SPOKANE, Wash. – Some days, an athlete's body just wants to say 'no.'
 
That's when her mind just has to say 'go.'
 
Monday was one of those days for Kayla Tassara.
 
The Seattle Pacific freshman made her first collegiate postseason venture, and made the most of it, clearing 11 feet, 9 inches to take second place at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships.
 
Tassara led a 2-3-4 Falcon finish inside The Podium, with junior Lizzy Daugherty right even with her at 11-9 (Tassara got the higher place on the fewer-mises tiebreaker), and sophomore Charlie Hill was fourth at 10-9.
 
This was the same runway where Tassara took part in her first-ever meet as a Falcon at the season-opening Spokane Invitational on Dec. 10. That day ended without any kind of a clearance.
 
This time, Tassara passed on the first two bars (9-9¼ and 10-3¼). She then got over 10-9 on her first attempt, 11-3 on her third, and 11-9 on her second.
 
 

"I feel like I overcame a lot of adversity while competing," Tassara said. "I did not feel the best, and I felt like I had to kind of veer away from that mindset and just focus on competing."
 
She added that it wasn't an illness or an injury of any kind, "just my legs feeling tired and just not wanting to move.
 
"I told myself I have to be a competitor and not a participant," Tassara said. "I was just constantly telling myself to be a competitor That's what really veered my mindset."
 
Tassara ultimately went out at 12-2¾, but said, "I had some really good jumps at those bars."
 
She was just as happy with the 2-3-4 finish as she was with her own efforts.
 
"They did really well, and I was really proud of them," she said of Daugherty and Hill. "It was encouraging to have my teammates right next to me."
 
The only vaulter to finish ahead of the SPU trio was Northwest Nazarene's Kinsey Yenor, who came as the favorite. Her final clearance was 12-2 ¾.
 
MULCH MAKES THE 5K POINTS
Freshman distance runner Matise Mulch came into the 5000 meters seeded 15^th. But with a huge 13-second personal-best, she moved all the way up to seventh and earned two team points for the Falcons.
 
 

Mulch finished her 25 laps in 18 minutes, 36.06 seconds. That easily beat her entry time of 18:49.43, which she recorded at the Husky Invitational on Jan. 28 in her first collegiate 5K.
 
"Matise's race was just emblematic of who she is," SPU associate head coach / distance coach Chris Reed said. "She's a really tough runner and a really smart runner. The early pace was pretty hot, and she had no interest in messing around with that. She kept her composure, kept herself in the group at the back end, then slowly and smoothly looped her way through the field."
 
Her run at the UW meet essentially paved the path for this one.
 
"When she ran her first 5K, her immediate thought was, 'I want to do that again. I loved it,'" Reed recalled. "So the decision was made that day to run it at conference."
 
A DECENT DAY IN THE MULTIS
Hannah Chang now has a pentathlon under her belt. And Darius Holmes is halfway through having a heptathlon under his.
 
 

SPU freshman Chang took ninth place in the five-events-in-one day test, finishing with 2,852 points. She started off with a tie for second place in the 60-meter hurdles, finished with a sixth-place run in the 800, and in between was part of a three-way tie for seventh in the high jump, took 10^th in the shot put and was 10^th in the long jump.
 
Chang had done the hurdles and the long jump during the regular season. She did the high jump once while at Richland High School in the Tri-Cities, but had never done the shot put or 800.
 
"Hannah did a nice job today. She had some nice moments, and she had some moments that the wishes she could have back again," head coach Karl Lerum said. "Obviously, you can't prepare for a multi until you've done one, and now, she has done it."
 
 

Holmes came to SPU as a freshman in the fall of 2020 with the idea of doing multi events. Various injuries prevented that – until now. And what a debut it was, as he won the meet-opening 60-meter dash in 7.14 seconds, good for 833 points. He placed fourth in the long jump with a personal-best 21-2, then was seventh in both the shot put and high jump portions.
 
At the end of Day 1, Holmes has 2,594 points, just four behind third-place Gabe Burchfield of Western Oregon. Steven Schmidt of WOU leads with 3,079 points. He won the long, the shot, and the high, the latter with a clearance of 7 feet, ¼ of an inch.
 
Lerum was particularly pleased with how Holmes improvised in the middle of the high jump.
 
"One highlight for me was Darius was jumping off his right leg, then his knee started to bother him," Lerum said. "So he went over and jumped from the other leg and without a mark (on the ground to know where to start his approach) – and he cleared it on his next two."
 
The hep winds up on Tuesday with the 60-meter hurdles, pole vault, and 1000-meter run.
 
AND THAT'S NOT ALL
-- David Njeri took fifth place in the men's long jump with a personal-best mark of 22 feet, 7 ¼ inches. His old PB was 22-7. On Tuesday, he will go for his second straight triple jump title.
-- The Falcons got three finals qualifiers out of the women's preliminaries and two out of the men's. On the women's side, it was Vanessa Aniteye in the 800 (No. 3 in 2:17.38), Aniya Green in the 200 (No. 7 in 25.85), and Hannah Chang in the 60 hurdles (No. 7 in  9.27). For the men, it'll be Isaiah Archer in the 400 (No. 4 in 49.75) and Jeff Gordon in the 200 (No. 8 in 22.44).
-- Aniteye's personal best in the 800 is 2:07.53, just .01 off the school record. While she wasn't going at full throttle in Monday's prelims, neither was Megan Roxby of Simon Fraser, who clocked 2:16.06 makes her the No. 1 seed for the finals. Her entry time was 2:10.86.
-- Gordon's 22.44 in the 200 puts him within range of his school record 22.34, which he set in last year's GNAC prelims.
-- The SPU women have 22 team points, good for third place. The men have 5, which is ninth.
 
UP NEXT
Competition resumes on Tuesday. The men's heptathlon gets going at 8:30 a.m.; field events start at 9:30 a.m., and track events begin at 11:00 a.m. The final event is the women's 4-by-400 relay at 2:45, with the team and individual awards ceremony at 3:05.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD
GNAC Championships
Monday, Feb. 20, 2023
The Podium / Spokane, Wash.
 
Team scores (through 6 of 17 events) – 1, Western Washington 66; 2, Western Oregon 52; 3, Seattle Pacific 22; 4, Northwest Nazarene 21; 5, Saint Martin's 19; 6, Central Washington 16; 7, Montana State Billings 15; 8, Simon Fraser 12; 9, Alaska Anchorage 8
 
MONDAY FINALS
5000 – 1, Meaera Shannon (WWU) 17:55.64.  SPU – 7, Matise Mulch 18:36.06.
4000 distance medley relay – 1, Western Washington 11:59.03.  SPU – 8, Seattle Pacific (Maya Ewing, Marissa Crane, Charisma Smith, Katelyn Flolo) 13:05.29.
Pole vault – 1, Kinsey Yenor (NNU) 12-2 ¾ / 3.73.  SPU – 2, Kayla Tassara 11-9 / 3.58m; 3, Lizzy Daugherty 11-9 / 3.58m (Tassasra gets higher place on fewer misses); 4, Charlie Hill 10-9 / 3.28m.
Long jump – 1, Ujunua Nowkoma (WOU) 19-0 / 5.79m.  SPU – 23, Hannah Chang 15-1 ¼ / 4.60m.
Weight throw – 1, Raine Westfall (WWU) 54-6 ½ / 16.62m.  No SPU.
 
 
MONDAY PRELIMIINARIES (Top 8 times to finals)
60 – 1, Marie-Eloise Leclair (Simon) 7.38 (GNAC record; breaks old record of 7.45 set by Leclair on Jan. 14, 2023; meet record, breaks old record of 7.52 set by Paige Johnson (UAA) in 2020.  No SPU.
200 – 1, Marie-Eloise Leclair (Simon) 24.02 (meet record, breaks old record of 24.09 set by Jamie Ashcroft (UAA) in 2017.  SPU finals qualifier – 7, Aniya Green 25.85.  No other SPU.
400 – 1, Donna Marie Harris (CWU) 58.01.  No SPU finals qualifiers.  Other SPU – 10, Aniya Green 59.74; 11, Marissa Crane 1:00.02; 14, Johanna Brown 1:00.87.
800 – 1, Megan Roxy (Simon) 2:16.06.  SPU finals qualifier – 3, Vanessa Aniteye 2:17.37.  Other SPU – 14, Charisma Smith 2:28.51.
60-meter hurdles – 1, Lauryn Chandler (CWU) 8.65.  SPU finals qualifier – 7, Hannah Chang 9.27.  No other SPU.
 
PENTATHLON
Final standings – 1, Jenelle Hurley (WOU) 3,585; 2, Matty Lagerwey (WWU) 3,129; 3, Sarah Sewell (CWU) 3,003; 4, Amity Deters (WOU) 2,979; 5, Ellie DeGroot (CWU) 2,964; 6, Macy Clemens (WOU) 2,922; 7, Carly Huber (CWU) 2,889 8, Amaryah Clay (WOU) 2,861; 9, Hannah Chang (SPU) 2,852; 10, Nicole Avery (WWU) 2,841; 11, Emily Powers (NNU) 2,650.
 
Pentathlon 60-meter hurdles – 1, Jenelle Hurley (WOU) 9.16 (877 points).  SPU – T2, Hannah Chang 9.25 (858).
Pentathlon high jump – 1, Hurley (WOU) 5-4 ½ / 1.64m (783 points).  SPU – 10, Chang 4-7 / 1.40m.
Pentathlon shot put – 1 Matty Lagerwey (WWU) 35-10 / 10.92m (590 points).  SPU – 10, Chang 26-3 / 8.00m (399).
Pentathlon long jump – 1, Hurley 18-5 ¼ / 5.62m (735 points).  SPU – 10, Chang 15-9 / 4.80m (506).
Pentathlon 800 – 1, Sarah Sewell (CWU) 2:21.90 (798 points).  SPU – 6, Chang 2:39.62 (577).
 
 
NCAA MEN'S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD
GNAC Championships
Monday, Feb. 20, 2023
The Podium / Spokane, Wash.
 
Team scores (through 5 of 17 events) – 1, Northwest Nazarene 49; 2, Western Washington 44; 3, Western Oregon 27; T4, Alaska Anchorage and Simon Fraser 18; 6, Saint Martin's 13; 7, Central Washington 11; 8, Montana State Billings 10; 9, Seattle Pacific 5.
 
MONDAY FINALS
5000 – 1, Cole Nash (UAA) 14:17.09.  SPU – 13, Colin Boutin 15:57.53.
4000 distance medley relay – 1, Simon Fraser 10:12.48.  SPU – 8, Seattle Pacific (Jon Owen, Evan Carpenter, Kade Franco, Brennan LeBlanc) 10:54.30
High jump – 1, Georhm Rihari (NNU) 6-6 ¼ / 1.99m.  No SPU.
Long jump – 1, Steven Schmidt (WOU) 22-10 ¾ / 6.98m.  SPU – 5, David Njeri 22-7 ¼ / 6.89m
Weight throw – 1, Dylan Hendry (NNU) 57-6 ½ / 17.54m.  No SPU.
 
MONDAY PRELIMIINARIES (Top 8 times to finals)
60 – 1, Brayden Durfee (NNU) 6.91.  No SPU finals qualifiers.  Other SPU – 13, Jeff Gordon 7.13; 23, Nate Thomas 7.29.
200 – 1, Jesaiah Penson-Mccoy (Simon) 21.78.  SPU finals qualifier – 8, Jeff Gordon 22.44.  Other SPU – 14, Julius Shepherd 22.63.
400 – 1, Kevin Angarita (UAA) 49.10.  SPU finals qualifier – 4, Isaiah Archer 49.75.  Other SPU – 11, Julius Shepherd 50.31; 20, Evan Carpenter 52.04.
800 – 1, Drew Weber (WWU) 1:51.08.  No SPU.
60-meter hurdles – 1, Bradley Graves (MSUB) 8.34.  No SPU.
 
 
HEPTATHLON
Standings (through 4 of 7 events) – 1, Steven Schmidt (WOU) 3,079; 2, Braydon Maier (CWU) 2,678; 3, Gabe Burchfield (WOU) 2,598; 4, Darius Holmes (SPU) 2,594; 5, Andrew Boyd (Saint Martin's) 2,575; 6, Brennen Sorah (WOU) 2,533; 7, Drew Klein (CWU) 2,414; 8, JJ Walker (WOU) 2,372; 9, Ty Abernathy (WOU) 2,129.
 
MONDAY EVENTS
Heptathlon 60-meter dash – 1, Darius Holmes (SPU) 7.14 (833 points).
Heptathlon long jump – 1, Steven Schmidt (WOU) 21-7 ½ / 6.59m (718 points).  SPU – 4, Darius Holmes 21-2 / 6.45m (686).
Heptathlon shot put – 1, Schmidt (WOU) 41-1 / 12.52m (638 points).  SPU – 7, Holmes 34-5 / 10.49m (515).
Heptathlon high jump – 1, Schmidt (WOU) 7-0 ¼ / 2.14m (934 points).   SPU – 7, Holmes 5-7 ¾ / 1.72m (560).
 
 
TUESDAY EVENTS
60-meter hurdles 
Pole vault
1000