SPOKANE, Wash. – Annika Esvelt took care of business early on the track. Emily Thomason, who kept clearing bars, went later than ever on the pole vault runway.
 
Esvelt surged to the front on the second of 15 laps in the women's 3000 meters, gradually building a significant lead and going on to win the title on Tuesday afternoon at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships.
 
Thomason continued to go higher in the pole vault, finally getting over at a personal-best 12 feet, 6 ¾ inches to snag second place behind Central Washington's Lauryn McGough, with Falcons teammate Lizzy Daugherty finishing third.
 
Those performances, among others helped SPU finish with 56 points and in sixth place at the end of the two-day meet inside The Podium.
 
Esvelt already had conference crown in the 3000, winning it as a sophomore in 2022. An injury kept her on the sidelines last winter, but she was back in full force this season. Esvelt is in prime position to grab a spot in the 5000 in next month's NCAA Division II nationals, and now has laid claim to her third conference indoor crown (two in the 3K, one in the 5K), coming across the line in 9:54.80.
 
"I think every time I get to practice going out hard and going for it, it's definitely a good experience," Esvelt said. "Then the next time, I'll be able to hang on longer and longer, so this was definitely a good one."
 




As expected, all 15 runners in Esvelt's heat of the finals were still bunched together after the first lap on the 200-meter banked oval. But by the time they finished the second lap, not only was Esvelt in the lead, she was 4½ seconds in the lead. Then it grew to nine seconds, then 13, then 15 ahead of defending champion Ila Davis of Western Washington.
 
Davis gradually closed some ground, as she was running splits in the 38- to 39-second range, while Esvelt was steady in the 40 to 41 range. By the time they took the bell, the margin was down to just four seconds. But Esvelt responded with a sizzling final 200 of 37.54 seconds. Davis nearly matched her at 38.00, but that wasn't enough to get any closer to her.
 
"I wanted to actually go for a 9:30, which is close to national qualifying – that's why I went out pretty quick," Esvelt said. "Once I got a little past 1K, it's hard to be out there by yourself, so I was slowing down one lap at a time. Then I got scared at the end and thought she was going to pass me, so I sped up."
 
ONWARD AND UPWARD

  Thomason and Daugherty were among the last three pole vaulters still competing, along with Central's McGough. Daugherty cleared her first three bars – 11-3, 11-9, and 12-2 ¾ -- on the first attempt before going out,

But Thomason actually needed her third and final attempt at that 11-3 bar. She then got the next two on the first try. She missed on her first one at 12-6 ¾, then made it on the second, same as McGough, to get onto the NCAA provisional qualifying list. She's tied for No. 24 nationally.
 
"I just felt like this was going to be the day when I could get that bar," Thomason said, adding, "I feel like this is just going to be the start."
 
A BEST AND A BRONZE FOR CRANE
Marissa Crane came into Monday's 400-meter dash prelims seeded seventh and never having broken the 58-second mark indoors (although she had done it outdoors (57.58 at last year's GNAC meet).
 
Then in those prelims, Crane came across the line in 57.97, fast enough to win her heat and give her the No. 3 overall seed for Tuesday's finals.
 
 

Crane ran the first of the two finals heats and won it in 57.23 – a significant drop of more than seven-tenths of a second in just 24 hours and faster than her outdoor personal best. It solidified third place for her, as Central Washington's Elise Hopper won the second heat and the title in 56.55, with Simon Fraser's Claire Bosma right behind in 56.57.
 
"For me, it was just trying to envision every single step," Crane said. "I already had envisioned and thought through it in practice. I think that's what clicked for me today, just envisioning what I wanted and executing it."
 
And at the end of the day, she had something tangible to show for it.
 
"Despite coming in seeded seventh, I had a goal to leave the meet with at least one medal," Crane said. "After the prelims when I was seeded third, I was definitely excited about that. But anything can happen. It feels good to walk away with a medal and I still achieved that goal even though it felt like the odds were against me."
 
AND THAT'S NOT ALL
-- Pentathlon silver medalist Hannah Chang placed fourth in the 60-meter hurdles finals in 8.86 seconds. That was just .01 shy of her PB of 8.85 which she set in the pent on Monday. Lauryn Chandler of Central Washington won in 8.55.
--  Aniya Green took seventh place in the finals of the women's 200-meter dash, finishing in 25.61. Green recorded an indoor best of 25.52 in Monday's preliminaries.
-- Maya Ewing won her heat of the women's mile in 5 minutes, 18.55 seconds – a huge drop of 9.25 seconds from her previous best of 5:27.90 set on Jan. 27 in the Mile City event at UW.
-- The women's 4-by-400 relay of Green, Johanna Brown, Charisma Smith, and Marissa Crane finished fourth in 3:53.60. That was a drop of nearly six seconds from the 3:59.51 that same foursome posted on Jan. 27 at the UW Invitational and was just 68 hundredths away from the NCAA provisional qualifying standard of 3:52.92. Crane, after her PB of 57.23 in the open 400, split a 56.458 on the anchor leg. Brown, running the second leg, also broke 57, splitting 56.931.
-- Western Washington won both team titles. The women edged Central Washington, 143-138. The men were more comfortably in front, 187 2/3 to 132 1/3 ahead of second-place Western Oregon. The SPU men were ninth with 13 points.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD
GNAC Championships
Monday, Feb. 19, 2024
The Podium / Spokane, Wash.
 
Final team scores (through 17 of 17 events) – 1, Western Washington 143; 2, Central Washington 138; 3, Simon Fraser 96; 4, Western Oregon 74; 5, Alaska Anchorage 58; 6, Seattle Pacific 56; 7, Northwest Nazarene 48; 8, Saint Martin's 36; 9, Montana State Billings 12.
 
 
TUESDAY FINALS
60-meter dash – 1, E'lexis Hollis (CWU) 7.29 (meet record, breaks old record of 7.30 set by Marie-Eloise Leclair of Simon Fraser in Monday's preliminaries).  No SPU.
200 – 1, Marie-Eloise Leclair (Simon) 23.39# (meet record, breaks old record of 23.63 set by Leclair on Feb. 21, 2023).  SPU – 7, Aniya Green 25.61.
400 – 1, Elise Hopper (CWU) 56.55#.  SPU – 3, Marissa Crane 57.23.
800 – 1, Jess Chisar (UAA) 2:12.31#.  No SPU.
Mile – 1, Ila Davis (WWU 4:52.81#.  SPU – 11, Maya Ewing 5:18.55.
3000 – 1, Annika Esvelt (SPU) 9:54.80#.  Other SPU – 18, Matise Mulch 10:49.27.
60 hurdles – 1, Lauryn Chandler (CWU) 8.55.  SPU – 4, Hannah Chang 8.86l
4x400 relay – 1, Central Washington 3:49.78#.  SPU – 4, Seattle Pacific (Aniya Green, Johanna Brown, Charisma Smith, Marissa Crane) 3:53.60.
Pole vault – 1, Laura McGough (CWU) 12-10¾ / 3.93m#.  SPU – 2, Emily Thomason 12-6¾ / 3.83m#; 3, Lizzy Daugherty 12-2¾ / 3.73m.
Triple jump – 1, Emy Ntekpere (CWU) 40-4¼ / 12.30m.  No SPU.
Shot put – 1, Destiny Herbert (NNU) 45-6¼ / 13.87m#.  No SPU.
 
 
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.
 
 
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.
 
Final team scores (through 17 of 17 events) – 1, Western Washington 187 2/3; 2, Western Oregon 132 1/3; 3, Central Washington 99; 4, Alaska Anchorage 70; 5, Simon Fraser 62; 6, Northwest Nazarene 50; 7, Montana State Billings 20; 8, Saint Martin's 19; 9, Seattle Pacific 13..
 
 
TUESDAY FINALS
60-meter dash – 1, Joshua Caleb (WWU) 6.73#.
200 – 1, Joshua Caleb (UAA) 21.18 (meet record, breaks old record of 21.50 set by Callum Robinson of Simon Fraser on Feb. 21, 2022).  No SPU.
400 – 1, Kevin Angarita (UAA) 47.88#.  No SPU.
800 – 1, Keeton Sanchez (WOU) 1:54.90.  No SPU.
Mile – 1, Kevin McDermott (WWU) 4:06.63#.  SPU – 20, Jonathan Lieb 4:35.56; 22, Kade Franco 4:54.39.
3000 – 1, Kevin McDermott (WWU) 8:25.11.  SPU – 17, Brennan LeBlanc 8:52.79; 22, Isaac Venable 9:08.12; 26, Silas Demmert 9:15.28.
60 hurdles – 1, Hunter Flick (WWU) 8.11#.  No SPU.
4x400 relay – 1, Western Washington 3:17.11.  No SPU.
High jump – 1, Gabe Burchfield (WOU) 6-6¾ / 2.00m.  No SPU.
Triple jump – 1, Isaiah Webster (CWU) 47-5 ¼ / 14.46m#.  No SPU.
Shot put – 1, Noah Turner (WWU) 50-0 / 15.24m.  No SPU.
 
 
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.
 
 
HEPTATHLON
Final standings (through 7 of 7 events) – 1, Drew Klein (CWU) 4,922#; 2, Andrew Boyd (STM) 4,534; 3, Gabe Burchfield (WOU) 4,461; 4, Anders Larsen (UA) 4,428; 5, Ryan Fenley (MSUB) 4,157; 6, Caleb Ness (WOU) 3,749; 7, Austin Seals (WWU) 2,584.  No SPU.
 
MONDAY EVENTS
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).
 
TUESDAY EVENTS
Heptathlon 60 hurdles – 1, Klein (CWU) 8.52 (855 points).
Heptathlon pole vault – 1, Klein (CWU) 15-3¾ / 4.67m (810 points).
Heptathlon 1000 – 1, Caleb Ness (WOU) 2:49.74 (768 points).
 
# NCAA provisional qualifying