SPOKANE, Wash. – Near-perfect weather. Solid competition. Terrific results.

The Seattle Pacific Falcons have been waiting for a day like this all spring.
 
Scout Cai has been waiting longer than that.
 
Cai broke the Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's pole vault record on Friday night and Grace Bley won two events, setting a Boppell Stadium record in the women's 200-meter dash, and the Falcons won six events overall in the Buc Scoring Invitational track and field meet at Whitworth University.

Joining Cai and Bley (100, 200) in the winner's circle for SPU were were freshman Ellie Rising in the 800, senior Dania Holmberg in the 1500, and sophomore Jared Putney in the men's 3000-meter steeplechase.

 

A senior who elected to return for a final season after the 2020 schedule was wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic, Cai cleared 13 feet, 3 inches, getting over on her second attempt.
 
But in fact, she broke the GNAC record twice. The old mark was 13-1¾, set in 2017 by Anna Paradee of Western Washington. Cai bettered that when she got over at 13-2½..
 
Then, they nudged the bar up to 13-3 – and she also made that one on the second try.
 
"It felt so good – that has been my goal my whole college career," Cai said. "I've been wanting to clear 13 feet, so I'm glad I could do that today. It was just a great day to PR. At the beginning, it was super hot, so I didn't have to warm up as much, which was nice."

 
Cai, whose season and career best was 12-11½ to start the season at the PLU Open on March 6, passed on Friday's first seven bars, coming into the competition at 11-9 and making it on the first try. The bar went up to 12-2¾, and she also got that one on the first attempt.
 
She passed on 12-8¾, then came back at 13-2½. Cai missed on the first attempt, but made it on the second. Ditto at 13-3.
 
"I think we knew she was ready to do it – I know we knew she was ready to do it, and she knew she was ready to do it," SPU head coach Karl Lerum said. "We've just been waiting for an opportunity when she could just pole vault and not worry about side winds or weather or rain. This was truly great conditions and she just took advantage of the opportunity. It lined up for her, and she did it."
 
"That's a fantastic jump. For a senior to come in and PR twice on a single day is truly incredible," Lerum added.
 
Cai's jump puts her into the No. 8 spot on the NCAA Division II provisional qualifying list as of Friday evening. A minimum of 13 and a maximum of 17 vaulters will make it into the nationals. The current No. 13 mark is 13-2¼; the No. 17 mark is 13-0¼.

BLEY'S BLAZIN'
Like Cai, Bley decided to take advantage of the chance to come back for a final season.
 
 

On Friday, about an hour after winning the 100-meter dash in a lifetime-best 12.01, she clocked 24.53 in the 200. That broke the stadium record of 24.58.
 
The pair of victories gave Bley eight for the season, with five of those coming in the 200. She has run both of those races in all eight meets and is the GNAC leader in both.
 
And right behind her is sophomore Jenna Bouyer. She ran third in the 100 with a 12.06 and second in the 200 at 24.80.
 
Blazing in her own way was senior Holmberg. She put on a surge in the latter half of the 1500 meters and never slowed down, pushing it all the way to the finish line and stopping the watch in 4 minutes, 29.73 seconds. Not only was that a season best by almost seven seconds, it was a personal best by nearly two seconds, beating her old best of 4:31.45 from 2019.
 
Holmberg's time puts her onto the NCAA provisional qualifying list in the No. 17 spot.
 
Freshman Rising joined the winner's list with a near wire-to-wire victory in the 800. She made a decisive move as she came out of the curve and started up the backstretch on the second and final lap. No one was able to catch up with her, and Rising came through the wire in a personal-best 2:12.80. She now has run the 800 five times this spring, and has won the last four.
 
 
NJERI JUMPS TO THE FRONT
It was by the narrowest of margins that sophomore David Njeri hit the 48-foot mark in the triple jump.
 
But no matter how one reads it, 48 is still 48.
 
 

Njeri logged a collegiate personal best of 48 feet, one-half inch to finish second in the triple and take over the GNAC lead. He came into the meet No. 2 on the conference list with his mark of 47-1¾ at the CWU Wildcat Invitational on April 17. That was 1¼ inches behind Jalon Fields of Western Oregon, who had 47-3.
 
The only one ahead of Njeri on Friday was Idaho's Britt Ispen at 48-6 ¾.
 
"That felt pretty good. I wasn't expecting to go those distances, but it just felt good and I popped a good jump," said Njeri, who went 48-2 in 2017 at a junior at Tacoma's Wilson High School to win the district championship.
 
Putney took command of the men's 3000-meter steeplechase in the final 1500 meters. He and freshman teammate Austin Weese ran alongside each during the first half of the race before Putney gradually pulled away and never let up all the way to the finish line. His time of 9:23.92 was a personal-best by a whopping 13.23 seconds, beating the 9:37.15 he set in cooler, damper conditions on April 9 in the dual meet against Seattle University.
 
Last week, Brayden Schultz broke the four-minute mark in the 1500 meters for the first time in his career, getting to the finish line in 3:59.82 at the Peyton-Shotwell Invitational in Tacoma. It wasn't nearly as close on Friday, as he came through in 3:55.37.

The meet was announced as having dual-meet team scoring (5-3-1 for individual events, 5-0 for relays), but no team scores were included on the official results. However, applying the appropriate points to the top three places and to the first-place relays, Idaho won the women's meet with 54 and SPU was second with 33. Idaho dominated on the men's side with 72 points. The Falcons were seventh among the nine teams with 9.
 
GNAC INDOORS TO SPOKANE
The GNAC announced on Friday that its indoor championship meet will take place for the next three years at The Podium in Spokane.
 
The brand-new facility is set to open this coming fall. It will feature a banked 200-meter track.
 
The 2022 conference meet is set for Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 21 and 22.
 
UP NEXT
SPU winds up the regular season next Friday in the Ken Shannon Invitational at Husky Track on the University of Washington campus. Field events start at 10:00 a.m., and running begins at approximately 2:00 p.m.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD
Buc Scoring Invitational
Friday, April 30, 2021
Boppell Track / Spokane, Wash.
 
Team scores – Not available.
 
100 – 1, Grace Bley (SPU) 12.01!. Other SPU – 3, Jenna Bouyer 12.06!; 9, Aniya Green 12.85.
200 – 1, Grace Bley (SPU) 24.53! (Boppel Stadium record; breaks old record of 24.58). Other SPU – 2, Jenna Bouyer 24.80!; 4, Aniya Green 25.94.
400 – 1, Camryn Crouch (Idaho) 56.06. SPU – 5, Charisma Smith 1:00.60.
800 – 1, Ellie Rising (SPU) 2:12.80!. No other SPU.
1500 – 1, Dania Holmberg (SPU) 4:29.73#!. Other SPU – 4, Kelsey Washenberger 4:44.39; 7, Annika Esvelt 4:56.32; 11, Libby Michael 5:02.42.
5000 – 1, Larissa Mauer (Coll. Idaho) 18:03.65. SPU – 4, Belle Brandenfels 18:18.62.
100 hurdles – 1, Kiersten Lancaster (Coll. Idaho) 14.39. No SPU.
400 hurdles – 1, Ashley Britt (Lewis-Clark) 1;02.91. No SPU.
3000 steeplechase – 1, Maya Kobylanski (Idaho) 11:00.52. SPU – 3, Kate Lilly 11:37.53.
4x100 relay – 1, Whitworth 49.16. No SPU.
4x400 relay – 1, Idaho 3:51.04. SPU – 3, Seattle Pacific (Jenna Bouyer, Charisma Smith, Ellie Rising, Grace Bley) 3:53.15.
4x800 relay – 1, College of Idaho 9:19.70. No SPU.
High jump – 1, Julia Hayes (Idaho) 5-5 ¾ / 1.67m. SPU – 4, Scout Cai 4-11 ¾ / 1.52m.
Pole vault – 1, Scout Cai (SPU) 13-3 / 4.04m#!. Other SPU – 2, Lizzy Daugherty 10-9 / 3.28m; 5, Emily Northey 8-9½ / 2.68m.
Long jump – 1, Tayler LyDay (Idaho) 18-10 / 5.74. No SPU.
Triple jump – 1, Greta Kuhne (Idaho) 37-5 / 11.40m. No SPU.
Shot put – 1, Lovely Tukuafu (WSU) 41-4¼ / 12.60. No SPU.
Discus – 1, Hannah Aaenson (WSU) 143-6 / 43.75m. No SPU.
Hammer – 1, Keeley Rasmussen (Idaho) 177-4 / 54.07m. No SPU.
Javelin – 1, Kea Stieglitz (Lewis-Clark) 131-6 / 40.10. No SPU.
 
# NCAA provisional qualifying    ! GNAC automatic qualifying

 
NCAA MEN'S TRACK & FIELD
Buc Scoring Invitational
Friday, April 30, 2021
Boppell Track / Spokane, Wash.
 
Team scores – Not available.
 
100 – 1, Caleb Hagan (Idaho) 10.53. SPU – 6, Jeff Gordon 11.10.
200 – 1, Cody Milmine (E. Oregon) 21.67. SPU – 4, Jeff Gordon 22.26; 11, Evan Carpenter 23.36.
400 – 1, Spencer Barrera (Idaho) 47.72. SPU – 6, Evan Carpenter 52.47.
800 – 1, Clayton VanDyke (Lewis-Clark) 1:52.23. SPU – 13, Jon Owen 1:58.62; 21, J.R. Hentges 2:01.67.
1500 – 1, Tim Stevens (Idaho) 3:48.53. SPU – 7, Brayden Schultz 3:55.37.
5000 – 1, Michael McCausland (Idaho) 15:00.75. SPU – 9, Elius Graff 15:23.64; 15, Colin Boutin 15:37.29. 
10,000 – 1, Cole Olsen (Lewis-Clark) 30:56.96. No SPU.
110 hurdles – 1, Ben Doucette (Idaho) 14.17. No SPU.
400 hurdles – 1, Alex Ayers (Idaho) 53.20. SPU – 5, Julius Shepherd 56.73.
3000 steeplechase – 1, Jared Putney (SPU) 9:23.92. b—3, Austin Weese 9:45.81.
4x100 relay – 1, Eastern Oregon 41.96. SPU – 4, Seattle Pacific (Jeff Gordon, Darius Holmes, Julius Shepherd, Evan Carpenter) 43.19.
4x400 relay – 1, Idaho 3:14.24. SPU – 6, Seattle Pacific (Julius Shepherd, J.R. Hentges, Jon Owen, Brayden Schultz) 3:33.72.
4x800 relay – 1, College of Idaho 7:51.48. No SPU.
High jump – 1, Joseph Ruddell (Idaho) 6-8¼ / 2.04m.
Pole vault – 1, Andrew Carlyle (Lewis-Clark) 15-5 / 4.70m. SPU – 6, Brad Bowman 13-4½ / 4.08m; 8, Kainoa Lee 12-10¾ / 3.93m.
Long jump – 1, Zach Nunis (Idaho) 24-8½ / 7.53m. No SPU.
Triple jump – 1, Britt Ipsen (Idaho) 48-6¾ / 14.80m. SPU – 2, David Njeri 48-0½ / 14.64m!.
Shot put – 1, Bryan Terry (Coll. Idaho) 50-6¾ / 15.41m. SPU – 12, Darius Holmes 35-3¾ / 10.76m.
Discus – 1, Bryan Terry (Coll. Idaho) 150-10 / 45.97m. SPU – 11, Darius Holmes 127-8 / 38.91m.
Hammer – 1, Cullen Williams (Idaho) 187-6 / 57.15m. No SPU.
Javelin – 1, Josh Farr (WSU) 191-10 / 58.48m. No SPU.
 
! GNAC automatic qualifying