THE SCHEDULE
Monday-Tuesday, Feb. 17-18            Seattle Pacific at GNAC Championships
                                                            The Podium / Spokane, Wash.
                                                            MONDAY:   Multis 9:00 a.m.  Field, 2:05 p.m.  Track, 2:30 p.m.
                                                            TUESDAY:  Multis 8:30 a.m.  Field 9:30 a.m.   Track 11:00 a.m.
                                                            Live Webcast (subscription)      Live results
 
 
SEATTLE – The last time the Seattle Pacific Falcons competed inside The Podium, they came away with some outstanding performances, including a handful of school records.
 
They're hoping for more of the same this time … and the stakes are a lot higher.
 
The Falcons head back to Spokane and The Podium on Monday and Tuesday for the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships.
 
On Monday, field events begins at 2:05 p.m. and track events at 2:30. The multi events start earlier (men's heptathlon 9:00 a.m. / women's pentathlon 9:15 a.m.), but SPU does not have anyone entered in those. The last event is the women's distance medley relay at 6:40 p.m.
 
Tuesday's schedule has field events at 9:30 a.m. and track events at 11:00 a.m. The last race is the women's 4-by-400 relay at 2:45 p.m., followed by team and individual awards at 3:05.
 
KEEPING TRACK OF THE ACTION
Both days of the GNAC meet will have a subscription-based live Webcast on RunnerSpace.com. Free live results will be available throughout the two days of action. The appropriate links can be found at the top of this story.

 

IF YOU'RE GOING …
--Tickets: Fans can purchase tickets online by clicking on this link, or on site at The Podium. The box office will open one hour prior to the start of the meet. The cost is $17 for one day or $32 (online) for a two-day ticket. All seating is general admission.
https://ticketswestinw.evenue.net/events/PODGNAC

-- Getting there: The Podium is located in the heart of downtown Spokane, at 511 W. Dean Avenue. Heading east from Seattle on Interstate 90, take Exit 280 toward Maple Street / Walnut Street / Lincoln Street. Turn left onto Walnut (0.1 miles), right onto W. 3^rd (0.8 miles), left onto S. Washington Street (0.5 miles), keep right onto N. Washington Street (0.4 miles), then left on W. Dean Avenue (500 feet). Click on this link for directions as if leaving from SPU.
 
WHO'S THE TEAM TO BEAT?
The Falcon women have a pair of No. 1 seeds with Annika Esvelt in the 3000 meters and Hannah Chang in the 60-meter hurdles. They are seeded for 63 points altogether, which includes the 2-3-4 combination of Lizzy Daugherty, Emily Thomason and Kaitlyn Askay in the pole vault.
 
Other points for the Falcons are likely to come in the mile, which Esvelt is running, but she does not have a seeded time as she has not raced the event this season. SPU's pre-meet score ranks fifth among the nine teams.
 
Western Washington is the overwhelming favorite to win its second straight championship. The Vikings have five No. 1 entry marks and are seeded for 159½ points. The closest team to them is Simon Fraser, seeded for 103½.
 
Seattle Pacific's men are seeded for 32 points. Freshman Andrew Bell is the No. 2 seed in the 60-meter hurdles. The pole vault tandem of Mason Hrcek and Mikel Saxon is seeded Nos. 3 and 5, respectively. The Falcons are No. 7 among the nine teams with their pre-meet total.
 
Like the women, the Western Washington men are well positioned for a second consecutive crown, seeded for 171 points with five No. 1 marks. Central Washington is next on the list with 117.
 
SCOUTING THE GNAC WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIPS
 

With two titles already in the 3000 meters, Annika Esvelt is the only multiple winner of that event since it was added to the card in 2013. On Tuesday, she'll try to make it three and is the huge favorite to do so. Her time of 9:24.80 ranks No. 5 nationally and is nearly 15 seconds faster than second-seeded Rachel Watkins of Simon Fraser (9:39.33). 
 
But that'll be just one of Esvelt's two events. She's also running the mile, which will be a new indoor event for her. She has done it just once in college, outdoors at the Ralph Vernacchia Invitational in 2022. She clocked 4:53.32 that day. Simon's Watkins is the top seed this week at 4:51.18.
 
 

Hannah Chang pulled a stunner last spring when she came from the fourth-seeded position to win the 100 hurdles at the GNAC outdoor meet. Her time of 13.88 was fast enough to get her into the NCAA meet. The junior has kept up that speed this winter. She opened with an 8.55 on The Podium's 60-meter straightaway at the season-opening Spokane Invitational on Dec. 14. Only two other GNAC competitors have broken 9.0 seconds, and they'll be Chang's biggest challengers: Alaska Anchorage's Liv Heite (8.64) and Seawolves teammate Lacie Simmons (8.90).
 
 

Lizzy Daugherty wrapped up the outdoor portion of her Seattle Pacific career with a GNAC pole vault title last spring. Now, already owning the indoor school record (12 feet, 10 inches at The Podium in December), she'd like to get an indoor crown to go along with it.
 
Daugherty was third at last year's GNACs at 12-2¾, training teammate Emily Thomason (second at 12-6¾) and Central Washington's Lauryn McGough (first 12-10¾). McGough is the top seed this week and the GNAC's only 13-footer so far, coming in at 13-2¼. Daugherty is No. 2, Thomason No. 3 (12-4), and Falcons freshman Kaitlyn Askay is No. 4.(11-4¼).
 
 

Maya Ewing, who had a solid cross country season last fall and has kept it going on the indoor oval, is doing a distance double. She's seeded No. 6 in the 5000 at 18:10.41 and No. 7 in the 3000 at 10:08.48, both of which are indoor personal bests.
 
A pair of Falcons – one who's wrapping up the indoor portion of her career and one who's just getting started – are seeded for points in the 400-meter dash. Senior Johanna Brown is No. 5 at 58.04, and freshman Jada Sarrys is No. 8 at 1:00.28. Brown's entry time of 58.04 is an indoor PB that she set on Feb. 1 at the UW Invitational. Sarrys also is the No. 14 seed in the 200 dash at 25.96.
 
SPU has entries in both relays. The 4000 distance medley relay team of senior Nicki Yorges, freshman , frEvey Rowlandeshman Ella Milanovich, and senior Madelyn Buckley is seeded No. 2 at 12:5.137. The 4-by-400, with Sarrys, Brown, Rowland, and Chang, is seeded No. 4 at 3:59;.68.
  
SCOUTING THE GNAC MEN'S CHAMPIONSHIPS
 

It has been one fine, fast freshman season for Andrew Bell, running five heats of the 60-meter hurdles, winning four of those heats and breaking the school record in all four. He comes into his first GNAC meet at 8.13 seconds, making him the No. 2 seed behind fellow freshman David Brown of Central Washington. Brown enters at 8.08. He has been the GNAC leader all season ever since posting an 8.09 in his college debut at The Podium on Dec. 14.
 
Another speedy freshman, Justin Brooks, is the No. 3 seed in the 400 dash. In his college debut at The Podium in December, he broke the school record with a time of 48.58.
 
 

The one event with multiple seeds for Seattle Pacific is the pole vault. Sophomore Mason Hrcek is the No. 3 seed with his clearance of 14-2 at the UW Indoor Preview on Jan. 17. Mikel Saxon, also a sophomore, is the No. 5 seed off his career-best 13-6½ at the Spokane Invite.
 
Isaac Venable is the No. 6 seed in the 5000 meters at 15:35.08.
 
SPU has entries in both relays. The 4000 distance medley has freshman Nathan Korth on the 1200 leadoff leg, freshman Robert Joshua on the 400, sophomore Jonathan Lieb on the 800, and junior Nathaniel Gale on the anchor 1600. The 4-by-400 is all freshmen: Brooks, Tarelle Hunter, Joshua, and Noah Bouknight. They are seeded seventh.
 Mason Hrcek
A handful of Falcons could make some noise in events in which they are not seeded among the top eight. Sophomore Silas Demmert is in the 5000. He hasn't run that event indoors, but has raced it three times outdoors, with a best of 15:17.82 last April at the Doris Heritage Invitational. That time would be No. 6 on this week's entry list.
 
Freshman Nathan Korth is No. 9 in the mile at 4:27.09, four seconds below the No. 8 seed. Joshua is No. 12 in the 60 dash with his 7.01 – just .01 shy of the school record. The No. 8 seed time is6.96.
 
Western Washington has five No. 1 seeds among the 17 events, and Central Washington has four.

SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- The Falcon women were sixth as a team last year with 56 points. Western Washington won with 143, The men placed ninth with 13 points, WWU won with 187 2/3.
-- Annika Esvelt won the 3000 meters in 9:54.80, leading from start to finish. That was her second 3K title, the other one coming in 2022.
 

-- Emily Thomason and Lizzy Daugherty went 2-3 in the pole vault. Thomason's 12-6¾ was an indoor and an overall personal best. Daugherty went 12-2¾.
-- Daugherty and Thomason went 1-2 in the GNAC outdoor pole vault last spring.
-- If either of them were to win this week, it would be SPU's ninth conference women's pole vault title, which would be the team's most in any event.
-- SPU currently has eight crowns in the pole, 60-meter dash and high jump on the women's side.
-- Hannah Chang ran a then-personal best 8.85 in the 60 hurdles prelims, then nearly matched that with an 8.86 to take fourth place in the finals.
-- The Falcons have brought home at least one individual women's champion since the GNAC started sponsoring indoor track in 2004.
-- SPU's women are seeded for points in seven of the 17 events.
--The men are seeded for points in six events.
 
THAT WAS A DAY FOR THE BOOKS …
Normally, first meets of the year are all about getting a feel for competition again. But when they arrived for the Spokane Invitational last Dec. 14, they were already in fine form.
 
A trio of SPU athletes set school indoor records, and there were two more close-but-not-quites.
 
Senior Lizzy Daugherty topped her own mark in the pole vault with a clearance of 12 feet, 10 inches. That beat her previous standard of 12-9½ from the previous February. Freshman Andrew Bell rewrote the mark in the 60-meter hurdles with an 8.31, and fellow freshman Justin Brooks wrapped up the day with a new mark of 48.58 in the 400-meter dash (previous 48.78 by Isiah Archer in 2023).
 
Junior Hannah Chang went 8.55 in the finals of the women's 60 hurdles, just barely short of Maliea Luquin's 8.53 from 2016. And yet another freshman, Robert Joshua, clocked 7.05 in the men's 60-meter dash. The time to beat is 7.00 by David Njeri in 2022, and Joshua came even closer to that on Feb. 1 with his 7.01 at the UW Invitational.
 
.. BUT ESVELT WAS ALREADY A STEP AHEAD …
While that was a record-setting day to remember, Annika Esvelt already had a school record of her own.
 
 

A week before Spokane, on Dec. 7 in Boston, Esvelt took down the women's 5000 meters mark with a time of 16 minutes, 9.93 seconds in the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener at Boston University.
 
Esvelt's time for her 25 laps on the banked 200-meter oval beat the 16:12.65 set by Falcons Hall of Famer Jessica Pixler on Jan. 30, 2009 at the UW Invitational.
 
Esvelt immediately put herself into the No. 3 spot on the NCAA Division II qualifying list, and is No. 4 heading into GNACs. Of the three runners ahead of her, two of them – Jenna Ramsey-Rutledge of Colorado Mines (15:40.98) and Tristian Spence of Adams State (15:53.52) posted their times in that same Boston meet.
 
… AND BELL JUST KEEPS GOING
Rewriting a school record in his very first college race certainly was a terrific start for Andrew Bell.
 
After his 8.31 in the 60 hurdles at the Spokane Invite, Bell's next meet was the UW Indoor Preview on Jan. 17. In the preliminaries, he came through the finish line in 8.26 – another record, and fast enough to put him into the finals. (The hurdles and 60-meter dash both have prelims and finals; all other event at regular-season meets are timed finals.)

 

About 2½ hours later, Bell went even faster, winning his heat of the finals in 8.21, and ultimately placing third overall.

Next up was the UW Invitational on Jan. 31. Bell just missed his mark in the prelims with an 8.23. But that was fast enough to make finals, and he came through with an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 8.13, Again, he won his heat and was third overall.
 
Along with four school records in five races, Bell has won his section of the hurdles four times: Spokane, both times at the Indoor Preview, and finals at the Invite.
 
FRESHMAN ARE FLYIN'
Bell has been just one example of strong performances by SPU freshmen this winter.
 
Justin Brooks – School record in the 400-meter dash at Spokane Invitational.
Tamia Cates – Leads the team in the women's long jump with her 16-10¾ at the UW Invitational.
Robert Joshua – Closing in on the school record of 7.00 in the 60-meter dash, going 7.05 in Spokane and 7.01 at UW Invitational. Also has gone 22.71 in the 200 dash; the record is 22.34.
Nathan Korth – Won his heat at Mile City in a team-leading 4:27.09. Also has the team's top time in the 800 at 2:03.35.
Jada Sarrys – Ran 7.96 in the 60-meter dash in the UW Indoor Preview, making her the first Falcon to post a sub-8 since Peace Igbonagwam ran 7.78 in the 2022 GNAC finals. Also leads the team in the 200 at 25.96.
Lucia Templeton – Has SPU's top women's 800 time of 2:28.32.
 
NATIONALLY SPEAKING
Heading into the meet, there are five Falcons on the NCAA Division II provisional qualifying list. When entries are declared for the nationals (the deadline is Monday, March 3), the top 18 for individual events – no more, no less – will earn tickets to Indianapolis.
 
Below are SPU's provisionals, with the current No. 1 mark OR the current No. 18 cutoff mark in parentheses (as of Feb. 14):
 
Andrew Bell  No. 45 in men's 60 hurdles, 8.13 (No. 18: 7.99)
Hannah Chang  tie No. 12 in women's 60 hurdles, 8.55 (No. 1: 8.28)
Lizzy Daugherty  tie No. 20 in women's pole vault 12-10 / 3.91 (No. 18: 12-11½ / 3.95)
Annika Esvelt   No. 3 in women's 5000, 16:09.93 (No. 1: 15:40.98)
                         No. 4 in women's 3000, 9:24.80 (No. 1: 9:13.90)
Emily Thomason  No. 32 in women's pole vault 12-4 / 3.76 (No. 18: 12-11½ / 3.95)

Click on this link for a complete look at NCAA provisional qualifiers.
 
'A' IS FOR ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE
Annika Esvelt, Maya Ewing, and Matise Mulch won individual national All-Academic awards, and Seattle Pacific won a team award from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. The awards were announced on Jan. 30.
 
Esvelt, Ewing, Mulch all were instrumental in helping the Falcons reach the NCAA Division II West Regionals in November..
 
As a team, the SPU women posted a 3.726 cumulative grade-point average. That ranked No. 22 nationally among the 122 teams that received the award and No. 2 among West Region schools (Biola, at 3.75, was the only West school higher.)
 
Individual award winners must have a minimum GPA of 3.25 and must have placed in the top 30 percent at regionals. (For this past season, that was the top 72 in the West.) Team award winners must have a team cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher and must have a score (a minimum of five finishers) at regionals.

BUNDLE UP: TIME FOR OUTDOORS
It's not likely to be very warm yet, but the outdoor season for the Falcons gets started on Saturday, March 1, with the Ed Boitano Invitational at the University of Puget Sound's Baker Stadium. Competition begins at 11:00 a.m. in what has become the traditional outdoor opener on the SPU calendar.
 
That will be the first of two consecutive weekends in Tacoma. The PLU Open is set for Saturday, March 8, at the Pacific Lutheran track with a 10:00 a.m. start time.
 
Those are the only truly "nearby" meets for the Falcons. They will compete in Ellensburg on April 19 and in Bellingham on April 25-26, but all of their other meets are well out of town.
 
Civic Stadium in Bellingham also will be the site of the GNAC Multi-Event Championships on Monday-Tuesday, April 28-29, and the GNAC Championships on Friday-Saturday, May 9-10.
 
UP NEXT
For most of the Falcons, the GNAC meet will wrap up the indoor season. Declarations for the Division II nationals will be posted by the afternoon of Monday, March 3, and anyone on the bubble (hovering around No. 18) will have a better idea then of their chances of getting into the meet. The official accepted entries will be posted on Tuesday afternoon, March 4.


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