SEATTLE – The Seattle Pacific Athletics Department congratulates track runners Andrew Bell and Maya Ewing as this week's SPU Athletics Falcons of the Week.

  
ANDREW BELL / MEN'S TRACK
WHAT HE DID: won his first college indoor hurdles race back in December, and at last Saturday's PLU Open was first across the finish line in his inaugural outdoor hurdles event, winning the 110 meters in 14.61 seconds. It was his first outdoor race of doing the college-height 42-inch hurdles (high school is 39 inches).
 
QUOTABLE: ""It was kind of nice," Bell said. "The height difference made it a little harder at the end of the race. But other than that, it was pretty good. The time was all right because it's faster than what I opened with my senior year of high school."


MAYA EWING / WOMEN'S TRACK
WHAT SHE DID: In her first 3000-meter steeplechase of the season, Ewing ran the fastest time in NCAA Division II, clocking 10:48.00 on Saturday at the PLU Open. That was her first career provisional qualifying time and blew away her previous career best of 11:19.21 from her freshman year in 2023.  Ewing is one of just two sub-11s through the early portion of the outdoor season.
 
QUOTABLE:  "We never expect anything huge out of this first one. It's just getting familiar with it and the type of discomfort that it brings," SPU assistant coach / distance coach Eric Hansen said. "So for her to open with a 10:48 – I've never had an athlete open that fast and look that good, especially running by herself up front the whole way."