SEATTLE – Just two meets into his college track career, Isaiah Archer is still pondering what ultimately might be his best event.
 
The 400? The 800? Maybe both?
 
On Saturday, the Seattle Pacific true freshman took the middle ground.
 
Took first place, too.
 
Archer ran a strong, aggressive race from start to finish and won the 600 meters at the UW Indoor Preview.

That made Archer the first Falcon man to win an event inside the University of Washington's Dempsey Indoor facility in nearly nine years.
 
 

At just a little less than two full laps around the 307-meter oval underneath the Dempsey roof, Archer came through the finish line in 1 minute, 21.72 seconds. That was a comfortable margin ahead of second-place Mark Daniels from Western Washington (1:24.56).
 
"I knew 1:25 was pretty good, and anything under 1:20 would be really good," Archer sad. "I wanted to get in the 1:22 range and I got 1:21."
 
At last month's season-opening Spokane Invitational – which also was Archer's college track debut – he took eighth place in the 800 with a time of 1:57.63.
 
As a senior last spring at Central Kitsap High School in Silverdale, just a short ferry ride across Puget Sound from Seattle, Archer logged personal-best marks of 1:58.48 in the 800 and 50.73 in the 400. Then last August at the National Junior Olympics just outside of Houston, he matched his 400 PR and twice ran in the 1:57s for the 800, eventually taking ninth place for his age group.
 
"It's kind of hard to decide between the 4 and the 8 – I really like them both," Archer said. "I want to keep trying them both and see. This was my first time running the 600. I wanted to get out fast and just try to hold on."
  
The last time a Falcon man won at the Dempsey was in the 2013 SPU Final Qualifier, when Ryan Endresen took the 60-meter hurdles and Ray Zoellick won the pole vault. The last SPU men's victory in a Husky-hosted meet, which always feature competition from across the NCAA spectrum, was the 2006 UW Invitational, when three Seattle Pacific athletes emerged victorious. One of those, ironically enough, was In the 600, as Eddie Strickler took first place. Brian Cronrath won the mile and Chris Randolph was first in the heptathlon.
 
BIG 3000 PR FOR ESVELT
Annika Esvelt is moving down on the stopwatch … and moving up on the national qualifying list.
 
Esvelt, an academic sophomore who's in her first season of indoor track, ran a best-ever time by nearly six seconds in the 3000 meters.
 
 

Coming off an NCAA provisional-qualifying performance of 9:57.68 at the Spokane Invitational on Dec. 11, Esvelt came through in 9:51.80 on Saturday. That moved her up from 13^th to 11^th on the national list, pending the outcome of other meets around the country this weekend.
 
"I didn't go in with a lot of expectations. But afterward, I kind of wish I had gone a little faster, just because of how we started out slow and the pushing and shoving that was kind of going on," Esvelt said. "But I'm happy with it, and I'm glad I got to run fast."
 
Esvelt wound up doing a lot of the work on the lead through most of the nine-plus laps. But even as four others eventually moved past her, she still had enough left to put a PR into the book. She was 18^th overall among the 37 finishers.
 
'I would rather someone draw me along," she said. "But if we're going slow – and we definitely started out too slow – then I'll take the lead, and I don't get nervous doing that."
 
The 3000 has been a fine fit for Esvelt so far, although she's also looking forward to trying at least one 5000 and the mile.
 
"I really like it. I feel like it's a good distance for me," she said. "I'll definitely get some more 3Ks. My coach said I could do all three, but focus on the 3K and 5K."
 
 

AND THAT'S NOT ALL
-- Junior sprinter Julius Shepherd won his heat of the men's 200-meter dash in a personal-best 23.18, giving him fifth place overall. His previous best was 23.57 as a true freshman in February 2020.
-- Sophomore Ellie Rising also was a heat winner, surging from third place in the final 25 meters to take first place in her section of the women's 400 in 1:01.51. She got to the line just ahead of Oregon State's Chelsie Emerson (1:01.93) and SPU teammate Johanna Brown (1:02.20).
-- Freshman Nicki Yorges continued to drop time in the women's 3000. As a senior last spring at Churchill High School in Eugene, she clocked a PR of 10:51.28 at the Class 5A Oregon state meet. In her college debut at the Spokane Invite, she went sub-10:50 for the first time at 10:42.72, and now has a sub-10:40 to her credit with Saturday's 10:38.46.
-- Sophomore Evan Carpenter popped a PR in the men's 400, going 51.56. That was more than a full second faster than the 52.70 he ran in Spokane.
-- Junior David Njeri wound up third in the men's triple jump with a mark of 47 feet, 9 inches.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons will return to competition on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 28-29, in the UW Invitational at Dempsey. Action begins at 3:00 p.m. on the 28^th, and 10:00 a.m. on the 29^th.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD
UW Indoor Preview
Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022
Dempsey Indoor / Seattle, Wash.
 
Team scores – Not kept.
 
SPU EVENTS ONLY
60-meter dash – 1, Aaliyah Wilson (UW) 7.47. SPU – 14, Aniya Green 8.27.
200 – 1, Maya Valmon (Stanford) 24.96. SPU – 14, Aniya Green 27.11.
400 – 1. Sarah King (Unattached) 53.95. SPU – 11, Ellie Rising 1:01.51; 13, Johanna Brown 1:02.20.
3000 – 1, Rebecca Mehra (Oiselle / Littlewing Athletics) 9:09.64.  SPU – 18, Annika Esvelt 9:51.80#, 29, Nicki Yorges 10:38.46.
Pole vault – 1, Makenna Barton (UW) 13-2 ¼ / 4.02m.  SPU – 7, Madison Licari 11-2½ / 3.42m; T8, Charlie Hill 10-8 ¾ / 3.27m; Lizzy Daugherty no height; Emily Northey no height.
 
 
NCAA MEN'S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD
UW Indoor Preview
Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022
Dempsey Indoor / Seattle, Wash.
 
Team scores – Not kept.
 
SPU EVENTS ONLY
200 – 1, Andrew Franco (Stanford) 22.15.  SPU – 5, Julius Shepherd 23.18.
400 – 1. Cass Elliott (UW) 48.98. SPU – 5, Evan Carpenter 51.56.
600 – 1, Isaiah Archer (SPU) 1:21.72. Other SPU – 5, Gabe Woodard 1:29.38.
1000 – 1, Matthew Palmer (Jacuzzi Boys AC) 2:26.92. SPU – 4, Jon Owen 2:40.80.
3000 – 1, Ben Blankenship (Nike OTC Elite) 7:45.92.  SPU – 49, Brennan LeBlanc 9:14.06; 50, Ben Sheirbon 9:19.77.
4x400 relay – 1, Stanford 3:22.07. SPU – 5, Seattle Pacific (Julius Shepherd, Gabe Woodard, Isaiah Archer, Evan Carpenter) 3:33.83.
Pole vault – 1, Max Manson (Stanford) 16-8¾ / 5.10m. SPU – 6, Kainoa Lee 13-1½ / 4.00m; 7, Brad Bowman 12-5½ / 3.80m.
Triple jump – 1, Javon Gray (Unattached) 49-11 / 15.21m.  SPU – 3, David Njeri 47-9 / 14.55m.