SEATTLE – Another race, another record for Andrew Bell.
 
Another race, another (very likely) NCAA invitation for Annika Esvelt.
 
 

Bell broke the Seattle Pacific school record in the men's 60-meter hurdles for the fourth time in five races, and Esvelt ran to Division II's third-fastest time this season in the women's 3000 meters, both on Friday at the UW Invitational indoor track and field meet.
 
Falcons freshman Bell came through the finish line in the first heat of the two-heat hurdles finals at Dempsey Indoor in 8.13 seconds, putting him onto the NCAA Division II provisional qualifying list for the first time. That bettered his previous record of 8.21 from the finals of the UW Indoor Preview two weeks ago on Jan. 17.
 
Senior distance runner Esvelt finished her nine-plus laps of the 3000 in 9 minute, 24.80 seconds. She won her heat of the ffour-heat event and placed 10th overall.
 
 

Esvelt did a 3K two weeks ago at the Indoor Preview and logged a personal-best time of 9:33.10. That had her No. 7 on the national list. Under the revised system for making it into the NCAA meet, the top 18 times after entries are declared will be accepted for each individual event – no more, no less.
 
Esvelt's 9:33.10 was way above No. 18. But last year's No.18 time was 9:29.19. So her aim on Friday was not only to get to 9:29, but to get as far below it as possible.
 
"I wanted for sure to go under 9:30. It was by a better-than-expected margin, so I was very, very excited about that," Esvelt said, "especially because we started out a bit slower than that projected time. I'm super-pumped."
 
One of the reasons for the slower start was that one of the runner fell just as the race got going. There was no recall (officials did not stop the race and restart it), so the others had to move around – or over – the fallen runner.
 
But that was just part of it
 
"I did have to jump over a girl, and the entire way, there were girls getting super-impatient going out into Lane 2," Esvelt said. "I was definitely zig-zagging the whole time. I was trying to stay as patient as possible until 1K to go."
 
In fact, Esvelt was last among the 18 runners through the first 1500 meters or so, as her splits on the 307-meter oval were in the 59- to 60-second range. She then started gradually moving up with a pair of 58 splits, and by the time she came around the corner and down the straightaway on the eighth of nine laps, she was in front by a considerable margin, having just split a 57.

 

Esvelt maintained that lead through the bell lap, and had enough left powering through the final few meters to fend off Washington State's Alaina Stone Boggs by 55 hundredths of a second. Esvelt finished that last lap in the 55 range.
 
"I was a little surprised to be out in front," Esvelt said. "I was running a little scared, but definitely, like, I was just going for it."
 
SPU assistant coach / distance coach Eric Hansen said the race actually unfolded in an ideal way for Esvelt, who in a span of 14 days dropped her personal best from 9:38.43 to 9:33.10 and now to 9:24.80.
 
"They didn't get out very quick. But the type of runner she is, she was able to rely on her strength a little bit in the second half. Once she got warmed up, she's able to cut it down rather than blitzing it out of the gate. It actually played into her hands, and she timed it really well."

Esvelt moved up from No. 7 to No. 4 on the all-time Great Northwest Athletic Conference list, and is closing in on Jessica Pixler's 2009 school record of 9:23.24.
 
NEW TACTIC WORKS FOR BELL
In a span of five races spread over his first three college meets, Bell has knocked 18 hundredths of a second off his hurdles time (8.31 on Dec. 14 to 8.13 on Friday) – a noteworthy number given that he has just 60 meters to do it.
 
This time, Bell put some strategy from SPU head coach Karl Lerum into action and got another record-setting finish to show for it. Maybe it wasn't as neat-and-clean as Bell is accustomed to ….but it worked.
 

"Karl talked to me about a different approach going over the hurdles, and I think that really came through in the final," siad Bell, whose time moved him from No. 7 to No. 5 on the all-time GNAC list. "It's kind of sloppily going over the hurdles. I think the idea is that Karl thinks I'm playing it too safe going over the hurdles. So by almost making it sloppy, I can really attack the hurdles and really sprint faster in between."
 
Bell is already buying into it.
 
"I put it into play and I felt like I ran a lot faster," he said. "Now that I've done it once, I think it'll be a lot be a lot better and a lot easier to do in the future."
 
On Friday, Bell was third in his preliminary heat in 8.23, then won his heat of the finals by 17 hundredths of a second. His 8.13 gave him third overall, trailing the 7.92 of Washington's Jonathan Frazier and the 8.11 of Central Washington's David Brown.
 
Along with breaking the school record four times, Bell has won four of the five heats in which he has competed – the only exception being Friday's preliminaries.
 
Bell's 8.13 ranks No. 39 nationally as of Friday evening. The current No. 18 "red line" time is 8.06.
 
AND THAT"S NOT ALL
-- Lizzy Daugherty finished ninth in the women's pole vault with a clearance of 12 feet, 8 inches. She wasn't able to clear the next bar of 13-1¾, but did get two good looks at it
 

-- Freshman sprinter Robert Joshua posted a personal-best 22.55 in the men's 200-meter dash. That bettered his previous best of 22.71 from his college debut at the Spokane Invitational on Dec. 14.
-- The Falcons ran their first 4000-meter distance medley relays of the season on both the women's and men's sides. The women's group of Madelyn Buckley, Lucia Templeton, Alexa Gossett, and Anna Prussian placed 11th in 12:51.37. The men's unit of Silas Demmert, Noah Bouknight, Nathan Korth, and Isaac Venable was seventh in 10:39.17.
 
UP NEXT
Another group of Falcons will be back at Dempsey Indoor on Saturday for the second day of the UW Invitational. Competition both on the track and in the field starts at 10:00 a.m.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD
UW Invitational
Friday, Jan. 31, 2025
Dempsey Indoor / Seattle, Wash.
 
Team scores – Not kept.
 
SPU EVENTS ONLY
FRIDAY
200 – 1, Raykiyat Olukoju (UC Riverside) 24.07.  SPU – 31, Jada Sarrys 26.61.
3000 – 1, Pamela Kosgei (New Mexico) 8:44.62.  SPU – 10, Annika Esvelt 9:24.80#.
60 hurdles – 1, Micaela DeMello (WSU) 8.16.  SPU – 12, Tia Cates 9.79; 13, Sophie Mock 9.83.
4000 distance medley relay – 1, Texas Christian 11:13.91.  SPU – 11, Seattle Pacific (Madelyn Buckley, Lucia Templeton, Alexa Gossett, Anna Prussian) 12:51.37.
Pole vault – 1, Hana Moll (UW) 15-3½ / 3.66m.  SPU – 9, Lizzy Daugherty 12-8 / 3.86m; T13, Emily Thomason 12-2 / 3.71m.
Triple jump – 1, Tara Wyllie (Hawaii) 41-3 ¾ / 12.59m.  SPU – 10, Sophie Hanay 33-10 / 10.31m.

SATURDAY
60-meter dash – 1, Nerissa Thompson (W. Oregon) 7.52.  SPU – 28, Jada Sarrys 7.97.
400 – 1, Aariyana Williams (N. Texas) 54.67.  SPU – 16, Johanna Brown 58.04.
Mile – 1, Laura Pellicoro (Portland) 4:25.60.  SPU – 9, Maya Ewing 5:06.40; 106,Madelyn Buckley 5:12.65
4x400 relay – 1, UC Riverside 3:43.53.  SPU – 7, Seattle Pacific (Jada Sarrys, Johanna Brown, Sophie Mock, Evangelina Rowland 3:59.68.
Long jump – 1, Jessi Berry (Sacramento St.) 19-3½ / 5.88m.  SPU – 17, Tamia Cates 16-10 ¾ / 5.15m; 22, Sophie Hanay 16-6 / 5.03m; 23, Maliyah Hicks 15-11 ¾ / 4.87m; 24, Sophie Mock 15-10 ½ / 4.64m.
 
 
NCAA MEN'S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD
UW Invitational
Friday, Jan. 31, 2025
Dempsey Indoor / Seattle, Wash.
 
Team scores – Not kept.
 
SPU EVENTS ONLY
FRIDAY
200 – 1, MacGregor TeSelle (Cal Poly) 21.09.  SPU – 20, Robert Joshua 22.55; 21, Justin Brooks 22.59; 35, Tarelle Hunter 23.47.
60 hurdles – 1, Jonathan Frazier (UW) 7.92.  SPU – 3, Andrew Bell 8.13#.  Preliminaries – 3, Bell 8.24.
4000 distance medley relay – 1, Texas Christian 9:40.89.  SPU – 7, Seattle Pacific (Silas Demmert, Noah Bouknight, Nathan Korth, Isaac Venable) 10:39.17.
Pole vault – 1, Matt Ludwig (Unattached) 18-1 ¾ / 5.53m.  SPU – Mason Hrcek no height.
 
SATURDAY
60-meter dash – 1, Derrick Warren (N. Texas) 6.77.  SPU – 10, Robert Joshua 7.01; 36, Tarelle Hunter 7.24; 42, Mikel Saxon 7.64.
400 – 1, Alexander Rhodes (Puget Sound) 46.70.  SPU – 11, Justin Brooks 48.92.
Mile – 1, Leo Daschbach (UW) 3:56.63.  SPU – 106, Isaac Venable 4:24.79; 114, Nathan Korth 4:31.64.


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