THE SCHEDULE
Friday-Saturday, May 12-13              Seattle Pacific at GNAC Championships
                                                   McArthur Field @ W. Oregon / Monmouth, Ore.
                                                   FRIDAY: Field, 1:15 p.m.     Track, 2:15 p.m.
                                                   SATURDAY: Field, 11:30 a.m.     Track, 1:40 p.m.
                                                   No live Webcast        Live results
 
 
SEATTLE – A second title in the triple jump for one Seattle Pacific Falcon. A first in the 5000 meters for another. Maybe even a school record or two.
 
No matter what, SPU athletes will have plenty on the line this weekend when they head to Oregon for the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Track & Field Championships.
 
The meet returns to its longtime venue of McArthur Field at Western Oregon University in Monmouth. Competition begins on Friday at 1:15 p.m. in the field and 2:15 p.m. on the track. On Saturday, field events begins at 11:30 a.m., and track races at 1:40 p.m.
 
On both days, the Falcons will have competitors in the first track events – the men's 3000-meter steeplechase on Friday and the men's 4-by-100 relay on Saturday. The first field event for SPU will be the men's pole vault at 3:00 p.m. on Friday and the men's triple jump at 11:55 a.m. on Saturday.
 
The last events of Friday will be the 10,000 meters, and the start times have been pushed later into the evening in anticipation of extreme heat. The men's race now will start at 7:30 p.m. and the women's at 8:15. Saturday's final event is the women's 4-by-400 relay at 5:00 p.m.
 
KEEPING TRACK OF THE ACTION
The meet will have live results available throughout the weekend. The appropriate link is at the top of this story. It will not have a live Webcast. Seattle Pacific's social media pages (Facebook and Twitter) also will be updated periodically as news warrants throughout both days.
 
BRINGING THE HEAT – AND IN A BIG WAY
Remember last spring when most folks kept their jackets and long sleeves on for pretty much the entire season? This year has been somewhat better, including temperatures in the upper 70s on April 29 at the Ralph Vernacchia Invitational in Bellingham.
 
Those jackets and long sleeves can stay in the closet this weekend, as the forecast calls for temps that are downright hot. On Friday, the thermometer is expected to reach between 80 and 85 degrees, with just a few clouds. It edges even higher on Saturday, pushing between 86 and 90 under completely clear skies. Winds don't figure to be much of a factor on Friday; some gusts are possible on Saturday.
 
WWU GOES FOR TWO … TEAM TITLES, THAT IS
Western Washington is in position to go home with both team championships. As was the case last year when they won by 111 points, the Vikings are way out in front of the men's field. Based on the entries and applying the appropriate team points to the top eight places, WWU is seeded for 230, which includes nine No. 1 seeds (10 points apiece) and points in every event except the discus.. A distant second is Central Washington at 114, with Western Oregon at 108 and Northwest Nazarene at 107½. Seattle Pacific is seeded for 34½, which would be eighth.
 
The Western women are seeded for 179 points with four No. 1 seeds and points in 17 of the 21 events as they go for their first-ever team championship. Second place is looming as a tussle between Simon Fraser (128½), Western Oregon (122½) and Central Washington (105). SPU ranks sixth, seeded for 67 points.
 
If WWU wins both, it will mark the fifth time in conference history that one school has swept. Western Oregon did it 2003, 2004 and 2008. Alaska Anchorage pulled it off in 2017.
 
SCOUTING THE GNAC WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIPS
 

The Falcons have just one top seed, but she is one of the best distance runners in the GNAC. That would be junior Annika Esvelt, who has the leading time of 16 minutes, 52.91 seconds in the 5000 meters. Western Oregon's Caitlin Heldt is the No. 2 seed at 17:06.05, and defending champion Ila Davis of Western Washington is No. 3 at 17:08.91 How much those times matter remains to be seen. With temperatures forecast to be in the mid to upper 80s at race time, those top three could be competing more against each other and not against the clock.
 
Esvelt also was the top seed last year, and was going for the distance double after winning the 10,000 the previous night. She surged up the backstretch on the final lap, but Davis caught up and outsprinted her down the homestretch winning by 29 hundredths of a second.
 
 

The 400-meter dash was one of SPU's strongest events during the regular season, and is looking just as strong here. Freshman Marissa Crane is the No. 3 seed at 57.81, and is one of four runners in the 57s – meaning all four of them are in the hunt for the title. Northwest Nazarene's Laine DeJong is a slight favorite at 57.26, then it's Claire Bosma of Simon Fraser at 57.75, Crane, and Falcons teammate Aniya Green fourth at 57.99. Also in the mix is Western Washington's Anna Miller at 58.01. Sophomore Johanna Brown of the Falcons is No. 7 at 58.41.
 
Green also is the No. 6 seed in the 200 at 25.30. But Marie-Eloise Leclair of Simon Fraser is the overwhelming favorite at 23.42. That's a full second ahead of Northwest Nazarene's Abbey Wood, the No. 2 seed at 24.49. Leclair also is the one to beat in the 100 with an entry time of 11.45.
 
 

Seattle Pacific has some top-3 potential in the 1500 and the 100-meter hurdles. Senior Libby Michael is seeded No. 6 in the 1500 at 4:38.90, but is back to good health and could give chase to several of those in front of her. Cassidy Walchak-Sloan of Saint Martin's is the one to beat at 4:27.97, but the Nos. 2 through 5 times range from 4:31.56 to 4:37.63.
 
 

Freshman Hannah Chang is the No. 3 seed in the 100-meter hurdles at 14.50. Central Washington's Lauryn Chandler is on top of the list at 13.99, and defending champion Diana Voloshin of Simon Fraser is next at 14.33. Voloshin won last year in 14.28.
 
 

Junior Lizzy Daugherty and sophomore Emily Thomason will contend for top-3 spots in the pole vault. They are co-No. 2 seeds at 12-4. The one to beat is Northwest Nazarene's Kinsey Yenor, She became the GNAC's first and so far only 13-footer this season with a 13-0¾ clearance on April 28. Yenor and Daugherty tied last year at 11-11¾, but the Nighthawk got first place on the fewer-misses tiebreaker.
 
SCOUTING THE GNAC MEN'S CHAMPIONSHIPS
 

David Njeri will going for a double in the triple jump. He won the title in 2021. But last year in Ellensburg, he sustained an injury on his final long jump attempt on Friday, and subsequently had to scratch out of the triple on Saturday. Njeri is a big favorite to win it, coming in with the top-seeded distance of 49 feet, 7¼ inches at the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational on April 8. His career best is 49-10 last April 30. Central Washington's Isaiah Webster is the No. 2 seed at 46-7 ¼.
 

The other event where the Falcons have a serious chance at a championship is the 400-meter dash with sophomore Isaiah Archer. He comes in as the No. 3 seed with the school-record time of 48.24 seconds that he recorded at Pomona-Pitzer. That has him as the No. 3 seed. Ahead of him are a pair of Alaska Anchorage runners: Kevin Angarita at 47.81, and Maximilian Kremser. Archer and Angarita went head-to-head – and toe-to-toe – on April 29 at the Ralph Vernacchia Invitational in Bellingham. Archer prevailed that day, 48.48 to 49.14. Kremser ran 47.87 on April 1, winning the Mike Fanelli Classic, but hasn't run it since.
 
Archer isn't the only Falcon in the 400. Evan Carpenter is the No. 11 seed at 50.24, and Julius Shepherd is No. 16 at 50.59.
 
 

Jeff Gordon is seeking to make an impact in the 100 and 200. He's the No. 7 seed in the 200 at 22.06, and is co-No. 11 in the 100 at 10.90. And speaking of sprints, the Falcons are looking to make an impact of some kind in both relays with Njeri, Gordon, Shepherd, and Archer. They're seeded No. 4 in the 4-by-100 at 42.25 and No. 5 in the 4-by-400 at 3:21.49 (albeit in a different order).
 
 

Colin Boutin will run his final two races as a Falcon in the longest events on the card. On Friday, it's the 10,000 meters, as he is the No. 6 seed at 31:21.29. This will be Boutin's fifth go in the 10K, and he has scored in each of the previous four: eighth, fifth, fifth, and seventh. He'll be in the 5000 on Saturday as the No. 17 seed (15:17.36). Also on the distance side, Jon Owen gets one more shot at a sub-4 in the 1500 meters as he wraps up his SPU career. Brennan LeBlanc ran his best-ever 3000-meter steeplechase in Bellingham on April 29, breaking the 10-minute mark for the first time with a 9:55.12. He'll lead things off on the track for the Falcons with that event on Friday afternoon.
 
 

Over the years, Seattle Pacific pole vaulters have come up with their best performances of the year – and sometimes the best of their careers – at GNAC. Kainoa Lee and Brad Bowman did that last year, both of them getting over at 14 feet, 10¼ inches. Lee got third place on the fewer-misses tiebreaker; Bowman was fifth. Bowman has gotten up to 14-11 this spring, and comes in as the No. 6 seed. Lee cleared a season-best 14-5 ¼ last Saturday at the Linfield Open, and is the No. 8 seed.
 
Northwest Nazarene's Steven Schmidt is the favorite at 15-11, one of three 15-footers. Central Washington's Braydon Maier has gone 15-5, and NNU's William Koenig is at 15-0¼.

 

SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- McArthur Field was the site of the GNAC Championships from 2010-21.
--In the previous 19 GNAC meets, Seattle Pacific (11), Western Oregon (5), and Alaska Anchorage (3) are the only schools to win the women's team title. The Wolves won it last year with 155 points. SPU was fourth with 109 points
-- The Falcons came home with two individual crowns last season, as Vanessa Aniteye took the 400-meter dash and Annika Esvelt won the 10,000. SPU also won the 4-by-100 relay.
-- Aniya Green, now a junior scored with a seventh-place finish in the 400 last spring, and is entered in that race again. In fact, she will be the busiest Falcon of the weekend on the women's side, as she also goes in the 200 dash and is slated to lead off both relays.
-- Green is one of just four Falcon scorers who is back for this year's meet. The others are Annika Esvelt (second in the 5,000 in addition to her first-place run in the 10,000), Lizzy Daugherty (second in the pole vault) and Charlie Hill (seventh in the pole vault).
-- Freshman Hannah Chang already has some points on the board for SPU. She took fourth place in the women's heptathlon on May 1-2 in Nampa, Idaho.
-- After having no entries in the 3000-meter steeplechase in 2022, the Falcons have three this weekend. Brennen LeBlanc, a junior, will run in the men's race, followed by freshmen Maya Ewing and Katelyn Flolo in the women's race.
-- Seattle Pacific's top finishers in the 2022 men's meet were Isaiah Archer (third in the 400 dash), Kainoa Lee (tie for third in the pole vault), David Njeri (fourth in long jump) and Brad Bowman (fifth in pole vault).
-- The most recent outdoor champion for the men was David Njeri in the triple jump in 2021.
-- The men were ninth in last year's meet with 29½ points.
-- Senior Jeff Gordon is going for a four-event weekend. He's entered in the 100 and 200 dashes, and is on both relays, penciled in for the second leg on the 4-by-100 and the third leg on the 4-by-400.
 

FRESHMEN STEPPING RIGHT UP
As they head into their first conference championship meet, a quintet of Seattle Pacific freshmen are in position to pull in some points.
 
Marissa Crane is the No. 3 seed in the 400-meter dash. She came to the Falcons with a lifetime best of 58.77 at South Kitsap High School. In her first college 400, she beat that with a winning time of 58.57 at the Doris Heritage Track Festival on March 18. For the next three meets, she kept getting faster: 58.45, 58.13, and 57.81.
 
Hannah Chang is the No. 3 seed in the 100-meter hurdles at 14.50. She came close to match that in last week's GNAC women's heptathlon, winning that event in 14.53..
 
Maya Ewing and Katelyn Flolo are the Nos. 8 and 9 seeds in the 3000-meter steeplechase. Neither one of them had ever done a steeple before this year. Ewing went 11:53.31 in her first try on March 24 at the Mangrum Invitational. Then two weeks later in the cold and rain at the Emilie Mondor Invitational dropped nearly 16 seconds, coming across in 11:37.77. Flolo did her inaugural steeple in that same meet and clocked 11:46.15.
 
Matise Mulch is the No. 6 seed in the women's 10,000 meters. She's also running the 5000, and is seeded No. 11 in that one.
 
ERASING RECORDS, BREAKING BARRIERS
The Falcons already have one school record this spring. It's possible that one, plus a couple more, could be rewritten this week.
 
Sophomore Isaiah Archer became the new men's 400-meter dash standard bearer on April 8 at the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational in Claremont, California with his time of 48.24. That erased the old standard of 48.27 set by Chris Randolph in 2006. Anytime he steps on the track, Archer is a threat to go even faster.
 
SPU's men also have their eyes on the two relay records. The 4-by-100 mark is 41.6 from way back in 1968. That is a hand-held time, long before fully automatic time became commonplace across all levels of track. The foursome of David Njeri, Jeff Gordon, Julius Shepherd, and Archer went 42.25 on April 8 at Pomona-Pitzer.
 
In the 4-by-400, the time to beat is 3:18.05, set in 2005. On that same April day in California, that same group, albeit in a different order – Archer, Carpenter, Shepherd, and Gordon – finished in 3:21.49.
 
Not every race can end in a school record, but personal records are always possible. Among those set this season:
 
-- Jon Owen broke 4 minutes in the men's 1500 (3:59.01).
-- Marissa Crane and Aniya Green both broke 58 in the women's 400 (57.81 and 57.99, respectively).
-- Johanna Brown broke a minute in the women's 400 (58.80, now down to 58.41),
-- Maya Ewing broke 5 minutes in the women's 1500 (4:45.56).
-- Matise Mulch beat 18 minutes in the 5000 (17:57.50).
 
All of them will have a chance to do even better, as they are entered in those events this week.
 
POINTING TOWARD PUEBLO
Seattle Pacific still has four NCAA provisional qualifiers: triple jumper David Njeri, pole vaulters Lizzy Daugherty and Emily Thomason, and 5000-meter runner Annika Esvelt.
 
The "desired minimum" number of accepted entries for NCAAs is 20. Meet officials can add between one and four entries in certain events (for a maximum of 24), if space is available, but nothing is guaranteed outside of the top 20.
 
Njeri is in the best position to make the field. He starts the week tied for No. 15 nationally at 49 feet, 7 ¼ inches. The current No. 20 mark is 49-5 ½; the No. 24 mark is 48-11. Last spring, the minimum of 20 were accepted, and the last one in was 49-6 ¼. Njeri was the No. 14 seed at 49-10.
 
Here's where the other three Falcons stand coming into this week:
 
Lizzy Daugherty and Emily Thomason, pole vault: Tie 39th at 12-4  No. 20: 12-9½.  No. 24: 12-8¾. 2022 cutoff: 12-11¾ (24 entries).
Annika Esvelt, 5000: 38th at 16:52.91.  No. 20: 16:28.39.  No. 24: 16:31.80.  2022 cutoff: 16:36.32 (24 entries).
 
Click on this link for a complete look at the national leaders.
 
AROUND THE WEST
The GNAC is the only one of the three West Region conferences that has not yet had its conference meet.
 
The California Collegiate Athletic Association competed last weekend, and Cal Poly Pomona won both titles. The men scored a meet-record 311 points, winning 11 of the 21 events. Chico State was a distant second with 206.5. Pomona also won the women' crown, but it was extremely close coming down to the meet-ending 4-by-400 relay. The Broncos, also with 11 individual titles, finished with 191 points; Chico was next with 185.5.
 
Azusa Pacific claimed both Pacific West Conference crowns on April 29 – and both the men and women won for the seventh year in a row. The Cougar men had 248.5, well ahead of second-place Fresno Pacific at 190. The women scored 246.5, with Biola second at 153.5.
 
Azusa is hosting a last-chance meet on Friday and Saturday.

AROUND THE GNAC
Click on this link for the latest news, notes, and results from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
 
UP NEXT
The NCAA Division II Championships are set for Thursday through Saturday, May 25-27, inside the Neta and Eddie DeRose ThunderBowl at Colorado State-Pueblo.
 
Competition begins at 10:05 a.m. field / 3:50 p.m. track on Thursday; 1:00 p.m. field / 4:30 p.m. track on Friday, and 10:00 a.m. field / 4:10 p.m. track on Saturday (all times Pacific). Potential events for SPU would be the men's triple jump (4:05 p.m. PDT on Friday), the women's pole vault (10:00 a.m. PDT on Saturday), and the women's 5000 (7:05 p.m. PDT on Saturday).
 
This is the third time that Pueblo has hosted nationals. It also did so in 2012 and 2013, and is on the schedule again for 2025.