THE SCHEDULE
Friday-Saturday, May 10-11         Seattle Pacific at GNAC Championships
                                               CWU Rec Sports Complex / Ellensburg, Wash.
                                               FRIDAY: Field 10:00 a.m.     Track 3:00 p.m.
                                               SATURDAY:  Field 10:00 a.m.     Track 2:45 p.m.
                                               No live Webcast        Live results
 
 
SEATTLE – Annika Esvelt is one of the favorites. No surprise there.  David Njeri is the one of the favorites. No surprise there, either
 
Whether it's on the track in the women's 5000 meters or on the runway in the men's triple jump, those two Seattle Pacific standouts will be the ones to beat at this weekend's Great Northwest Athletic Conference track and field championship meet.
 
Competition at the Central Washington Recreation Sports Complex in Ellensburg is set for Friday and Saturday. The opening day schedule has field events starting at 10:00 a.m. and track events at 3:00 p.m. The final event is the men's 10,000 meters at 7:00 p.m.
 
On Saturday, field events again start at 10:00 a.m. The first track race is at 2:45 p.m., the last race is at 5:45, followed by the team and individual awards ceremony at 6:00.
 
This is the second time in the past three years that the meet has been at the CWU Complex.
 
KEEPING TRACK OF THE ACTION
The meet will have live results available throughout the weekend. The appropriate link is at the top of this story. It will not have a live Webcast. Seattle Pacific's social media pages (Facebook and Twitter) also will be updated periodically as news warrants throughout both days.
 
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: HERE COMES THE SUN
After a spring of putting up with nasty weather, from Bellingham to San Diego and multiple locales in between, conditions are expected to be at the opposite end of the spectrum this weekend: sunny and hot. Friday's forecast calls for temperatures in the low 80s, though it could feel like the upper 80s. On Saturday, the outlook is for mid 80s, feeling like the upper 80s.
 
No rain is in sight. Friday has light winds in the forecast (unusual for Ellensburg; it's usually much breezier); Saturday has little in the way of sustained wind, but possible gusts to 30 miles per hour.

TICKET TALK
Tickets can be purchased online or at the gate. The cost is $12 for adults and $7 for seniors, students, and children ages 3-14. Each ticket is good for one day.
 
WWU GOES FOR TEAM TITLE REPEATS
Western Washington is favored to win its fifth consecutive men's title and second in a row on the women's side. But Central Washington could make it interesting on both sides.
 
The WWU men are seeded for 224 points, and have three No. 1 entries. They are slated to pick up points in 19 of this week's 20 events (all except the pole vault). Central is seeded for 181½ and has six No. 1 entries. (The Wildcats also collected 10 first-place points in the decathlon last week; Western did not pick up any points in that one.)
 
Western women are seeded for 190½ points with three No. 1 entries. They are penciled in for points in 16 of the 20 events. Central is seeded for 162 points with seven No. 1s.
 
The SPU women are seeded for 58 points, including Annika Esvelt's top seed in the 5000. The men are seeded for 21, including David Njeri's top seed in the triple jump. 
 




SCOUTING THE GNAC WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIPS
 

Annika Esvelt has the GNAC's top time by a long way in both the 5000 and 10,000. But with her long-term sights set on the NCAAs in two weeks and a chance to make the awards podium in both events, she's going to take things easier this week and focus on the 5K. The closest one to Esvelt is Saint Martin's senior Cassidy Walchak-Sloan at 16:40.76 on March 22.
 
Esvelt also is entered in the 1500, having posted personal-best times in her last two races at that distance: 4:35.50 on April 5, and 4:34.73 on April 27. She will be the No. 5 seed, with Simon Fraser's Megan Roxby the big favorite at 4:20.02.
 
 

Sophomores Maya Ewing and Matise Mulch are taking aim at their own rugged distance doubles. Ewing is the 3000 steeplechase to start the meet on Friday afternoon as the No. 6 seed, then will run the 5000 on Saturday afternoon at the No. 11. She initially wasn't going to do the 5K, but then ran a 66-second personal best 17:39.65 at the Ralph Vernacchia Invitational in Bellingham on April 27. Ewing was sixth in last year's GNAC steeple with a personal-best 11:19.21.
 
Mulch is signed up for Friday's 10K and Saturday's 5K. She was fifth in the 10 and ninth in the 5 last year. Mulch has gotten steadily faster in the 5000 all spring, coming in at 18:04.16 (No. 19 seed). Her only 10,000 was at the season-opening Ed Boitano Invitational on March 1, with a 39:38.25 (No. 11). Her PBs are 17:57.50 and 38:22.99, respectively.
 
 

Aniya Green's final weekend as a Falcon will be stacked. She is entered in the 200 and 400 dashes, and is slated as the leadoff runner in both the 4x100 and 4x400 relays. The senior will be the No. 12 seed in the 200 off the 25.54 that she ran at the PLU Open on March 16 and No. 8 in the 400 with her 58.17 from the Wildcat Invite on this same track on April 20. The only other Falcon doubling up in individual events is freshman Paige Kessler in the high jump (No. 11 at 5-2¼) and long jump (No. 15 at 15-10 ½ from last Saturday's Linfield Open). Fellow freshman Sophie Mock is joining her in the long and is the No. 5 seed at 17-8¼.

 

Marissa Crane and Charisma Smith are down for both relays plus the 400 dash. Crane is the No. 4 seed in the 400 at 56.95. Smith, in her final meet, will get one more chance at breaking the one-minute mark, coming in at 1:00.55. Also in the 400 at the No. 6 seed is junior Johanna Brown at 57.31, which she ran on the CWU track on April 20. Brown also is penciled in as the second baton carrier on the 4x400 relay.

 

Lizzy Daugherty and Emily Thomason are the Nos. 2-3 seeds in the pole vault. Daugherty is on the NCAA provisional list at 12-6¼; Thomason comes in at 12-2½. Last year, Thomason was second (a career-best 12-4 ½) and Daugherty took third (11-10½). Central Washington's Lauryn McGough is the favorite at 13-1¾).
 
 

The 100 hurdles could be one of the best races of the meet, and Hannah Chang figures to be part of it as the No. 4 seed with her tie of 14.30 at the Central meet on April 20. Ellie DeGroot of the host Wildcats ran 14.08 in that same meet and is the No. 2 seed. Defending champion Lauryn Chandler of Central is the one to beat at 13.95. She ran sub-14 in last year's preliminaries (13.90) and again in the finals (13.97). Also in the mix is Alaska Anchorage's Liv Heite at 14.27 (No. 3).
 
SCOUTING THE GNAC MEN'S CHAMPIONSHIPS
David Njeri has a chance to do what no GNAC triple jumper has ever done: win three conference titles. He's the one to beat, coming in with a season-best 48 feet, 6 inches at the Mangrum Invitational in San Marcos on March 22. That has him 7 ½ inches ahead of second-seeded Isaiah Webster of Central Washington (47-10½). Webster was third last year at 47-3½.
 
 

Njeri won the 2021 GNAC title at 48-7¼. In 2022 when the meet took place at the CWU Complex, he sustained an injury on his final try of the long jump competition on the first day, which subsequently forced him to scratch out of the triple on the second day. He returned to the top spot last year at 48-4½.
 
Having missed the final two regular-season meets this  year (Ralph Vernacchia Invite and Linfield Open) with a tweaked hamstring, Njeri is electing to focus on just the triple jump this weekend. He will not try for a second straight long jump title.
 
 

The Falcons have two entries each in the 3000 steeplechase, the 10,000 meters, and the pole vault. Brennan LeBlanc is the No. 7 seed in the steeple at 9:38.30. He was 11th last year in 9:47.72. Freshman Silas Demmert is the No. 16 seed and will by trying for his first sub-10. He has dropped time consistently throughout the spring. After starting out at 10:25.19 in his very first steeple, he came down to 10:17.34 and 10:04.65.
 
 

Gabe Endresen, a junior, and sophomore Isaac Venable will go in the 10K. Venable was 12thin last year's GNAC 10K in 35:00.88. Now, he's all the way down to 32:27.17, which would have put him a team-scoring sixth in 2023 and has him as the No. 14 seed for Friday. Endresen is coming off a PB of 33:12.32 at the Vernacchia on April 27. A year ago, he was 14th in 35:11.71.
 

Senior Kainoa Lee is going for a third straight pole vault podium placing. He has been third the past two seasons, going an outdoor personal-best 14-10¼ in 2022 at CWU, and 14-10 last year at Western Oregon in Monmouth. Lee's 2024 best is 14-5 ½ on April 11 at the Pacific Coast Invitational in Long Beach, Calif., making him the No. 3 seed. He cleared 15 for the first time during the winter indoor season. Also in the pole vault is freshman Mason Hrcek, He finished the regular season last Saturday at Linfield with his first college win, going an outdoor-best 14 feet even after missing the first five outdoor meets in March with an ankle injury. He is No. 6 on the list. Hrcek set the school indoor record of 15-5¾  in January.
 
Senior Evan Carpenter will run his final SPU race in the 400-meter dash.
 
SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- Defending champion Western Washington became just the fourth school to win the women's team title. In the previous 19 GNAC meets, Seattle Pacific (11), Western Oregon (5) and Alaska Anchorage (3) were the only schools to win it.
-- The Falcons were sixth on the women's side with 53 point and eighth on the men's side with 51 last year.
-- SPU captured two individual title in 2023, both of them by David Njeri, as he took the triple jump for the second time and the long jump for the first time.
-- Of the five Falcon men who scored team points last spring, Njeri and Kainoa Lee (third in the pole vault) are back for another go.
-- On the women's side, 10 of the 11 who factored into the team points are returning. The lone exception is Libby Michael, who ran on the sixth-place 4x400 relay team. She graduated.
-- The group of returners includes two who scored in three events: Aniya Green (seventh in the 400, eighth in the 200, fifth on the 4x100 relay) and Marissa Crane (third in the 400, fifth on the 4x100 and sixth on the 4x400).
-- Mason Hrcek, Emily Thomason, and Johanna Brown are coming in with some winning momentum. Hrcek took the men's pole vault, Thomason won the women's pole vault, and Brown was first in the women 400 dash at last week's regular-season finale Linfield Open.
 
CHANG HAS A HEAD START
Sophomore Hannah Chang already has seen some GNAC action. The sophomore made the awards podium with a third-place finish in the women's heptathlon on April 29-30 in Bellingham.
 
 

Chang totaled a career-high 4,365 points. That included a career-best day in the high jump as she got over a 5-foot bar for the first time, clearing 5-0½.
 
She started the meet with a second-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles, and finished it with a second place in the 800 meters. That run in the 800, along with a season-best mark of 93 feet, 8 inches in the javelin helped her jump from sixth to third in the final standings.
 
That third-place finish gave the Falcon six team points.
 
Chang thus made the awards podium in both multi events this year. In February, she was second in the pentathlon.
 
APPROACHING THE SPU FINISH LINE
Whether it's in the 400-meter dash or in one of the relays, Marissa Crane will be running her final races as a Falcon this weekend.
 
 

In terms of athletic eligibility, Crane is just a sophomore. But academically, she is a senior and will be graduating next month with her degree in communications. She carries a sparkling 3.88 grade-point average.
 
Before arriving at Seattle Pacific in the fall of 2022, Crane completed two years of college credit through the popular Running Start program at South Kitsap in Port Orchard on the other side of Puget Sound.
 
If Crane decides to run track while she pursues post-graduate studies, wherever that might be, she will have two years of eligibility remaining..

 

FRIENDLY VENUE FOR THE FALCONS
SPU athletes already have been to the Central Washington facility this season, having visited on April 20 for the Wildcat Invitational.
 
-- Sophomore Maya Ewing ran to her first college victory in that meet, finishing first in the 1500 with a season-best time of 4 minutes, 48.49 seconds.
-- Hannah Chang set a personal-best in the 100 hurdles at 14.30, racing alongside Central Washington's Lauryn Chandler (13.99) and Ellie DeGroot (14.08). Those three could be battling it out again on Saturday.
-- Junior Johanna Brown had a PB of 57.31 in the 400-meter dash. She is entered in that race this week.
-- Freshman Paige Kessler leaped a personal-best 5 feet, 2¼ inches in the high jump. That was half an inch – and one centimeter – better than her previous PB of 5-1¾.
 
'E' IS FOR EXCELENCE – AND EMPORIA
The Falcons have three names on the NCAA Division II provisional qualifying list. This is the final weekend of competition before declarations for the national meet at Emporia State in Kansas must be submitted by 10:00 a.m. Pacific time on Monday, May 13.
 
-- Lizzy Daugherty tie No. 35 in women's pole vault, 12-6¼.  No. 1: 15-4¼.  No. 20: 12-11½.
-- Annika Esvelt is No. 4 in the women's 10,000 meters at 33:41.59.  No 1: 32:52.54.  No. 20: 35:00.07.
-- Esvelt is No. 12 in the 5000 at 16:18.94.  No. 1: 15:43.34.  No. 20: 16:26.08.
-- David Njeri tie No. 36 in men's triple jump, 48-6.  No. 1: 51-11¾.  No. 20: 49-4½.
 
The NCAA has a "desired minimum" of 20 competitors in each national event, but has the option to take as many as 24 in any given event (or events) if space is available. Since there are no guarantees for any additional entries beyond 20, then the No. 20 mark is considered the "red line."
 
The list of declarations will be released on Monday afternoon. The final list of accepted entries will be released on Tuesday, May 14 by 3:00 p.m. Pacific time.
 
Click on this link for a complete look at national provisional qualifiers.
  
AROUND THE WEST
As is usually the case, the GNAC will be the final of the three West Region conferences to have its championship meet.
 
The Pacific West Conference competed on April 26-27 at Westmont University in Santa Barbara. The Azusa Pacific men and women both won their eighth consecutive team titles. The men totaled 243 points, well ahead of second-place Fresno Pacific's 182. The APU women had 218; Concordia Irvine was second with 185. The Cougar men won seven events, and the women won four.
 
Last weekend's California Collegiate Athletic Association meet also ended with a team title sweep, this one by Cal Poly Pomona. The women's meet was close throughout before the Broncos prevailed with 159.5 points. Chico State had 130.5 and Cal State San Bernardino 127. Pomona won just two events, but got onto the scoresheet in almost every event. The men came out ahead of Chico State, 250-220. For both CPP teams, it was the third straight championship.
 
UP NEXT
The NCAA Division II nationals are Thursday-Saturday, May 23-25, at Emporia State University's Welch Stadium in Emporia, Kansas.
 
Competition begins at 8:30 a.m. Pacific time on Thursday and Saturday, and 7:30 a.m. Pacific on Friday the 24th. Potential SPU events are women's pole vault at 1:00 p.m. on May 23, and the women's 10,000 at 6:50 p.m. on that same day. The men's triple jump is on Saturday the 25th at 10:45 a.m. Pacific, and the women's 5000 at 3:25 p.m. that day. The Falcons would not have any scheduled competitors on Friday.
 
This is the fourth time Emporia has hosted the D2 nationals, having done so previously in 1995, 1999, and 2006. It also will be the host in 2026. Next year's meet will be in Pueblo, Colorado.


SPU SOCIAL 

• Twitter - @SPUSports & @SPUXCTF
• Instagram - @SPUSports & @spuxctf
• Facebook - /SPUSports

Seattle's only NCAA Division II Scholarship Program | #GoFalcons