SPOKANE, Wash. – A year ago in her very first pentathlon, Hannah Chang barely missed on getting into the top-8 team points.
 
On Monday, the Seattle Pacific sophomore not only got into the points …
 
… she got onto the podium.
 
Chang put up personal-best marks in four of the five events, tallying 3,135 to take second place on the opening day of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships.
 
The only person ahead of Chang at the end of doing five things in a little less than five hours inside The Podium was Central Washington's Ellie DeGroot, who totaled 3,332.
 
 

"I just felt really fresh coming in and was ready to compete and give it all I had," said Chang, who was ninth as a freshman last season with 2.852 – just nine points shy of making the top 8 "(Last year) gave me a lot of confidence because now I know what it's like and what I need to eat, and that I can still do all of these events and do a good job."
 
Seattle Pacific head coach Karl Lerum said the key for Chang was that she stayed steady from the first event through the last one.

 

"Hannah did a really good job – I'm happy for her that she could keep it going," Lerum said. "Her  hurdles were nice, and everything else was her law of averages. That's kind of the key for multi-event athletes is keeping it even and not having any letdowns. She did a great job. … It was fun to see her make that big move up from last year."
 
Chang's favorite event – and her best one – is the 60 hurdles, and that's the pentathlon lead-off event. She went out and won it in a personal-best 8.85 seconds. That made it three PBs in her last three races: 8.89 in the Husky Classic prelims on Feb. 9, then 8.87 in the finals about an hour later, and now 8.85, which gave her first place by two-hundredths of  a second ahead of Central's DeGroot.
 
"That was a great kick-starter for the whole pentathlon, and made me feel really good," Chang said.
 
The high jump is definitely not her favorite event, yet she still pulled off an indoor-best clearance of 4 feet, 10 ½ inches, part of a three-way tie for second. Her previous indoor high was 4-7½; she also has cleared 4-10½ outdoors.
 
 

Chang followed with an indoor best of 27-9 ½ in the shot put (previous best 26-3 at last year's GNACs), and went 16-1 ½ in the long jump.
 
She stepped to the starting line for the 800 in fifth place with 2,516 points. That was two points out of fourth, five points out of third, 32 out of second, and 79 out of first. Chang finished her four laps around the 200-meter banked oval in 2:36.06, a drop of three-plus seconds from her previous best of 2:39.62. That was good for third place and 619 points.
 
In the process, she beat three of the four athletes ahead of her by enough points to make the leap from fifth up to second in the final standings.
 
"I definitely ran my heart out I the 8," Chang said. "Coach and I talked about my race plan, and it was really the penultimate lap that was most important for me, really picking up the pace."
 
 

MOCK MAKES MOST OF HER FIRST MULTI
Falcons freshman Sophie Mock did find her way into the points in her pentathlon debut. Mock came through with a sixth-place finish in the meet-ending 800 meters, picking up enough points to jump from ninth to eighth with a final total of 2,793. It was her first 800, as she had not run that event previously for the Falcons, and never ran it during her years at Grants Pass High School in Oregon. The shot put also was a brand-new one for her.  Mock recorded a PB of 9.67 in the 60 hurdles and tied her high jump PB at 4-9 ½.
 
"I didn't really have any expectations for Sophie – I just wanted to give her a chance to compete," coach Karl Lerum said. "She looked great. She has a couple of areas that she can improve on in a hurry and some other areas that will take a little longer. But hopefully, she catches a little vision and wants to stay after it."
 
AND THAT'S NOT ALL
-- At the end of the pentathlon, Hannah Chang's day still wasn't done. About 20 minutes after the 800, she was back at the starting line for the preliminaries of the 60-meter hurdles. She clocked a 9.10, which advances her to Tuesday's finals as the No. 5 seed. Top-seeded Lauryn Chandler of Central Washington, who came in at 8.75, went even faster at 8.61, and remains the one to beat. Asked about how much she had in the tank after going hard in the pentathlon 800, Chang replied, "I had just enough to get me through.".
 

-- Marissa Crane will be the No. 3 seed for Tuesday's finals of the women's 400-meter dash after an indoor personal-best time of 57.97 seconds in Monday's prelims. Crane won her preliminary heat. Her previous indoor best was 58.56 at the UW Invitational on Jan.27. Her overall best is an outdoor time of 57.58.
-- Senior sprinter Aniya Green barely missed on a spot in the 400-meter finals, placing ninth in an indoor-best 58.99. The time for the eighth and final spot was 58.83. But Green will still be racing on Tuesday, as she made the finals of the 200 meters with a personal-best time of 25.52. Her previous indoor bests were 59.06 in the 400 and 25.62 in the 200.
 

-- Kainoa Lee made the podium with a third-place finish in the men's pole vault. Lee made it over at 14 feet, 8 ¼ inches. He was sixth last year. Freshman Mason Hrcek tied for fifth on Monday at 14-2 ½.
-- Sophomore Nathaniel Gale ran a 19-second personal-best in the 5000, coming across the line in 16 minutes, 15.05 seconds. His previous best was 16:34.22.
-- SPU is seventh in both sets of team standings. The women have 14 points. Western Washington leads with 50, and Western Oregon has 49. The Falcon men have 13 points. WWU leads with 54, with Central second at 38. Western is the heavy favorite to win the crown.
 
UP NEXT
The second and final day of the meet is Tuesday. Field events start at 9:00 a.m., and track races start at 11:00 a.m. The last race is the men's 4-by-400 relay at 2:45 p.m. The awards ceremony is scheduled for 3:05 p.m.
 

NCAA WOMEN'S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD
GNAC Championships
Monday, Feb. 19, 2024
The Podium / Spokane, Wash.
 
Team scores (through 6 of 17 events; last 11 events on Tuesday) – 1, Western Washington 50; 2, Western Oregon 49; 3, Central Washington 40; 4, Northwest Nazarene 25; 5, Alaska Anchorage 20; 6, Simon Fraser 15; 7, Seattle Pacific 14; 8, Saint Martin's 11; 9, Montana State Billings 9..
 
MONDAY FINALS
5000 – 1, Morgan Erler (NNU) 17:48.41.  SPU – 13, Matise Mulch 18:57.61.
4000 distance medley relay – 1, Western Washington 11:50.82#.  SPU – 4, Seattle Pacific (Maya Ewing, Charisma Smith, Johanna Brown, Annika Esvelt) 12:24.75.
High jump – 1, Emy Ntekpere (CWU) 5-7¾ / 1.72m#.  SPU – T9, Paige Kessler 4-9¾ / 1.47m.
Long jump – 1, Ujunwo Nwokoma (WOU) 19-1½ / 5.83m#.  No SPU.
Weight throw – 1, Liliana Lyness (WOU) 53-0¼ / 16.16m.  No SPU.
 
MONDAY PRELIMINARIES
60-meter dash – 1, Marie-Eloise Leclair (Simon) 7.30#.  No SPU.
200 – 1, Marie-Eloise Leclair (Simon) 24.26#.  SPU finals qualifier – 5, Aniya Green 25.52.  No other SPU.
400 – `1, Elise Hopper (CWU) 57.02.  SPU finals qualifier – 3, Marissa Crane 57.97.  Other SPU – 9, Aniya Green 58.99; 11, Johanna Brown 59.09.
800 – 1, Marian Ledesma (WWU) 2:13.26#.  No SPU.
60 hurdles – 1, Lauryn Chandler (CWU) 8.61#.  SPU finals qualifier – 5, Hannah Chang 9.10.  Other SPU – 16, Sophie Mock 10.09.
 
PENTATHLON
Final standings – 1, Ellie DeGroot (CWU) 3,332#; 2, Hannah Chang (SPU) 3,135; 3, Vivien Liessfeld (UAA) 3,125; 4, Macy Clemens (WOU) 3,116; 5, Carley Huber (CWU) 3,056; 6, Amity Deters (WOU) 3,043; 7, Candace Nhye (CWU) 3,005; 8, Sophie Mock (SPU) 2,793; 9, Sadie Wendring (WOU) 2,673; 10, Karma Walker (WWU) 2,615.
 
Pentathlon 60 hurdles – 1, Hannah Chang 8.85 (941 points).  Other SPU – 8, Sophie Mock 9.67 (775)
Pentathlon high jump – 1, Amity Deters (WOU) 5-4 ½ / 1.64m (783 points).  SPU – T2, Chang 4-10 ½ / 1.49m (610); T5, Mock 4-9 ½ / 1.46m (577).
Pentathlon shot put – 1, Karma Walker (WWU) 35-8 ½ / 10.88m (587 points).  SPU – 7, Chang 27-9 ½ / 8.47m (430); 10, Mock 23-9 ½ / 7.25m (351)
Pentathlon long jump – 1, Vivien Liessfeld (UAA) 17-5 ¼ / 5.31m (645 points).  SPU – 6, Chang 16-1 ½ / 4.91m (535); 7, Mock 15-11 ¾ / 4.87m (524).
Pentathlon 800 meters – 1, Ellie DeGroot (CWU) 2:22.94 (784 points).  SPU – 3, Chang 2:36.06 (619); 6, Mock 2:40.62 (566). 
 
# NCAA provisional qualifying

 
NCAA MEN'S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD
GNAC Championships
Monday, Feb. 19, 2024
The Podium / Spokane, Wash.
 
Team scores (through 5 of 17 events; last 12 events on Tuesday) – 1, Western Washington 66 2/3; 2, Central Washington 38; 3, Western Oregon 37 1/3; 4, Northwest Nazarene 23; 5, Alaska Anchorage 17; 6, Simon Fraser 16; 7, Seattle Pacific 13; 8, Montana State Billings 8; 9, Saint Martin's 6.
 
MONDAY FINALS
5000 – 1, Kevin McDermott (WWU) 14:30.28.  SPU – 11, Brennan LeBlanc 15:36.75; 13, Isaac Venable 15:57.47; 15, Nathaniel Gale 16:15.05; 18, Gabe Endresen 16:39.75.
4000 distance medley relay – 1, Simon Fraser 10:09.75.  SPU – 6, Seattle Pacific (Kade Franco, Evan Carpenter, Jonathan Lieb, Silas Demmert) 11:08.08.
Pole vault – 1, Drew Klein (CWU)16-2¾ / 4.95m#.  SPU – 3, Kainoa Lee 14-8¼ / 4.48m; 5, Mason Hrcek 14-2½ / 4.33m.
Long jump –1, Troy Roberson (WWU) 23-3½ / 7.10m.  No SPU.
Weight throw – 1, Mark Warren (WOU) 59-2¼ / 18.04m.  No SPU.
 
MONDAY PRELIMINARIES
60-meter dash – 1, Joshua Caleb (UAA) 6.70#.  No SPU.
200 – 1, Joshua Caleb (UAA) 21.49#.  No SPU.
400 – 1, Kevin Angarita (UAA) 48.51#.  SPU – 12, Evan Carpenter 52.11.
800 – 1, Isaiah Rodriguez (WOU) 1:53.61.  No SPU.
60 hurdles – 1, Hunter Flick (WWU) 8.19#.  No SPU.
 
HEPTATHLON
Standings (through 4 of 7 events; last 3 events on Tuesday) – 1, Andrew Boyd (STM) 2,706; 2, Anders Larsen (UAA) 2,632; 3, Gabe Burchfield (WOU) 2,552; 4, Drew Klein (CWU) 2,547; 5, Caleb Ness (WOU) 2,310; 6, Ryan Fenley (MSUB) 2,279; 7, Austin Seals (WWU) 1,862.
 
Heptathlon 60-meter dash – 1, Drew Klein (CWU) 7.14 (833 points).
Heptathlon long jump – 1, Klein (CWU) 21-3½ / 6.49m (695 points),
Heptathlon shot put – 1, Andrew Boyd (STM) 43-1 / 13.13m (675 points)
Heptathlon high jump – 1, Gabe Burchfield (WOU) 6-4¼ / 1.94m (749 points).

#  NCAA provisional qualifying