; 9, Olympic College 9; 10, Green River CC 5.
 
SPU EVENTS ONLY
100 – 1, Julia Stepper (SPU) 12.20!. Other SPU – 5, Aniya Green 12.88.
200 – 1, Grace Bley (SPU) 25.12!. Other SPU – 2, Julia Stepper 25.61; 5, Aniya Green 26.56.
400 – 1, Karlie Hurley (WWU) 57.00. SPU – 2, Peace Igbonagwam 57.26!; 3, Grace Bley 57.80.
800 – 1, Ellie Rising (SPU) 2:15.64. No other SPU.
1500 – 2, Talia Dreicer (WWU) 4:55.08. SPU – 5, Annika Esvelt 5:04.09.
5000 – 1, Dania Holmberg (SPU) 16:57.67#. Other SPU – 4, Belle Brandenfels 18:01.10; 5, Kelsey Washenberger 18:24.31.
3000 steeplechase – 1, Caitlin Gohr (CWU) 11:48.50. SPU – 2, Kate Lilly 11:57.59.
Pole vault – 1, Scout Cai (SPU) 12-3½ / 3.75m#!. Other SPU – 2, Lizzy Daugherty 10-4 / 3.15m; 7, Emily Northey 9-4¼ / 2.85m.
 
# NCAA provisional qualifying      ! GNAC automatic qualifying
 
 
NCAA MEN'S TRACK & FIELD
Peyton / Shotwell Invitational
Saturday, April 24, 2021
Baker Stadium / Tacoma, Wash.
 
Team scores – 1, Central Washington 184; 2, Western Washington 165; 3, Saint Martin's 99½; 4, Pacific Lutheran 86½; 5, Seattle Pacific 53; 6, Everertt CC 40; 7, Puget Sound 28; 8, Olympic College 21; 9, Multnomah 5.
 
SPU EVENTS ONLY
400 – 1, Lucas Brenek (WWU) 49.64. SPU – 16, Jeff Gordon 55.30.
800 – 1, Jack Farrell (StM) 1:58.44. SPU – 3, Brayden Schultz 1:59.22; 8, J.R. Hentges 2:04.01.
1500 – 1, Jonah Meier (PLU) 4:07.65. SPU – 5, Austin Weese 4:13.42; 7, Jon Owen 4:14.34.
5000 – 1, Callahan Warren (WWU) 14:36.67. SPU – 4, Colin Boutin 15:17.54.
400 hurdles – 1, Cordell Cummings (WWU) 53.75. SPU – 5, Julius Shepherd 58.05.
Pole vault – 1, Kacey Provo (WWU) 14-10 ¼ / 4.53m. SPU – 4, Carter McGinnis 13-10 ½ / 4.23m; 6, Brad Bowman 13-10 ½ / 4.23m; 12, Darius Holmes 11-5 / 3.48m; Kainoa Lee no height.
Long jump – 1, David Njeri (SPU) 22-4 ¼ / 6.81m. No other SPU.
Triple jump – 1, Javon Gray (Evt CC) 47-7 ¾ / 14.52m. SPU – 2, David Njeri 45-7 ¼ / 13.90m!.
Shot put – 1, Seth Bridge (PLU) 49-5 ½ / 15.07m. SPU – 12, Darius Holmes 37-8 ½ / 11.49m.
Discus – 1, Aidan Cain (CWU) 43-10 / 43.86m. SPU – 7, Darius Holmes 121-7 / 37.06m.
 
! GNAC automatic qualifying