THE SCHEDULE
Saturday, Dec. 14                  Seattle Pacific at Spokane Invitational                      ,
                                                    The Podium / Spokane, Wash.
                                                    Field events, 9:00 a.m.     Track events, 10:00 a.m.
                                                    Live Webcast (pay-per-view)        Live results


SEATTLE – So … ready to bust a little rust?
 
The Seattle Pacific Falcons certainly are.
 
From title-contending veterans to newbies seeking to find out for the first time how they fare at the college level, SPU competitors will head across the state to begin the indoor track and field season on Saturday at the fifth annual Spokane Invitational.
 
Action inside The Podium begins at 9:00 a.m. with field events and 10:00 with races on the track. The last event of the day is set for 6:10 p.m. (mixed 4-by-400 relay). The Falcons are in both of the regular 4-by-400 relays, with the women at 5:40 and the men at 5:55.
 
KEEPING TRACK OF THE ACTION
The meet will have a pay-per-view Webcast produced by RunnerSpace.com. It also will have free lie results. The appropriate links are available at the top of this story.
 
EARLY CHRISTMAS PRESENT: A TRACK MEET
In other sports, the first event of the year might be referred to as shaking off the cobwebs.
 
In track, it's called a rust-buster. The Spokane Invitational has grown to become a high-caliber rust-buster.
 
For many years, the Falcons did not have any pre-holidays competition opportunities. While there are several November / December meets on the schedule, none of them are even remotely nearby to the Pacific Northwest. SPU's first chance to race, jump, and vault was always the UW Indoor Preview on the second Saturday in January.
 
That changed in 2021 when The Podium opened its doors in Spokane. The very first competition in the venue was that year's Spokane Invitational, and the Falcons were part of it.
 
The meet now has become an annual part of the regional track schedule and an annual part of SPU's schedule, as well.
 
THE PLACE TO BE FOR INDOOR TRACK
From its unique name (and not a corporate one) to its focus on hosting high-caliber track and field, The Podium rises above the rest, and athletes look forward to competing there.
 

Along with the season-opening Spokane Invitational, the venue has hosted collegiate championship meets (including the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships, which will be there in February for the fourth straight year), high school meets, and the 2022 USA Track & Field indoor nationals.
 
In 2028, it will be the site of the NCAA Division II indoor nationals, with the GNAC serving as a co-host.
 
Track is considered the facility's marquee sport, with its six-lane, 200-meter hydraulically banked oval. Inside of that is an eight-lane, 60-meter sprint straightaway. It has four 60-meter warm-up lanes, a long / triple jump runway, pole vault runway, and separate areas for shot put and weight throw.
 
But it's not all about track. It also can be set up for 16 volleyball courts, nine basketball courts, or 21 wrestling mats.
 
Seating capacity varies, depending on the event. It have 3,000 permanent seats, 1,000 portable seats, and 237 VIP seats.
 
SCOUTING THE SPOKANE INVITATIONAL
The Falcons will get an early glimpse at how they stack up in some of their favorite events, as nearly everyone is entered in their strongest ones.
 
 

Hannah Chang, now a junior, is a strong hurdler and multi-eventer, and she's slotted for the 60-meter hurdles, long jump, and 200-meter dash. At last year's GNAC meet, she posted a personal-best 8.85 in the hurdles during the pentathlon, and was fourth in the open 60 hurdles. She later went on to win the outdoor 100 hurdles title in the spring. Sophomore Sophie Mock will join her in the hurdles and the long jump, and also will race the 200.

Senior Johanna Brown, having finished her outdoor season by tying her personal best of 57.31 in the 400 dash, will start off with that race and also do the 200. Sophomore Paige Kessler has a high jump best of 5 feet, 2¼ inches, and will focus solely on that for this meet. Maliyah Hicks will fill her day with two sprints (60 and 200), plus the long jump.

 

Senior pole-vaulters Lizzy Daugherty and Emily Thomason are set for their final season of pole vaulting. (They've completed their outdoor eligibility, but had one year of indoor remaining.) They're coming off a 1-2 finish at last spring's GNAC outdoor meet. Daugherty comes into the campaign as the school record holder, having gone 12-9 ½ at the Ken Shannon Last Chance indoor meet this past February.
 
 

Daugherty won't be the only school-record pole vaulter in action. Sophomore Mason Hrcek will be in action in he men's event. He made his college debut at last year's Spokane Invite and cleared 14-7¼. A month later at the UW Indoor preview, Hrcek went 15-5¾. That was actually his second 15-footer of the day. He got over at 15 feet even (as did now-graduated Kainoa Lee just a few minutes later), then went even higher.
 
Most of the distance runners on both the women's and men's sides are entered in both the 3000 and 5000. Each of them will run just one of those races, but a decision on which one won't be made until the Falcon coaches have a chance to look over the entries for each event.
 
All six of the new SPU men and nine of the 11 new women will be in their first college indoor competition. Half a dozen of those already have raced in Falcon colors during the cross country season.
 
 

A VETERAN – BUT A NEWCOMER, TOO
Anna Prussian already has run two cross country seasons for the Falcons. On Saturday – whether it winds up being the 3000 or the 5000 – the sophomore finally will make her college track debut.
 
Prussian missed both the indoor and outdoor during her freshman year in 2024. Her last track races were both on June 3, 2023 at the BYI Schools meet in Alaska when she set personal bests in the 1600 (5:27.32) and 3200 (11:36.57), placing fourth in the former and second in the latter.
 
FRESHMAN BRINGING SOME GOOD STUFF
Between the women's and men's teams, Seattle Pacific has 17 freshmen out for the program: 11 women and 6 men. Several of them have state meet credentials.
 

• Andrew Bell from Spanaway Lake High School south of Tacoma won the Washington Class 3A (medium-large school) 110-meter hurdles title last spring in 14.58 seconds. He was eighth in the 300 hurdles.
• Jada Sarrys was sixth in the 100 and 400 dashes at the Washington Class 4A state meet while racing for Lake Stevens High School.
• Tamia Cates of Mary Walker High School in Springdale (about 40 miles northwest of Spokane) was sixth in the 100 hurdles at the Washington Class 1B (small school) state meet. She also was eighth in the heptathlon at the Washington State Combined Events Championship
• Evangeline Rowland placed sixth in the 200 at the Michigan state meet.
• Linnea Naone took 12th in the 100 hurdles at the Oregon state meet.
• Robert Joshua qualified for the Washington Class 3A state meet in the 100 and 200 dashes for Auburn Mountain View.
• Alexa Gossett, Ella Milanovich, Nicole Pierce, Lucia Templeton, Nathan Korth, and senior newcomer Madelyn Buckley were both part of the SPU cross country team this past fall.

 
ESVELT ALREADY OFF AND RUNNING
Annika Esvelt got a head start on her season last weekend in Boston.
 
 

Esvelt raced to a school-record time of 16 minutes, 9.93 seconds in the 5000 meters at the Susan Colyear-Danville Season Opener. Her time easily beat her indoor personal best of 16:29,98, and also was well in front of her overall PB of 16:14.31 that she clocked on April 1, 2022 at the West Coast Relays outdoor meet.
 
Currently No. 3 on the NCAA Division II provisional qualifying list, and it is expected that Esvelt's 16:09 mark last week will keep he well above the top-16 cutoff line that will put her into the NCAA meet next March in Indianapolis.
 
WINTER HAS A FAMILIAR LOOK
After Saturday's trip to Spokane, the Falcons will spend the rest of the regular season competing at the UW's Dempsey Indoor.
 
The UW Indoor Preview is set for Friday, Jan. 17. The UW Invitational is Friday and Saturday, Jan. 31 and Feb. 1.
 
The one Demsey meet that SPU will not compete in is the Husky Classic. That one is set for Feb. 14-15. However, the Falcons will be focusing on the GNAC Championships, which are Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 17-18, in Spokane.
 
POINTING TOWARD THE POSTSEASON
With its very compact schedule, indoor track and field athletes have very limited opportunities to get into the postseason picture.
 
For the GNAC Championships, the process is straightforward: Each school has 25 entries for men and 25 for women. Coaches can use those entries however they wish for individual events. The only limit is one entry in each of the two relays, with each relay counting as part of the 25 overall entries.
 
For the NCAA Championships, athletes will get onto the list by meeting provisional qualifying marks. Those marks will be ranked in descending order to determine who heads to Indianapolis for the nationals on March 13-15.at the Fall Creek Pavilion.
 
The "desired minimums" for nationals are 16 entries for each individual event (maximum of 20), 14 for the women's pentathlon / men's heptathlon (maximum of 16), and 12 for each of the two relays (maximum of 16). The overall limits for the meet are 270 athletes per gender.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons will train on their own over the upcoming Christmas / New Year's break. Competition resumes on Friday, Jan.17 with the UW Indoor Preview at Dempsey Indoor. Running events and field events both begin at noon. That meet always has taken place on a Saturday. But this time, that mid-January Saturday is set aside for the second Mile City event. The entire da is set aside for athletes of all ages and abilities to run the mile. Racing starts at 10:00 a.m. and is expected to conclude at approximately 7:00 p.m.


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