SEATTLE – Setting one personal-best time wasn't enough for Hannah Chang on Friday.

The Seattle Pacific sophomore went out and set two … both within an hour of each other …
 
… and both in the same event.

Chang clocked an 8.89 in the preliminaries of the 60-meter hurdles, getting into the finals, then went even faster at 8.87 to take fifth place in the Husky Classic track and field meet at Dempsey Indoor.
 
A couple hours after Chang ran herself into the finals, Annika Esvelt came onto the track and very likely ran herself into the NCAA Division II national meet. Esvelt clocked 16 minutes, 31.43 seconds in the 5000 meters. That puts her 11th on the national list as of Friday evening, pending the outcome of other meets around the country this weekend. The top 16 times are guaranteed a trip to nationals.
 




CHANG: SUB-9 – AND THEN SOME
Coming into the winter, Chang had never broken the 9-second mark. Her best was 9.10, which she achieved twice last year as a freshman. Then at the season-opening Spokane Invitational on Dec. 9, she clocked 8.96.
 
 

She had another sub-9 at the UW Invitational on Jan. 26, albeit not quite as fast at 8.99.
 
Then came Friday.
 
"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," said Chang, who was fourth in the finals of last year's Great Northwest Athletic Conference meet, but hadn't made the finals of a regular-season meet until Friday. "Coach and I have been working on just attacking through the hurdle and just driving recklessly with my arms and legs."
 
While "reckless" isn't normally a good thing, it apparently can be in a hurdles race.
 
"That's the name of the game, yes," Chang said with a laugh.
 
SPU head coach Karl Lerum knew that a day like Friday wasn't a matter of "if."
 
It was a simply a matter of "when."
 
 

"Sometimes, you see a performance coming, and it takes a long time to actually show up," Lerum said. "Hannah has been practicing very well. She works hard and is focusing on improving, and I'm really happy for her.
 
Chang is now well within reach of the NCAA Division II provisional qualifying time of 8.84. She'll get another crack at it in 10 days when the GNAC Championships begin in Spokane. The preliminaries will be on Monday, Feb. 19, with the finals set for the next day.
 
If things go as expected, Chang will get a chance to race against Central Washington senior Lauryn Chandler, whose 8.75 leads the conference and currently ranks No. 22 in NCAA Division II.
 
"I feel good because I'm close, and that makes me more excited for the next meet," Chang said.
 
Lerum has full confidence that Chang can knock off the last three-hundredths of a second she needs to make the NCAA provisional standard.
 
"It's such a short race, any tiny little thing she can fix is going to come back and help her," he said.
 




ESVELT: FEELING MORE LIKE HERSELF
Two weeks ago at the UW Invitational on the same Dempsey oval, Esvelt's plan was to be in that 16:31 range. She was not feeling well that day, but wanted to give it a shot anyway, and finished in 16:59.41. That was a provisional qualifying time, but not nearly fast enough to be in the top 16.
 
 

On Friday, there was no doubt about it. Esvelt's splits on the 307-meter track consistently ranged from 60 to 63 seconds; her split for the final lap was in the 59-second range.
 
  "It definitely felt good the whole way. But once I got past 2K and I wasn't dead, that made me feel really good," Esvelt said. "Last time, 2K was where I wanted to be done with the whole race. So (today), I felt like, 'OK, I've got this.'
 
"I'm still working back up with that confidence," Esvelt said. "Next time, I should have even more and be able to hold onto that."
 
Esvelt nearly beat her personal-best of 16:31.12, which she set at the 2022 NCAAs when she ran to an All-American eighth-place finish.
 
"I was definitely nervous going in, but I felt better today than in the last few weeks," she said. "I hadn't raced that fast I a couple years. It's hard when it has been so long; you kind of doubt yourself. But today felt like such a good confidence booster, like, 'I am as good as I am.'"
 
 

Falcons assistant coach / distance coach Eric Hansen knew Esvelt had that kind of performance in her.
 
"That's what we were looking for two weeks ago (except for) her being sick," he said. "She came out and took care of business today. The race set up well for her. She did what we knew she was capable of. She just had to go do it."

AND THAT'S NOT ALL
–  Johanna Brown and Charisma Smith both ran personal-best times in the 400-meter dash on Saturday. Brown finished eighth in 58.88 (previous best 59.13) and Smith clocked 1:01.45 (1;01.48).
– Emily Thomason cleared an indoor 12-foot pole vault bar for the first time, getting over at 12-0 1/2. LIzzy Daugherty cleared the same height, and they tied for 11th place. Thomason's overall personal best is 12-4 1/2 outdoors.
– Freshman Paige Kessler came within half an inch of her personal best in the high jump, placing 11th at 5-1.
  
 
NCAA WOMEN'S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD
Husky Classic
Friday, Feb. 9, 2024
Dempsey Indoor / Seattle, Wash.
 
Team scores – Not kept.
 
SPU EVENTS
400 – 1, Lizzy Kneeshaw (Hawaii) 55.87.  SPU – 8, Johanna Brown 58.88; 9, Aniya Green 59.16; 17, Charisma Smith 1:01.45.
5000 – 1, Briana Scott (Unattached) 15:23.76.  SPU – 26, Annika Esvelt 16:31.43.
60-meter hurdles – 1, Annie Kunz (Free People Movement) 8.27.  SPU – 5, Hannah Chang 8.87  Preliminaries – 8, Hannah Chang 8.89.
High jump – 1, Lilian Turban (Hawaii) 6-0½ / 1.84m.  SPU – 11, Paige Kessler 5-1 / 1.55m.
Pole vault – 1, Amanda Moll (UW) 14-4  4.37m.  SPU – T11, Lizzy Daugherty and Emily Thomason 12-0½ / 3.67m.
 
NCAA MEN'S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD
Husky Classic
Friday, Feb. 9, 2024
Dempsey Indoor / Seattle, Wash.
 
Team scores – Not kept.
 
SPU EVENTS
400 – 1, Roderick Soto (Multnomah) 48.36.  SPU – 11, Evan Carpenter 53.30..
Pole vault – 1, Jacob Engler (Unattached) 18-1¼ / 5.52m.  SPU – T11, Mason Hrcek 14-6 / 4.42m; 14; Kainoa Lee 14-6 / 4.42.


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