SEATTLE – With Friday marking the midpoint of the schedule, it could be said that the Seattle Pacific Falcons were warming up for the second half of the outdoor track and field season.
 
Or, with the temperature and accompanying breezes growing frostier as the afternoon went along, it also could be said they were just trying to stay warm.
 
Grace Bley and Renick Meyer won two events each and also ran on the winning 4-by-100-meter relay, and Scout Cai also got into the win column twice in a dual meet against Seattle University at West Seattle Stadium.
 
 

Senior sprinter Bley was first to the finish line in the 100- and 200-meter dashes with times of 12.34 and 26.10 seconds. Those were the third and fourth event victories for Bley this spring, with three of those coming in the 200.
 
 

Multi-event senior Meyer took the women's long jump with a leap of 18 feet, 4 ½ inches, tying her second-longest mark of the season. She later added the 100 hurdles in 14.81. That was her third hurdles race of the season, and she has taken all three.
 
Meyer was the second leg and Bley ran anchor on the 4-by-100 relay, joining leadoff Jenna Bouyer and No. 3 runner Julia Stepper for a winning time of 47.79 seconds.
 
 

Cai, also a senior, was tops in the pole vault for the fifth straight time, clearing 10 feet, 11½ inches. She got over that bar on the first try, and that turned out to be her only attempt of the day. Cai is entered in the pole in Saturday's PLU Invitational in Tacoma. It was at that same venue where she opened the season with a personal-best height of 12-11½ on March 6.
 
The day for Cai started in the javelin, and she won with a toss of 115 feet, 4 inches. That was her first javelin competition in nearly two years. The last time she threw it was May 24, 2019, on the second day of the heptathlon at the NCAA Division II Championships.
 
AND THAT'S NOT ALL
--Senior Dania Holmberg and freshman Ellie Rising went 1-2 in the 1500 meters. Holmberg had a season-best time of 4:36.54; Rising clocked 4:46.65.
 

--Freshmen Evan Carpenter and Julius Shepherd each recorded their first collegiate victories. Carpenter won the men's 200 in 23.95; Shepherd was the only other runner in that one and stopped the watch in 25.16. In the 400, it was Shepherd in front with a 52.37 – just fast enough to out-lean Seattle U's Alex Jensen, who clocked 52.38. Carpenter was third in 53.19.
 

--Sophomore Jared Putney, essentially running by himself up front, pulled through with a PB in the 3000-meter steeplechase. He came through in 9:37.15, beating his old mark of 9:37.96 from the 2019 Great Northwest Athletic Conference meet, where he placed a point-scoring eighth. Friday's win was the second of his career. His first one also was in the steeple, and came on March 2, 2019, at the Ed Boitano / Puget Sound Invitational in his very first college race.

 



A SALUTE TO THE SENIORS
The Falcons honored seven current, three returning, and two former seniors at the end of Friday's competition.
 
In the current group were Elius Graff, Dania Holmberg, Kellie May, Renick Meyer, Emily Norrthey, Julia Stepper, and Elizabeth Thompson.
 
Grace Bley, Scout Cai, and Kate Lilly all returned for 2021 after their 2020 senior season was canceled because of the coronavirus.
 
Sedona McNerney and Katherine Walter were also members of the Class of 2020. They opted not to return, as McNerney has a teaching job, and Walter is enrolled in a master's program. (Walter also is serving as a volunteer assistant coach for the Falcons.) Both were in attendance on Friday.
 
DABBLING IN DUALS
Friday's  meet was not officially scored. Had it been, using the dual-meet standards of 5 ponts-3-points-1 point for first, second and third places, and 5 points for the winning relay (second-place relays do not score points in duals), SPU would have won the women's meet, 63-34. The Seattle University men would have prevailed, 55-36.
 
These were the first straight-up dual meets for the Falcons since the 1970s. The last dual for the SPU men was April 23, 1977, which the University of Puget Sound won, 102-41. The last one for the women was April 8, 1978, a 68-59 victory against Oregon.

UP NEXT
The Falcons will head to Ellensburg next Saturday, April 17, for the CWU Wildcat Invitational. Competition at the Central Washington Recreation Sports Complex begins at 9:30 a.m. for field events and noon for track events.
 
The meet also will have a multi-event competition spread over Friday and Saturday. The men's decathlon starts at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, with the first five events on the card, and the women's heptathlon starts at 11:30 a.m. with the first four events. Both the decathlon (final five events) and heptathlon (final three) resume on Saturday at 9:00 a.m.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD
Seattle Pacific vs. Seattle University
Friday, April 9, 2021
West Seattle Stadium / Seattle, Wash.
 
Team scores – Not kept.
 
100 – 1, Grace Bley (SPU) 12.34. Other SPU – 3, Julia Stepper 12.41; 4, Jenna Bouyer 12.64; 6, Aniya Green 13.17.
200 – 1, Grace Bley (SPU) 26.10. Other SPU – 2, Julia Stepper 27.11; 4, Aniya Green 27.54; 5, Renick Meyer 27.56.
400 – 1, Regie Grady (SU) 5914. SPU – 2, Charisma Smith 1:02.17.
1500 – 1, Dania Holmberg (SPU) 4:36.54. Other SPU – 2, Ellie Rising 4:46.65; 5, Kelsey Washenberger 4:52.35; 7 Annika Esvelt 5:15.72.
3000 – 1, Belle Brandenfels (SPU) 10:34.54. No other SPU.
100 hurdles – 1, Renick Meyer (SPU) 14.81. Other SPU – 3, Abby Kauffman 18.52.
4x100 relay – 1, Seattle Pacific (Jenna Bouyer, Renick Meyer, Julia Stepper, Grace Bley) 47.79. No other SPU.
4x400 relay – 1, Seattle U 4:01.09. SPU – 2, Seattle Pacific (Grace Bley, Ellie Rising, Charisma Smith, Julia Stepper) 4:10.24.
High jump – 1, Chloe Deleissegues (SU) 4-1 ¼ / 1.25m. No SPU.
Pole vault – 1, Scout Cai (SPU) 10-11 ¾ / 3.35m. Other SPU – 2, Lizzy Daugherty 10-0 / 3.05m; 3, Emily Northey 9-6 ¼ / 2.90m.
Long jump – 1, Renick Meyer 18-4 ½ / 5.60m. No other SPU.
Triple jump – 1 Shannon Sadler (SU) 33-6 ¾ / 10.23m. No SPU.
Hammer – Jami Tresselt (SU) foul.
Javelin – 1, Scout Cai (SPU) 115-4 / 35.16m. Other SPU – 2, Abby Kauffman 109-10 / 33.49m.
 
 
NCAA MEN'S TRACK & FIELD
Seattle Pacific vs. Seattle University
Friday, April 9, 2021
West Seattle Stadium / Seattle, Wash.
 
Team scores – Not kept.
 
100 – 1, Noah Payne (SU) 11.46. No SPU.
200 – 1, Evan Carpenter (SPU) 23.95. Other SPU – 2, Julius Shepherd 25.16.
400 – 1, Julius Shepherd (SPU) 52.37. Other SPU – 3, Evan Carpenter 53.19.
800 – 1, Ansel Pendley-Griffin (SU) 1:57.15. SPU – 2, Brayden Schultz 1:59.30; 4, Jon Owen 2:01.94; 5, J.R. Hentges 2:03.15; 6, Elius Graff 2:06.11.
1500 – 1, Jay Grant (SU) 4:06.57. No SPU.
110 hurdles – William Sun (SU) DQ. No SPU.
400 hurdles – William Sun (SU) DQ. No SPU.
3000 steeplechase – 1, Jared Putney (SPU) 9:37.15. Other SPU – 2, Austin Weese 9:47.49; 3, Colin Boutin 10:03.64.
4x100 relay – 1, Seattle U 42.44. SPU – 2, Seattle Pacific (Julius Shepherd, Evan Carpenter, Brad Bowman, Kainoa Lee) 45.99.
4x400 relay – 1, Seattle U 3:35.70. SPU – 2, Seattle Pacific (Evan Carpenter, Julius Shepherd, Jon Owen, J.R. Hentges) 3:35.95.
Pole vault – 1, Kainoa Lee (SPU) 12-11 ½ / 3.95m. Other SPU – Brad Bowman no height.
Long jump – 1, David Njeri (SPU) 20-4 ½ / 6.21m. No other SPU.
Triple jump – 1, Kailan Claiborne (SU) 42-5 ¼ / 12.93m. No SPU.
Javelin – 1, Lucas Milne (SU) 125-6 / 38.26m. No SPU.