ALLENDALE, Mich. – For Annika Esvelt, it was the last 3- or 4000 meters that mattered the most.
 
For Vanessa Aniteye, it was the first 100.
 
Racing long or racing short, the two Seattle Pacific Falcons both got where they ultimately wanted to go on Thursday:
 
Esvelt to the awards podium.
 
Aniteye to the finals.
 
Esvelt ran side-by-side within the top five for virtually every step of the 10,000 meters, and came home an All-American fourth place in 33 minutes, 51.65 seconds on Day 1 of the NCAA Division II Track & Field Championships.
 
That performance on the blue oval inside Grand Valley State Lacrosse / Track & Field Stadium made her just the second Falcon woman ever to break the 34-minute mark.
 
Aniteye powered through the 400-meter dash in a time of 54.18 seconds. That was both a school record and a personal best, securing second place in her heat and an automatic berth in Saturday's title race.
 
ESVELT: WORTH THE WAIT
Falcons sophomore Esvelt, who also will be back in action on Saturday afternoon in the 5000 meters, came into the 10,000 as the No. 7 seed with her time of 34:20.76 on April 14 at the Mt. Sac Relays in Walnut, California. That was her first-ever 10K, and she subsequently ran another one on May 13 at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference meet, winning handily in 36:32.30.
 
 

Her race on Thursday was supposed to start at 8:50 p.m. local time, as day was turning into dusk. But a lightning and rain storm just before 8:00 during the prelims of the men's 400-meter hurdles forced a halt to the action. That left still one more heat of the men's hurdles, all three heats of the women's 400 hurdles, and the men's 10,000 to go before Esvelt could return to the track.
 
By the time she finally stepped to the starting line, it was about 9:55 p.m., completely dark, and the stadium lights were turned on.
 
"It did not mess with my mind that much because actually, Chris (Reed, SPU's associate head coach and distance coach) told me a story earlier about one time when one of his races was delayed over and over. So in the back of my mind, I knew it could happen," Esvelt said. "I wasn't freaked out about it, because everyone else was delayed, too,."
 
Once the race began, Esvelt stayed with lead pack right from the get-go. Others gradually dropped off until it was just Esvelt, Brianna Robles of Adams State, Jennifer Sandoval of Azusa Pacific, Fatima Alanis of Queens, and Jessica Gockley of Grand Valley State. Those five were within one second of each other all the way through 9200 meters.
 
Robles and Alanis nudged ahead at that point, and it was Robles who took the bell lap first, with Alanis right on her heels and Esvelt in fifth. Around the final turn, Sandoval put on a surge, and by the time she started down the homestretch, she was well in front of Robles, winning in 33:35.76. Robles clocked 33:37.63, and Alanis was at 33:39.14. Esvelt also came up with a late kick to snag the No. 4 spot by 69 hundredths of a second ahead of Gockley.
 
"I just really focused on the girls and staying on the inside, and I was really impressed with how I was able to stay focused for so long," said Esvelt, who now has two All-American awards, the first of which was for eighth place in the 5000 meters at NCAA indoors in March. "I would say the last 3 or 4K was pretty key, because that's where it really starts to hurt, and you have to make sure you're focused."
 
The only other Falcon women to run in the 33s Bente Moe, whose 33:05.80 in 1987 still stands as the school record.

Esvelt's time on Thursday is the fourth-fastest in GNAC history, and she is just the fourth women in conference history to break 34.
 
 

"It was such a well-run race – it was darn near perfect," Reed said. "Everything you would want to script in a race is what she did. She got a good start off the line, put herself in perfect position for the race. Everything else that was going on around her, she just stayed in her place and responded to whatever pace was happening around her. She just never wavered."
 
ANITEYE: THIS TIME, IT WORKS OUT
Fourth trip to the outdoor nationals. Third overall school record. Second school record in the same event. First time in an NCAA individual finals.
 
The numbers definitely added up for Aniteye on Thursday.
 
Aniteye, who just an hour before her 400-meter prelim had been part of SPU's 10^th-place 4-by-100 relay, will be the No. 4 seed for Saturday's championship race, set for 12:15 p.m. Pacific time.
 
 

In her three previous trips to the NCAA outdoor meet – all from 2017-19 while she was at Alaska Anchorage – Aniteye made just one finals. That was in 2019 when she helped the Seawolves take eighth in the 4-by-400 relay. She ran the 400 all three of those years, but finished 20th as a freshman, 15th as a sophomore, and 17th as a junior.
 
"Every time I went to nationals, it wasn't really working out the way I wanted it to," Aniteye said. "I knew this was my last shot to make it individually."
 
As Aniteye was setting up her starting blocks, she said Falcons head coach Karl Lerum told her to go hard through the first 100 meters. She also had gotten some encouragement from former UAA teammate Elena Cano the day before, and heard the cheering of her current fellow Falcons while awaiting the starter's commands.
 
"As soon as the gun went off, I thought, 'Do what Karl said and attack those first hundred meters,'" Aniteye said. "I did, and then it felt really good in the next hundred, and I said, 'This is going better than I thought.' Then as soon as I came off 300, I really fought hard for second place."
 
Down the homestretch, Aniteye was solidly in control of that No. 2 spot. Shereen Vallabuoy of Winona State would win easily in 53.32, fastest time of the day. But the closest runner behind Aniteye's 54.18 was Alayna Verner of Azusa Pacific at 54.70,
 
"I was really shocked with that time," Aniteye said after beating her previous career best of 54.19, which she set in 2019 while winning the third of her four consecutive Great Northwest Athletic Conference crowns in the 400. "Going into it, you make your goals, and you have a time that you would like to run. But I was more focused on how I was running, getting out that first hundred and see what happens."
 
In 2016, former Falcon star Jahzelle Ambus ran 54.68 in the 400, breaking the school record of 54.98 that had stood for 18 years. Then Ambus' standard held up for almost six years.
 
Now, Aniteye has rewritten it twice within a span of eight weeks: 54.60 on April 1, then 54.18 on Thursday.
 
"Breaking the record, I feel honored to do that," said Aniteye, also part of SPU's school-record 4-by-100 relay (45.88) on May 14 at GNAC. "That beat my college PR, and that was amazing – and I'm so close to 53."
 
AND THAT'S NOT ALL
-- SPU's 4-by-100 relay of Peace Igbonagwam, Aniteye, Aniya Green, and Jenna Bouyer, posted a time of 46.30 seconds for 10^th place.
-- Igbonagwam then headed straight over to the long jump runway, where she finished 16^th with a mark of 18 feet, 4½ inches.
-- Annika Esvelt's five team points for her fourth-place finish in the 10,000 will mark the 38th time in the 40-year history of the Division II nationals that the Falcons have been in the scoring column. The only two exceptions were 2017 and 2021.
 
UP NEXT
None of the Falcons are in action on Friday. On Saturday, David Njeri competes in the men's triple jump at 9:45 a.m. Pacific time. Vanessa Aniteye runs the 400 dash finals at 12:15 p.m., and Annika Esvelt is in the women's 5000 at 2:25 p.m.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD
NCAA Division II Championships
Thursday, May 26, 2022
Grand Valley State Lacrosse-Track & Field Stadium / Allendale, Mich.
 
Team scores (top 10) -- T1, Wayne State (Neb.) and Grand Valley State 14; T3, Academy of Art and Azusa Pacific 10; 5, Minnesota State 9; T6, Adams State and Fayetteville State 8; Queens (N.C.) 6; T9, Seattle Pacific, UC Colorado Springs, and West Texas A&M 5.

SPU EVENTS ONLY
FINALS
10,000 – 1, Jennifer Sandoval (Azusa Pacific) 33:35.76.  SPU – 4, Annika Esvelt 33:51.65.
Long jump – 1, Marie-Jeanne Ourega (Academy of Art) 20-10 ¾ / 6.37m.  SPU – 16, Peace Igbonagwam 18-4 ½ / 5.60m.
 
PRELIMINARIES
400 – 1, Shereen Vallabouy (Winona State) 53.32.  SPU finals qualifier – 4, Vanessa Aniteye 54.18.
4x100 relay – 1, West Texas A&M 44.46.  SPU – 10, Seattle Pacific (Peace Igbonagwam, Vanessa Aniteye, Aniya Green, Jenna Bouyer) 46.30.