THE SCHEDULE
Saturday, March 2               Seattle Pacific at Ed Boitano Invitational
                                                Baker Stadium @ University of Puget Sound / Tacoma, Wash.
                                                Track events: 11:00 a.m.    Field events, 11:00 a.m.
                                                No live Webcast        Live results
 

SEATTLE – Spring officially arrives on the athletic calendar this week. But it's still winter on the real calendar.
 
And Saturday's season-opening outdoor track will definitely feel like winter.
 
But the Seattle Pacific Falcons will still be out there, as they head to Tacoma for the Ed Boitano Invitational.
 
Action at Baker Stadium on the University of Puget Sound campus begins at 11:00 a.m. both on the track and in the field, However, the women's and men's pole vault have been switched from Saturday to Friday, and will take place at Pacific Lutheran University's indoor facility. (A pair of events in which SPU does not have an entry – the 10,000 meters and the hammer – will be on Friday at UPS).

Saturday's final event is the women's 4-by-400 relay at 3:10 p.m.
 
KEEPING TRACK OF THE ACTION
Live results will be available throughout the day. The appropriate link is at the top of this story. The meet will not have a live Webcast.
 
DRESS IN LAYERS – LOTS OF THEM
Let's just say there could be a little bit of everything during the course of Saturday's meet. The forecast calls for cold with a spotty rain or snow shower in the morning, and more showers possible in the afternoon. A chance of hail? It's in the forecast. Potentially some thunder? Yup, that's in there, too. Temperatures could climb into the low 40s, but will feel more like the mid 30s.
 
Welcome to March outdoor track and field.
 
DAUGHERTY SETS INDOOR POLE VAULT RECORD
Falcons senior Lizzy Daugherty capped her indoor season in record-setting style.

 

In last Friday's Ken Shannon Last Chance Qualifier at the UW's Dempsey Indoor facility, Daugherty cleared 12 feet, 9½ inches in the pole vault. That was half an inch/ one centimeter higher than the old indoor record of 12-9 set by Melissa Peaslee in 2008.
 
The closest anyone had come to Peaslee's height was Scout Cai during her junior season in 2019 when she went 12-8¼ at the SPU Final Qualifier, also in Dempsey. Cai also owns the overall SPU record, 13-3 outdoors on April 30, 2021.
 
Daugherty's previous indoor best was 12-3½ on Feb.3 at the George Fox Indoor meet in Newberg, Oregon. She came close to that with a clearance of 12-2¾ to take third place at the GNAC Championships on Feb. 20 in Spokane.
 
Her 12-9½ put her into sole possession of No. 23 on the NCAA Division II national provisional qualifying list.
 
The mark was her overall personal best. Her outdoor best is 12-4 last April 28 at the Ralph Vernacchia Invitational in Bellingham.
 
Daugherty's achievement means that both SPU indoor pole vault records were rewritten this winter On Jan. 13 at the UW Indoor Preview, freshman Mason Hrcek went 15 feet, 5¾ inches for the new men's record. The old record was 14-11, which had stood since 2012.





BEEN HERE, RUN THAT … MANY TIMES
The Ed Boitano Invitational, which has gone by different names through the years (the UPS Quad Meet, the UPS Outdoor Preview has been Seattle Pacific's season opener for 21 of the past 22 years. The only exception was 2021 when things were getting back to some semblance of normal following the pandemic shutdown of the 2020 season.
 
During that time, the meet increased from a quadrangular into an invitational with a full slate of events and many of the Pacific Northwest schools taking part.
 
From the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, Western Washington and Saint Martin's are scheduled to join SPU in Tacoma on Saturday.
 
SCOUTING THE ED BOITANO INVITATIONAL
SPU has competitors in most of the women's running events (except for long distance) and in several field events, as well.
 

Sophomore Hannah Chang is slated for the busiest day. With an eye toward competing in the heptathlon, Chang is entered in the 200-meter dash, the long jump, and the javelin, which are three of the seven events. Crane is in the 100, 200 and 800, while Segall is slated for the 200, 400, and 800.
 
 

Senior Aniya Green is entered in the 100 and 200, with fellow senior Charisma Smith joining her in the 200. Both are penciled in for the 4-by-400 relay. Junior Johanna Brown also is down for the relay as well as the 800. Marissa Crane, normally found in the 400 and sometimes the 200, will give the 800 a shot for the first time in college.
 
A trio of SPU freshmen are in two events each. Sophie Mock will take a run at both the 100 and 400 hurdles. She was a regular in the 60 hurdles during the indoor season. Paige Kessler will go in both the high jump and long jump. This winter, she cleared 5 feet, 1 ¼ inches in the high and went 15-2 ¾ in the long. Her high jump mark was best on the team for indoors. Anika Segall, who was in just one indoor meet, is slotted into the 200 and 800.
 
Sophomore Maliyah Hicks doing some track (200-meter dash) an some field (long jump).
 
The pole vault will be filled with the trio of new indoor school record holder Lizzy Daugherty, plus Emily Thomason and Charlie Hill. Thomason and Daugherty went 2-3 at the GNAC indoor meet.
 

Conference champion and NCAA veteran triple jumper David Njeri returns to start his final outdoor season, going in the long jump and triple jump. He completed his indoor eligibility last year, but was able to compete on an "unattached" basis this winter. Njeri went a personal-best 23 feet, 10¼ inches in the long jump at the UW Invitational on Jan. 27. He triple jumped once, going 47-10 at the UW Indoor Preview on Jan. 13.
 
Njeri won both the long and the triple at GNAC last spring, and made NCAAs in the triple.
 
Evan Carpenter is entered in two of the three sprints (100, 200) plus the 4-by-400 relay. The only other Falcon individual runner is freshman Mikel Saxon in the 100-meter dash. He's also pole vaulting, as is senior Kainoa Lee, who finished third at GNAC indoors and on Jan. 13 got over his first 15-foot bar, clearing 15-0 at the Indoor Preview.
 
ESVELT PACKING FOR INDOOR NATIONALS
One name not in Saturday's scouting report is Annika Esvelt, who has bigger things on her docket for the nest several days.
 

That's because the Falcon senior is getting ready for a trip to Kansas for the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships. She was officially selected for the women's 5000 meters on Tuesday.
 
Esvelt will be competing inside the Robert W. Plaster Center at Pittsburg State University as the No. 15 seed with her entry time of 16 minutes, 31.43 seconds – just barely shy of personal-best mark of 16:31.12, which she just happened to set in 2022 on that same 300-meter flat oval in Pittsburg when she raced to an All-American eighth-place finish.
 
Esvelt posted her current time on Feb. 9 at the Husky Classic. She will be aiming for another top-8 and a return to the awards podium, with the No. 8 entry time is 16:22.32.
 
The two-day meet is Friday and Saturday, March 8-9. The 5K is set for the 8th at 4:15 p.m. Pacific time.

SCHEDULE HAS A FAMILIAR FEEL
The Doris Heritage Invitational– along with Saturday's Ed Boitano Invite – are two of the meets that have become an annual staple on Seattle Pacific's schedule.
 
Once again, the Falcons will compete in the PLU Open on March 16, the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa, California, on April 12-13, the Wildcat Invitational in Ellensburg on April 20, the Ralph Vernacchia Invitational in Bellingham on April 27, and the Portland Twilight at Lewis & Clark College on May 4.
 
For the second straight season, SPU will head to San Marcos, California, for the Mangrum Invitational, this one on Friday, March 22. The next day, they'll be at the PLNU Invitational, at Point Loma Nazarene in San Diego, also for the second year in a row.
 
Before heading to the Bryan Clay in Azusa, the Falcons will stop by Long Beach for the Pacific Coast Invitational on Thursday, April 11.
 
The championship portion of the season begins with the GNAC Multi Events (women's heptathlon, men's decathlon) on Monday and Tuesday, April 29-30, at Bellingham's Civic Stadium. The GNAC Championships are Friday and Saturday, May 10-11 at Central Washington in Ellensburg. This year's NCAA Division II nationals are Thursday through Saturday, May 23-25, in Emporia, Kansas.
 

DORIS HERITAGE MEET WILL FEATURE A FRIDAY FLAVOR
The eighth annual Doris Heritage Invitational will be back at Renton Memorial Stadium for the second straight year. But this time, instead of a customary Saturday spot on the calendar it will take place on Friday April 5.
 
Field events will begin a 3:00 p.m., with running events getting started at 4:00 p.m. The last event is the women's 4-by-400 relay at 8:05 p.m.
 
The meet moved to Renton last year after taking place previously at West Seattle Stadium. This year, it was pushed back to the first week in April after previously taking place on the third or fourth Saturday of March io avoid crowding up against other meets on the Pacific Northwest schedule.
 
It is slotted in for a Friday because Renton Stadium is hosting the Arnie Young Invitational the following day. That meet has grown to become one of the largest high school meets in the area.
 
A LITTLE HIGHER, FASTER, AND FARTHER
As always, the qualifying standards for the NCAA Division II nationals have been tweaked just a bit from last year – and in most cases, that'll require slightly better performances to get on the list.
 
For some of the Falcons who have national aspirations on the women's side, the 5000 meters standard is 17:03.78, down from 17:07.10 in 2023, the 400-meter dash is 55.93 (56.00), 100 hurdles is 14.22 (14.24), the 4-by-400 relay is 3:49.10 (3:49.58), the pole vault is 12-4½ / 3.77 meters (12-3¼ / 3.74), and the heptathlon is 4,504 points (4,510).
 
For the men, the triple jump is 23-11 ½ / 14.69 meters (same as 2023), the pole vault is 15-10 / 4.83 (15-9 ¾ / 4.82), the long jump is 23-11 ½ / 7.30 (23-10 ¼ / 7.27), and the 3000-meter steeplechase is 9:12.31 (9:12.36).
 
That's just to make the list. It always takes more than that to make the meet. For outdoors, the "desired minimums are 20 for individual events (maximum 24), 16 for decathlon / heptathlon (max 18) and 14 for relays (max 16).
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons will be off from competition next week, but will return to action on Saturday, March 16, at the PLU Open. Competition at the Pacific Lutheran Track begins at 9:00 a.m.


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