THE SCHEDULE                 Seattle Pacific at NCAA Division II Championships
                                     Thursday-Saturday, May 23-25, 2024
                                     Welch Stadium / Emporia, Kansas
                                     THURSDAY: Field events 10:30 a.m.   Track 2:50 p.m.
                                     SPU:  Women's 10,000   6:50 p.m.
                                     FRIDAY: Field events 11:30 a.m.   Track events, 3:30 p.m.
                                     SPU: Women's 100-meter hurdles preliminaries, 4:50 p.m.  
                                     SATURDAY: Field events, 8:30 a.m.   Track events, Noon
                                     SPU: Women's 100 hurdles finals, 12:55 p.m.  Women's 5000, 3:25 p.m.
                                     All times Pacific
                                     Thursday Webcast     Friday Webcast     Saturday Webcast
                                            Live results (all three days)

 
SEATTLE – As excited as she is about competing again at the NCAA Division II Track & Field Championships, Annika Esvelt is even more excited that a Seattle Pacific teammate is coming along to compete with her.
 
Different race … but the same track.
 
Esvelt and Hannah Chang will fly off to Emporia, Kansas this week for the D2 nationals at Welch Stadium on the campus of Emporia State University. The meet begins on Thursday and concludes on Saturday. 
 
Falcons senior Esvelt will be in action on Thursday with the 10,000 meters and on Saturday with the 5000. The 10K, in which she is the No. 4 seed, starts at 6:50 p.m. Pacific time. The 5K goes at 3:25 p.m. She is the No. 11 seed in that race.
 
Chang, a sophomore, will race in the preliminaries of the 100-meter hurdles on Friday at 4:50 p.m. The finals, featuring the top eight qualifiers out of prelims, are at 12:55 p.m. on Saturday.
 
Esvelt will be in her fourth NCAAs, and her second outdoors. She did the 10K-5K double in 2022, placing fourth in the longer race and 10th in the shorter one. Chang is competing at the national level for the first time.
 
KEEPING TRACK OF THE ACTION
Live coverage of the meet will be available all week. The appropriate video links can be found at the top of this story. Note that each of the three days has its own link. The live results link also is at the top of this story. That same link will work for all three days.
 
The Webcast will include some coverage of field events, but in the past, a good portion of it has focused on track events.
 
 

MOSTLY WARM, BUT COULD BE THUNDER-STORMY, TOO
Temperatures in Emporia are expected to be on the toasty side all three days, with at least partial cloud cover in the forecast throughout the meet. Thunderstorms also are possible on all three days. Thursday's highs will be around 80,  but should have cooled somewhat by the time of the women's 10K near 9:00 p.m.
 
Friday has upper 70s in the forecast, and that is the one day when the sun might not put in an appearance. Saturday's highs could reach 80. Thursday and Saturday are when the thunderstorms might be at their strongest – especially in the afternoon.
 
If there are severe thunderstorms or lightning strikes in the immediate vicinity of Welch Stadium, rules stipulate that action must cease as immediately as is practical and not resume for at least 30 minutes. Such delays can be extended for as long as needed until it is safe to continue.
 
SCOUTING REPORT
Annika Esvelt took care of her NCAA qualifying business early and emphatically.
 
 

On March 29 at the Stanford Invitational, after hanging out inside most of the day because of continuous rain, Esvelt stepped to the starting line at Cobb Track and finished her 12½ laps in 16 minutes, 18.94 seconds. That was the second-fastest time of her career. That put her into the national top 5, and while a handful of others eventually ran faster as the season went along, there was no question that Esvelt was high enough on the last to make the NCAAs.
 
Esvelt comes in just three seconds out of a spot in the top 8, which would earn a place on the awards podium.
 
Gracie Hyde of Adams State (Colorado) is the top seed at 15:43.34. In fact, Hyde is going for a distance triple and is the overwhelming favorite in all three. The senior, who raced previously at Division I power Arkansas and won the D2 indoor mile and 3000-meter titles this past winter, is the top seed by seven-plus seconds in the 1500, by nearly eight seconds in the 5000 and by a whopping 26-plus seconds in the 3000 steeplechase.
 
Having secured a spot in the 5000, Esvelt had to get it done in the 10,000. That opportunity came on April 11 at the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa, California. Esvelt made the most of it, and then some, clocking a personal-best 33 minutes, 41.59 seconds. That beat her old best by 10 seconds and put her No. 3 nationally.
 
On that same night in that same meet – in fact, in the very same heat – Florence Uwajeneza of West Texas A&M ran the national-leading time of 32:52.54, and she will be the one to beat this week. Between then and now, the only other runner to go faster than Esvelt was Brianna Robles of Adams State (Colorado). She went 33:05.55 on April 26 and is the No. 2 seed. The other runner ahead of Esvelt is No. 3 Kylie Anicic of Edinboro (Pennsylvania), at 33:25.55.
 
Esvelt has shared the oval with several of these competitors before, most recently in another part of Kansas – Pittsburg, to be precise – at the NCAA indoor nationals in the 5000. Uwajeneza and Robles went 1-2 in that race, and Esvelt, who inadvertently clipped the inside rail and fell, but scrambled back to finish the race, was 10th.
 
 

A couple weeks ago, Hannah Chang hadn't even posted a provisional qualifying time in the 100 hurdles. She had come close at 14.30, but the standard was 14.22 – and that was just to get onto the list. It now typically takes a sub-14 to get into nationals.
 
On May 11 in Ellensburg, Chang got that sub-14 with room to spare. She clocked 13.88 to win the GNAC title from her No. 4-seeded position. After all of the final-weekend results from around the country were entered into the national database, Chang was sitting in the No. 21 spot, with only the top 20 guaranteed a spot, although up to 24 potentially could be invited.
 
When entries were released on the afternoon of May 13, one of the competitors above Chang did not declare because of an injury, so Chang moved up one spot to No. 20 – and that's exactly how many were accepted.
 
The top eight will make the finals, and the No. 8 seed is at 13.64, so Chang likely will need another sizable time drop. The huge favorite to win is Minnesota State's Denisha Cartwright at 12.60. Not only is that the top time in D2 by more than half a second, it would rank No. 2 in D1.


 
SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- The Falcons are back in the NCAA women's meet after a one-year absence, as they had no competitors in 2023. Prior to that, they had at least one qualifier for 40 consecutive years.
-- At those 40 meets, SPU athletes had top-8 finishes and scored team points in 38 of them.
 -- In 2022, the Falcons had five representatives, including Esvelt, who placed fourth in the 10,000 and 10th in the 5000.
-- Her fourth place in the 10K brought in five team points. On the final day, Vanessa Aniteye placed sixth in the 400-meter dash, adding another three points to the total.
-- Hannah Chang is SPU's first 100-meter hurdles qualifier since 2016. Maliea Luquin made it that year and placed 14th in 14.02.
-- Esvelt is back in Kansas at NCAAs for the second time in the past three months. In March, she was in Pittsburg, 150 miles southeast of Emporia, for the indoor nationals, placing 10th in the 5000.
-- Her 10,000 meters on Thursday will be Esvelt's fifth in an SPU uniform. The 5000 will be her 15th and her ninth outdoors.
-- Distance runners are very strategic about picking when and where and how often to compete. Esvelt certainly has done that this spring, racing six times overall and running on five of the 11 available weekends heading into nationals.
-- Of those six racers, two were wins: the 1500 at the Doris Heritage Invitational on April 5, and the 5000 at GNAC on May 11.
-- Hannah Chang will run the 100 hurdles for the 18th time as a Falcon.
-- Her first try at that event in college came as a freshman on March 18, 2023 in the Doris Heritage Track Festival at Renton Stadium. She went 14.80 and placed second that day.
-- Chang's finishes in those 17 previous races have led to five wins – including the GNAC championship on May 11 – plus four second places, one third, and five fourths.