THE SCHEDULE
Saturday, April 19                                Seattle Pacific at CWU Wildcat Invitational
                                                    CWU Recreation Sports Complex / Ellensburg, Wash.
                                                    Track events, 8:30 a.m.     Field events, 9:00 a.m.
                                                    No live Webcast        Live results
 

SEATTLE – Last week was the final track and field trip to California for the Seattle Pacific Falcons. This week will be the final one across the Cascades.
 
The Falcons will head to Ellensburg on Saturday for the CWU Wildcat Invitational at the Central Washington Recreational Sports Complex. The first race of the day is at 8:30 a.m., and the first field event is at 9:00 a.m.
 
The meet is divided into two sessions. The first session is exclusively college competition and will feature all of the field events and track races from 100 all the way up to 10,000 meters, plus the 100 / 110 hurdles and the steeplechase. It begins at 8:30 a.m.
 
The second session starts at 2:30 p.m., is entirely on the track, and includes high school and college events. The card ranges from 100 to 800 meters, along with the 100 / 110 / 400 hurdles and both relays. The last race (men's 4-by-400) is set for 5:45 p.m.
 
KEEPING TRACK OF THE ACTION
The meet will not have a live Webcast. Live results will be available. The appropriate link is at the top of this story.
 
WARM, BUT WINDY, TOO
Temperatures on Saturday should be pleasant enough, but wind could be a significant factor. The forecast calls for sunny skies with highs pushing into the upper 60s. Sustained winds of 15 miles per hour and gusting to 25,are very possible. There is no chance of rain.
 




BIG DAY AT THE CLAY
There was one more California venture this week for Maya Ewing and Annika Esvelt – and both of them made the most of it on Wednesday afternoon and evening at the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa.
 
 

Ewing broke her own school record in the 3000-meter steeplechase, and did it convincingly with a time of 10 minutes, 27.61 seconds. That came just 12 days after she broke it the first time with a 10:35.63 at the Stanford Invitational on April 4. Wednesday's performance significantly elevates her chances of making the NCAA nationals.
 
 

Esvelt posted a personal-best 33 minutes, 34.30 seconds in the 10,000 meters. That was a drop of seven-plus seconds from her previous best of 33:41.59 at last year's Bryan Clay.
 
Ewing's steeple time is No. 12 nationally heading into the rest of the weekend. Esvelt is No. 3 in the 10K, and already is No. 1 in the 5K.
 
SCOUTING THE WILDCAT INVITATIONAL
Almost every Falcon on the roster will be in action, and many of those are in multiple events.
 

Johanna Brown, Hannah Chang, Sophie Hanay, and Jada Sarrys are all penciled in for four on the women's side. Brown and Sarrys are slated for both relays, with Brown also doing the 200 and 400, and Sarrys racing the 100 and 200. Sarrys is coming off a personal-best 25.14 in the 200 at Pomona-Pitzer last Saturday. The week before that, she went a PB 12.75 in the 100 at the UBC Open. Brown posted her first sub-58 of the season in the 400 last week at 57.97.
 
 

Chang is in both hurdles races, having gone an NCAA provisional-qualifying 14.17 in the 100s and a personal-best 1:06.65 in the 400s at Pomona-Pitzer. She also is entered in the 200 for the first time this season and is slated for the 4-by400 relay. Sophie Mock will join her in both hurdles races. Hanay is down for the 100 meters and the long jump along with the two relays. Freshman Evey Rowland also is entered for both relays along with the 200.
 
 

Sophomore Anna Prussian has gone personal-best times in three distance races this spring (1500, 5000 and 10,000) and will try to beat her 1500 time of 4:51.78. Katelyn Flolo has come up big in the first seven weeks with PBs in the 1500, 5000, and 3000 steeplechase. She's back in the 5K with an eye on bettering the 18:21.22 she posted on March 29 in Vancouver. Matise Mulch is nearly at her PB of 17:57.50; she went 18:00.86 on March 21 at the Oregon Preview in Eugene.
 
 

Freshman Andrew Bell is just seven-hundredths of a second away from breaking the SPU 110 hurdles record. He already has the fastest time recorded by Fully Automatic Timing (14.56 on April 4 in Spokane). The overall record is 14.50 set by Mark Stream in 1975. Bell also is penciled for the 400 hurdles and the 4-by-100 relay.
 
 

On the subject of fastest FAT times, freshman Robert Joshua set one in the 100-meter dash last week at 10.85. The overall record is 10.74 (converted from yards and hand-held), and Joshua will go for that one again. He's also within reach of the fastest FAT time in the 200 dash of 21.95. He went 21.96 on March 8. Joshua also is slated for both relays.
 
New 400 dash record holder Justin Brooks won't do that race this week, opting for the 800 instead, along with both relays.
 
Junior Isaac Venable is in the 5000 after coming up with a personal-beat 15:22.34 on March 29 in Vancouver, a drop of 12-plus seconds from his previous low.
 
Sophomore pole vaulter Mason Hrcek has gotten back in the groove with back-to-back performances of 14-0 and 14-1¼.
 
RECORD BOOK SWEEP FOR BROOKS
One school record in the 400-meter dash apparently wasn't enough for Falcons freshman Justin Brooks.
 
Now, he has two.
 
 

Brooks rewrote the outdoor standard last Saturday at the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational in Claremont, California when he stopped the watch in 47.86 seconds. That beat the old mark of 48.24, which was set in 2023 by Isaiah Archer on the same Strehle Track blue oval.
 
Last Dec. 14 at the Spokane Invitational, Brooks – in his very first college race – broke the SPU indoor 400 dash record when he went 48.58. That bettered the old mark of 48.78 set by Archer, also in 2023.
 
While Brooks ran four races in the 48s during the indoor season, he had never posted a 48 outdoors, either at SPU or during his high school days at Seattle Christian. His previous outdoor best was 49.20 at the Oregon Preview on March 22. His high school best was 49.24.
 
WHILE WE'RE TALKING BEST-EVER  …
Another fleet-footed freshman added his name to a line in the SPU record book at Pomona-Pitzer.
 
This time, it was Robert Joshua. He needed just 10.85 seconds to go from starting blocks to finish line in the 100-meter dash. That was the fastest time recorded by a Falcon using Fully Automatic Timing (FAT). The previous best was 10.89 by Jeff Gordon in 2021.
 
The time to beat for the school record is 10.74. Roy Duncan ran a 9.6 in the 100-yard dash in 1956. The 10.74 is the result of adding 0.9 seconds to convert from yards to meters (the 100 meters is longer) and 0.24 is added to convert from hand-held to FAT (hand-held is regarded as faster).
 
It's the second event this season in which a new FAT standard has been recorded. Freshman Andrew Bell has done it twice in the 110-meter hurdles. Coming into the year, it was 14.82 by Chris Randolph in 2006. Bell went 14.61 on March 8 at the PLU Open and 14.56 on April 4 at the Whitworth Peace Meet.
 
CHANG JOINS NCAA LIST
Hannah Chang delivered her fastest race of the season in the 100-meter hurdles last Saturday at Pomona-Pitzer, and she is now on the NCAA Division II provisional qualifying list.

Chang clocked 14.17 seconds, which was .01 under the 14.18 qual standard. That puts her in a four-way tie for No. 29 nationally heading into this week. At the end of the season, the top 22 who declare for each individual event will be invited to the NCAAs in Pueblo, Colo. The current No. 22 time is 14.06 by Alaska Anchorage's Liv Heite.
 
The Falcons now have three provisional qualifiers spread across four events. Annika Esvelt is still No. 1 in the 5000 meters at 15:56.94, and that most definitely will get her in the door. She is No. 3 in the 10,000 after Wednesday's race at the Bryan Clay, effectively securing a spot in that event.
 
Maya Ewing is No. 12 in the 3000 steeplechase following her run at the Clay.

Click on this link for a look at the current national qualifying list.
 
IN FRONT AT THE WIRE
The Falcons picked up another pair of heat victories last week at Pomona Pitzer. Robert Joshua won his section of the men's 200-meter dash, and the quartet of Tarelle Hunter, Joshua, Andrew Bell, and Justin Brooks took their heat of the 4-by-100 relay.
 
Altogether this spring, SPU has won 26 heats, four of which have been overall victories: Maya Ewing in the 1500 at the Ed Boitano Invitational and the 3000 steeplechase at the PLU Open, Matise Mulch in the 5000 at the Boitano, and Andrew Bell in the 110-meter hurdles at PLU.
 
Leading the way with six heat wins is freshman sprinter Jada Sarrys. She has three in the 200 meters, two in the 100, and one in the 800.
 
AROUND THE GNAC
SPU athletes will see some familiar uniforms in Ellensburg on Saturday. In addition to the Falcons and host Central Washington, three other GNAC schools – Northwest Nazarene, Saint Martin's, and Western Washington – will be there. Western will have a split squad, as other Vikings will be in California at the Pacific Coast Invitational in Long Beach. Alaska Anchorage also will be at that one, but won't race in Ellensburg.

Click on this link for a look at GNAC leaders.
 
UP NEXT
The regular-season finale for the Falcons will be next Friday and Saturday, April 25-26, at the Pee Wee Halsell Invitational and Ralph Vernacchia Invitational. Both meets will take place at Civic Stadium in Bellingham.
 
The Halsell is set for Friday, with field events starting at 10:00 a.m. and the first track race is at 11:00. The Vernacchia is on Saturday with events on the track and in the field both starting at 9:00 a.m.
 
This is a significant change from recent years when the Vernacchia was just a one-day meet, usually on Saturdays. The Halsell is brand-new, named in honor of legendary Vikings coach Pee Wee Halselll
 
Both meets will have high school as well as college competition. The Halsell will be somewhat distance-oriented with the 800, 5000, 10,000, 3000 steeplechase, along with the short (100 / 110) hurdles, the 200 dash, and 4x100 relay.
 
The Vernacchia on Saturday will have everything from 100 to 5000 meters, both short and long hurdles (no steeplechase), and both relays.
 
Most field events will be offered both days except for the javelin (men on Friday, women on Saturday) and the triple jump (both genders on Saturday only).
 
The last college events are at 4:20 p.m. on Friday (women's 100 hurdles) and 7:15 on Saturday (women's 4-by-400 relay).


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