THE SCHEDULE
Monday-Tuesday, Feb 19-20         Seattle Pacific at GNAC Championships
                                                The Podium / Spokane, Wash.
                                                MONDAY:  Multis, 9:00 a.m.   
                                                Track 2:00 p.m.   Field 2:20 p.m.
                                                TUESDAY:  Multis 8:30 a.m.   
                                                Field 9:30 a.m.    Track 11:00 a.m.
                                                Live Webcast (subscription)       Live results
                                                              

SEATTLE – For two days this week, a group of Seattle Pacific Falcons – some of them speedy, some of them high-flying – will try to reach the podium inside The Podium.
 
That's where SPU and eight other teams will gather on Monday and Tuesday for the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Indoor track & Field Championships.
 
Competition begins Monday, with the men's heptathlon at 9:00 a.m., the women's pentathlon at 9:15, field events at 2:20 p.m., and running events at 2:30. The final event on the Day 1 docket is the men's distance medley relay at 6:30.
 
On Tuesday, field events begin at 9:30 a.m. and running events go at 11:00. The last race is the men's 4-by-400 relay at 2:45 p.m. The awards ceremony set for 3:05 p.m.
 
KEEPING TRACK OF THE ACTION
Both days of competition will be available for a subscription fee on RunnerSpace.com. Free live results will be available throughout both days. The appropriate links can be found at the top of this story.
 
IF YOU'RE GOING …
--Tickets: Fans can purchase tickets online by clicking on this link, or on site at The Podium. The box office will open one hour prior to the start of the meet. The cost is $17, and all seating is general admission. 
-- Getting there: The Podium is located in the heart of downtown Spokane, at 511 W. Dean Avenue.
 
PODIUM'S THE PLACE TO BE
This is the third consecutive year that the GNAC Championships will take place in The Podium, and it is likely the event will remain there for the foreseeable future.
 
The Podium was built with indoor track & field in mind. It has a six-lane, 200-meter hydraulically banked oval. Inside of that is an eight-lane 60-meter sprint straightway. It also has four 60-meter warm-up lanes, a long / triple jump runway, pole vault runway, and separate areas for shot put and weight throw.
 
Along with the GNAC meet, the facility hosts the season-opening Spokane Invitational plus five other regular-season collegiate meets. The GNACs will be the first of three college championship meets taking place there during the course of eight days. The Big Sky Conference Championships are this coming Thursday and Friday, followed by the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships next Sunday and Monday.
 
When the track isn't being used, the facility can accommodate nine basketball courts, or 16 volleyball courts, or 21 wrestling mats.
 
Fans shouldn't have any trouble finding a seat, as there are 3,000 permanent ones.
 
TOSS-UP ON WOMEN'S SIDE, ALL WWU ON MEN'S
It's entirely possible that the women's meet could come down to the 4-by-400 relay to decide a team champion. Based on entry marks and applying the appropriate team points for the top eight, Central Washington is seeded for 135½ points and Western Washington is seeded for 131½. The only other team seeded for triple digits is Simon Fraser with 109. Defending champion Western Oregon is seeded for 67½.
 
Seattle Pacific is seeded foe 42 points, but most certainly will add some on the pentathlon. Sophomore Hannah Chang and freshman Sophie Mock are both entered, but neither competed in a pent during the regular season, so they do not have an entry mark.
 
No one is even close to Western Washington for the men's title. The Vikings are seeded for 193 points, with No. 1 seeds in five of the 17 events and No. 2 seeds in six events. A distant second is defending champion Western Oregon, seeded for 125.
 
Seattle Pacific is seeded for 18 points.
 
SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
--The SPU women were fifth in last year's meet with 60 points. The men placed seventh with 38½.
--The Falcons had two GNAC champions last year, with Vanessa Aniteye in the women's 800 and David Njeri in the men's triple jump. Aniteye graduated and now is training in Germany with an eye toward potentially making that country's Olympic team. Njeri completed his indoor eligibility, but will be back in the spring for one more outdoor season.
-- Annika Esvelt is not the defending champion in the 3000 meters, but she does have a conference crown in that event, winning it in 2022. She also won the 5000 that season, but did not compete indoors last year due to injury.
-- The Falcons have brought home at least one individual conference women's champion every year since the GNAC started sponsoring indoor track in 2004l
-- Seattle Pacific's women are seeded for points in seven events.
--The men are seeded in three events.
-- If either Lizzy Daugherty or Emily Thomason were to win the pole vault, it would be SPU's ninth conference title in that event, which would be the team's most in any event. The Falcons currently have eight in the pole, 60-meter dash, and high jump on the women's side.
 




SCOUTING THE WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIPS
One of the best races of the meet just might be the 3000 meters, featuring two of the GNAC's best  distance runners: Seattle Pacific's Annika Esvelt and Ila Davis of Western Washington, who have shared the same track (or cross country course) several times since 2021.
 
 

Davis is the defending champion, winning in 10 minutes, 14.61 seconds last February by outsprinting Northwest Nazarene's Morgan Erler (10:14.99) to the finish line. Esvelt, who did not compete last year because of an injury, won it in 2022 with a 9:50.84, essentially doing it by herself, as she was 15 seconds in front at the end. Davis was sixth that year in 10:27.87.
 
This time, Esvelt comes in at 9:41.62 from the UW Indoor Preview. Davis is at 9:45.70 from that same meet, her first sub-10.
 
 

The pole vault could produce some big points for the Falcons. Senior Lizzy Daugherty is the No. 2 seed with her NCAA provisional-qualifying clearance of 12 feet, 3½ inches on Feb. 3 in Oregon. Teammate Emily Thomason, a junior, logged her first indoor 12-footer that day, getting over at 12-0 ½. The favorite is Central Washington freshman Lauryn McGough, who comes in at 13-3 ½.
 
 

Sophomore Hannah Chang has a chance to match up her speed in the 60 hurdles against Central Washington senior Lauryn Chandler. The defending champion, Chandler comes in at 8.75; her best is 8.57 that won her the conference title last year. Chang is at 8.87 from the finals of the Husky Classic on Feb. 9.
 
 

The 400 has the possibility of multiple Falcon finalists. Sophomore Marissa Crane is the co-No. 6 seed with her indoor personal-best time of 58.56 at the UW Invitational on Jan. 27. But very close to the top 8 are Johanna Brown (58.88) as the No. 10 seed, and Aniya Green (59.16) at No. 11. The No. 8 preliminary entry time is 58.61.
 
 

The other Falcon currently ranked among the top 8 is freshman Paige Kessler in the high jump. She is the co-No. 7 seed at 5-1 ¼, from the season-opening Spokane Invitational in this same venue. She came close to beating that with a mark of 5-1 at the Husky Classic on Feb. 9.
 
Not seeded in the top 8 in the pentathlon but with a chance to get there are Chang and freshman Sophie Mock.
 
 

Sophomore Matise Mulch is going for a distance double, entered in Monday's 5000 and Tuesday's 3000. She did those same two events last year and scored in the 5K with a seventh-place finish. She was 11th in the 3K.

SPU's 4000 distance medley relay team is the No. 5 seed, and the 4-by-400 is No. 7.
 




SCOUTING THE MEN'S CHAMPIONSIHPS
Freshman Mason Hrcek and senior Kainoa Lee are in position to make an impact in the pole vault.
 
 

Hrcek is the No. 2 seed with the school indoor record height of 15 feet, 5 ¼ inches at the UW Indoor Preview on Jan. 13 – just his second collegiate meet. In that same meet, Lee, a senior, recorded his first-ever 15-footer, which he hit spot-on.
 
The only guy ahead of them is Central Washington junior Drew Klein. He has been the GNAC leader all season, from the time he cleared 15-7 at the Spokane Indoor Challenge on the same weekend that Hrcek and Lee posted their marks. Klein eventually went even higher the following weekend at 15-9 ¾ as part of the heptathlon at the Lauren McCluskey Memorial in Moscow, Idaho.
 
 

Senior Brennan LeBlanc and sophomore Isaac Venable are doubling up in the distances, as both are entered in the 3000 and the 5000. LeBlanc is the No. 8 seed in the 5K with his time of 15:22.23 from the Spokane Invitational inside The Podium on Dec. 9.
 
SPU is the No. 6 seed in the 4000 distance medley relay. Penciled in for that are Kade Franco on the 1200-meter leg, Evan Carpenter on the 400, Jonathan Lieb on the 800, and Silas Demmert on the 1600.
 
Franco and Lieb are also entered in the mile; Demmert is slated for the 3000.
 
 

ONE HOUR, TWO PERSONAL BESTS
Prior to this season, Falcons sophomore Hannah Chang had never gone faster than 9.10 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles – and she hit that time in last year's GNAC finals to grab fourth place.
 
Chang started this season on The Podium straightaway on Dec. 9, and she clocked 8.96. Then came the Husky Classic on Friday, Feb. 9 in Seattle. Chang went 8.89 in the preliminaries, not only setting a new personal best but also making the finals of a regular-season meet for the first time.
 
About an hour later, Chang went even faster, finishing in 8.87 for fifth place, and coming within .03 of the NCAA provisional qualifying standard.
 
"It felt like a really fast heat. I felt myself come out of the starting block really great, and it just felt like a good race," Chang said of the finals.
 
BACK ON PENTATHLON SCOREBOARD
The multi-events traditionally have been solid for SPU at the conference championships. But the last points for the Falcons in the indoor pentathlon came in 2020 when Scout Cai finished second. The 2021 meet was canceled because of the pandemic shutdown, then they had no entries in 2022, and came up just short of some team points last season.
 
 

Hannah Chang and Sophie Mock are aiming to pick up some points in that event on Monday. Chang was ninth last year with 2,852 in her multi-event debut, just nine points shy of a top-8 team scoring position. Since then, she has improved her marks in all five events (60 hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump, and 800 meters). Her current PBs in those five would be worth 3,203 points – which would have been a solid second place in 2023.
 
Mock is a freshman and will be doing her first pentathlon. She did three of the events during regular-season meets (60 hurdles, high jump, long jump), but has yet to try the shot or the 800.
 
NATIONALLY SPEAKING
Annika Esvelt comes into the meet ranked No. 15 in the 5000 meters on the NCAA Division II provisional qualifying list with her time of 16:31.43 from the Husky Classic on Feb. 9. She is not running that event at GNAC. Esvelt is No. 32 in the 3000 (which she is running at GNAC) with a 9:41.62 from the UW Indoor Preview on Jan. 13. The No. 16 time – which would be the cutoff if only the minimum number of qualifiers is accepted for nationals – is 9:28.24.
 
Lizzy Daugherty is tied for No. 31 in the pole vault with her clearance of 12 feet, 3½ inches on Feb. 3 at the George Fox Indoor in Newberg, Oregon. The No. 16 mark is 12-10 ¼.
 
The Falcons have three others who are close to making provisional: Emily Thomason in the women's pole vault at 12-0 ½ (the standard is 12-1 ½), Mason Hrcek in the men's pole vault at 15-5 ¾ (15-7¼), and Hannah Chang in the women's 60-meter hurdles at 8.87 (8.84).

Click on this link for a look at the top NCAA Division II qualifying performances so far ths season.
 
MAKING THE GRADE
It's long past cross country season, but the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association recently announced their academic award for the 2023 season. (Those awards are typically announced in February, as was the case again this year.)
 
Annika Esvelt of the Falcons was named a national All-Academic athlete. Both SPU teams also earned national All-Academic recognition. The women posted a team cumulative grade-point average of 3.66. The men had a cumulative GPA of 3.31.
 
UP NEXT: HERE COMES OUTDOORS
For most of the Falcons, GNACs will be the final meet of the indoor season.
 
The outdoor schedule starts on Saturday, March 2 with the Ed Boitano Invitational at the University of Puget Sound's Baker Stadium in Tacoma. First events both on the track and in the field are at 11:00 a.m. The last race of the day is set for 3:10 p.m.
 
The eighth annual Doris Heritage Invitational is on the calendar for Friday, April 5, and it will be at Renton Memorial Stadium for the second straight year. This one will be a twilight meet, with field events starting at 3:00 p.m., running events at 4:00, and the last race at 8:05.
 
Throughout the spring, SPU will visit some of its regular Northwest venues, including the PLU Open in Tacoma on March 16, the CWU Wildcat invitational in Ellensburg on April 20, and the Ralph Vernacchia Invitational in Bellingham on April 27. A new one on the schedule this year is the Pacific Open in Forest Grove, Oregon, on March 30. The Falcons also will make their annual trip to Southern California, going to the Beach Invitational in Long Beach on April 12 and the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa on April 13.
 
The GNAC Multi-Event Championships are set for Monday and Tuesday, April 29-30, at Civic Stadium in Bellingham. The GNAC Outdoor Championships are at Central Washington in Ellensburg on Friday and Saturday, May 10-11. The NCAA D2 nationals are Thursday-Saturday, May 23-25, in Emporia, Kansas.
 
 
 
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