SEATTLE – Catch her if you can.
 
Well, so far …
 
… nobody has.
 
For the third straight indoor track and field meet, Seattle Pacific's Vanessa Aniteye ran to an NCAA Division II-leading time in the women's 800 meters. And for the second time in a row, she essentially did it by herself, leaving everyone else in her heat far behind.
 
On Saturday afternoon, it happened at the UW Invitational. Aniteye blitzed to the front right from the starting gun and went on to stop the watch in 2 minutes, 8.74 seconds for her two-plus laps around the purple oval at Dempsey Indoor on the University of Washington campus.
 




Aniteye was 3.33 seconds in front of everyone else at the finish line, For the day, she was 11th overall.
 
"I'm very happy with the time. I really wanted to break the 2:10 barrier, and for me, that could have looked like 2:09.99 and it would have been great," Aniteye said. "Running a 2:08 today, I did not expect. But I executed my coach's race plan. They had a plan, and they helped me through the race. They wanted to attack the race early on today, and I think we did that."

Falcons associate head coach / distance coach agreed.

 

"We knew she was going to have to do it by herself," he said. "The first time she tried to do it by herself (at the UW Indoor Preview on Jan. 14), she did it very well, she won, and she won by four seconds. But it was just a couple ticks slower than we thought she could run."
 
"We knew she had to be a little more courageous today," Reed added. "It was all about that first 400. You gotta go out there, and there's no such thing as too fast. She ran a 61 (for 400), faded a little bit and came back in 67, but she had no company. I'm good enough at math to know that adds up to 2:08, and we feel pretty good about that one."

Now in her final season of indoor competition, Aniteye started the season with a time of 2:13.04 at the Spokane Invitational. That one was close all the way, as she ultimately edged Boise State's Abby Stamper at the finish line by four-tenths of a second.
 
At the UW Indoor Preview on Jan. 14, Aniteye clocked 2:10.83. That was almost four seconds ahead of her nearest challenger, and finished ninth overall, trailing only five Division I and three club runners.

Then came Saturday. Those in front of her on the finish list were six Pacific-12 Conference runners (three Washingtons, two Oregons, and one Arizona), three club runners, and one unattached (that one being former Simon Fraser star Alison Andrews-Paul).
 
"Seeing that time, I think there's a lot of room for improvement," Aniteye said. "It's on to the next barrier: Now that I made a 2:08, maybe I want to do some 2:07s. That would be great to see what I could do."

AND THAT'S NOT ALL
-- As of Saturday evening, two other women have broken the 2:10 mark so far this weekend -- but Aniteye is still atop the list at 2:08.74. Ava O'Connor of Adams State (Colorado) went 2:09.63 (converted from 2:12.92 for track size and altitude), and Helen Braybrook of Colorado State Pueblo went 2:09.93 (converted from 2:10.66 for altitude). 
-- Isaiah Archer thought he also had a personal-best in the 800, coming across the line in 1:55.39, his first sub-1:56. But an obstruction ruling near the finish line resulted in a DQ.
-- Coming off a solid performance in the 3000 meters two weeks ago at the UW Indoor Preview, senior Libby Michael followed up with a big-time personal best in the mile on Saturday. She came across the finish line in 5 minutes 2.43 seconds. Michael was the fastest of the 11 GNAC runners in the race. As of Saturday evening, she is No. 3 on the conference list, along with being No. 2 in the 3K.  Her only previous mile was as a freshman in 2020, when she clocked 5:30.15.
-- Johanna Brown, who has been dealing with a minor injury, got into the one-double-0's for the first time in the 400-meter dash, finishing in 1:00.25.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons are off from competition next weekend, then return to action on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 10 and 11, in the Husky Classic at Dempsey Indoor. Friday's schedule, which includes just a limited number of track events, starts at 3:00 p.m. On Saturday the 11^th, field events begins at 10:00 a.m., and track races start at 11:30.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD
UW Invitational
Friday-Saturday, Jan. 27-28, 2023
Dempsey Indoor / Seattle, Wash.
 
Team scores – Not kept.
 
SPU EVENTS ONLY
60-meter dash – 1, Hannah Walker (San Diego St.) 7.36.  SPU – 41, Maliyah Hicks 8.61.
200 – 1, Jade Moore (San Diego St.) 24.46.  SPU – 15, Aniya Green 25.96; 34, Hannah Chang 27.18.
400 – 1, Shaquena Foote (San Diego St.) 53.78.  SPU – 22, Johanna Brown 1:00.25; T23, Marissa Crane and Aniya Green 1:00.59.
800 – 1, Carley Thomas (UW) 2:03.64.  SPU – 11, Vanessa Aniteye 2:08.64#.
Mile – 1, Izzy Thornton-Bott (Oregon) 4:34.10.  SPU – 41, Libby Michael 5:02.43.
5000 – 1, Micaela Rivera (Utah St.) 16:24.57.  SPU – 21, Matise Mulch 18:49.43.
60 hurdles – 1, Tawnie Moore (Unattached) 8.34.  SPU – 18, Hannah Chang 9.28 (preliminaries).
4x400 relay – 1, San Diego State 3:44.84.  SPU – 7, Seattle Pacific (Aniya Green, Vanessa Aniteye, Charisma Smith, Johanna Brown) 3:57.63.
Pole vault – 1, Ashleigh Helms (UW) 13-5¾ / 4.11m.  SPU – 5, Kayla Tassara 11-4¼ / 3.46m; 6, Lizzy Daugherty 11-4¼ / 3.46m; Charlie Hill no height.
Long jump – 1, Ida Ikeng (UW) 19-7½ / 5.98m.  SPU – T14, Hannah Chang 16-9¾ / 5.12m.
 
 
NCAA MEN'S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD
UW Invitational
Friday-Saturday, Jan. 27-28, 2023
Dempsey Indoor / Seattle, Wash.
 
Team scores – Not kept.
 
SPU EVENTS ONLY
60-meter dash – 1, Freider Fornasari-Banguera (Multnomah) 6.71.  SPU – 16, David Njeri 7.12; 18, Jeff Gordon 7.16; 35, Nate Thomas 7.42.
200 – 1, William Frobe (Weber St.) 21.70.  SPU – 14, Julius Shepherd 22.84; 18, Jeff Gordon 23.08; 25, Evan Carpenter 23.42.
400 – 1, Jonathan Birchman (UW) 47.76.  SPU – 14, Julius Shepherd 51.26; 18, Darius Holmes 52.41; 24, Evan Carpenter 54.09.
800 – 1, Elliott Cook (Oregon) 1:46.93 (meet record).  SPU – Isaiah Archer DQ (obstruction).
4x400 relay – 1, Cal Poly 3:12.92.  SPU – 6, Seattle Pacific (Isaiah Archer, Julius Shepherd, Darius Holmes, David Garcia) 3:25.73.
Pole vault – 1, Jacob Englar (UW) 18-1¼ / 5.52m.  SPU – T6, Brad Bowman 13-10½ / 4.23m; T8, Kainoa Lee 13-10½ / 4.23m.
Long jump – 1, Prestin Artis (UW) 25-2½ / 7.68m.  SPU – 14, Darius Holmes 20-5 / 6.22m; 18, Nate Thomas 18-8 / 5.69m;
Triple jump – 1, Albert MacArthur (Thriller) 48-1¾ / 14.67m.  SPU – 3, David Njeri 47-1¾ / 14.37m.