ELLENSBURG, Wash. – The stopwatch and the wind gauge just couldn't get on the same page Saturday afternoon.
 
It worked out fine for Seattle Pacific freshman Andrew Bell. Not so much for fellow freshman Robert Joshua.

Bell tied the overall 50-year-old school record in the 110-meter hurdles, clocking 14.50 seconds at the CWU Wildcat Invitational track and field meet at Central Washington's Recreation Sports Complex.

 

The only 14.50 ever recorded by a Falcon was by Mark Stream in 1975. Because that was a hand-held time,  0.24 seconds is added to convert it to the equivalent of fully automatic timing, thus making it 14.74.
 
Bell already has beaten that standard three times: 14.61 on March 8 in Tacoma then 14.56 on April 4 in Spokane, and now 14.50. At the start of the season, SPU's fastest fully automatic time in the 110s was 14.82. He also has beaten that three times
 
So now it can be said that no Falcon hurdler in any era – whether it was a hand-held 120 yards (Stream) or an FAT 110 meters some five decades later – has ever run  faster than Bell. (He also broke the indoor 60-meter hurdles record six times this past winter.)
 
And for record-keeping purposes, Saturday's time counts: The wind was measured a 2.0 meters per second, which is right on the maximum for the legal limit.
 
He has no doubt that he will beat that 14.50 – presumably under much calmer conditions.
 
"I felt like I attacked the first hurdle pretty well. But after that, I kind of stopped attacking," said Bell, who was second overall behind Central Washington freshman David Brown''s 14.15. "I think I was scared because there was a lot of wind – more than I've ever really experienced. I think I got hesitant  and stopped attacking, and because of that, my hips kind of dropped and I started hitting hurdles. It got worse as the race went on."
 
JOSHUA WAS FAST, BUT SO WAS THE WIND
Different story for Joshua in the 100-meter dash. The school standard in that one is 10.74. Roy Duncan ran a hand-held 9.6 in the 100-yard dash back in 1958. Along with the +0.24 to go from hand-held to FAT, another 0.9 is added to convert from yards to meters (100 meters is longer), thereby tacking on 1.14 seconds to the 9.6.

 

Joshua went from start line to finish line in 10.59 – faster than that 10.74 and faster than the 10.85 he ran last week at the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational. (That was the quickest-ever FAT time for a Falcon in that event.) But during Saturday's race, the tailwind factor was a whopping 7.3 meters per second – more than 3½ times the legal limit.
 
The only runner ahead of Joshua was Central Washington's Cohen Hall in 10.56.
 
Joshua gets to keep the 10.59 on his personal college scorecard. But he'll have to take another shot at the school record on a less-breezy day.
 
"Off the gun, I knew I had a good start. All I had to do is take it the rest of the way from there," Joshua said. "I had no idea I was going to run that fast – I was really shocked. But at the same time, I've been really trusting the training and the process. It has taken me really far in my career."
 
Along with his second-place finish in the 100, Joshua was second in the 200 in 22.08.
 
"That was not a bad race," he said. "The wind caught me by surprise – like I was trying to get through a brick wall. I'm not disappointed in that race. I did everything I could, and like my coach says, just control what you can control."
 
ANOTHER SPEEDY TIME FOR CHANG IN E'BERG

Windy conditions notwithstanding, junior Hannah Chang clearly loves racing on the Central Washington track.
 
Chang won the women's 100 hurdles in a season-best 14.03 seconds. Her only faster performance came on his same oval at last year's Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships, when she won in 13.88, which ultimately was fast enough to get her into the NCAA meet.
 
This was Chang's fifth time in the 100s this spring. She has gone from 15.39 to 14.51 to 14.40 to 14.17 and now to 14.03. As of Saturday evening, that was tied for No. 26 nationally in Division II. But it'll take a sub-14 to get to NCAAs. The top 22 declarations will make it, and the current No. 22 time is 13.95.
 
AND THAT"S NOT ALL
 

--The Falcons went 1-2-3 in the women's 5000 meters to get the day started. Matise Mulch won in 18:34.93; fellow junior Katelyn Flolo was second in 18:45.55, and senior Nicki Yorges took third in 19:11.14.
-- Senior sprinter Johanna Brown won the Collegiate session 200-meter dash in a personal-best 25.43. Her previous best was 25.63 just last Saturday at Pomona-Pitzer.
-- Freshman sprinter Evey Rowland ran a personal-best 25.82, placing her third behind Brown.
-- Along with Flolo in the 5K, SPU's women had three second-place finishes in the Collegiate session: Sophie Hanay in the 100 (a PB 13.02), Madelyn Buckley in the 800 (2:22.70) and Alexa Gossett in the 1500 (5:05.20)
-- Freshman Justin Brooks won his heat of the 800 meters, with a personal-best 1:57.70. He was sixth overall in the Collegiate session.
-- Jada Sarrys, also a freshman, logged a wind-aided PB of 12.21 in the Premier session 100 dash. Her previous best was 12.75.
-- Junior Isaac Venable was all by himself in the men's 5000. He was one of just two entries to begin with, and the other one scratched out of it. Venable finished in 15:53.30.
 
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.
 
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.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD
CWU Wildcat Invitational
Saturday, April 19, 2025
CWU Recreational Sports Complex / Ellensburg, Wash.
 
Team scores – Not kept.
 
SPU EVENTS ONLY
 
Collegiate Division
100 – 1, Isabelle Porter (WWU) 12.77.  SPU – 2, Sophie Hanay 13.02
200 – 1, Johanna Brown (SPU) 25.43.  Other SPU – 3, Evey Rowland 25.82.
800 – 1, Sylvie Gephart CWU) 2:22.53.  SPU – 2, Madelyn Buckley 2:22.70, 4, Lucia Templeton 2:25.13.
1500 – Payton Conover (CWU) 5:03.07.  SPU – 2,  Alexa Gossett 5:05.20, 5, Ella Milanovich 5:29.65.
5000 – 1, Matise Mulch (SPU) 18:34.93.  Other SPU –2, Katelyn Flolo 18:45.55; 3, Nicki Yorges 19:11.14.
Pole vault – 1, Lauryn McGough (CWU) 12-9 ½ / 3.90m.  SPU – 3, Kaitlyn Askay 10-6 / 3.20m.
 
Premier Division
100 – 1, E'lexis Hollis (CWU) 11.28.  SPU – 5, Jada Sarrys 12.21.
200 – 1, E'lexis Hollis (CWU) 24.24.  SPU – 6, Jada Sarrys 25.95.
400 – 1, Elise Hopper (CWU) 56.13.  SPU – 3, Johanna Brown 58.81.
100 hurdles – 1, Hannah Chang 14.03#.  Other – 6, Sophie Mock 16.35..
400 hurdles – 1, Carley Huber (CWU) 1:03.56.  SPU – 5, Sophie Mock 1:11.44.
4x100 relay – 1, Central Washington 46.40.  SPU –Seattle Pacific (Jada Sarrys Johanna Brown, Sophie Hanay, Evey Rowland) DNF.
 
 
NCAA MEN'S TRACK & FIELD
CWU Wildcat Invitational
Saturday, April 19, 2025
CWU Recreational Sports Complex / Ellensburg, Wash.
 
Team scores – Not kept.
 
SPU EVENTS ONLY
 
Collegiate Division
800 – 1, Johan Correa (CWU) 1:52.78.  SPU – 6, Justin Brooks 1:57.70; 9, Nathan Korth 2:01.02.
1500 – 1, Carter Stedman (NNU) 3:56.52.  SPU – 10, Nathaniel Gale 4:20.05; 13, Ethan Erickson 4:21.06; 16, Gabe Endresen 4:46.51.
5000 – 1, Isaac Venable 15:53.30.  No other SPU.
Pole vault – 1, Aidan Klein (WWU) 14-5¼ / 4.40m.  SPU – T3, Mason Hrcek 13-5¼ / 4.10m; 7, Mikel Saxon 13-1½ / 4.00m.
 
Premier Division
100 – 1, Cohen Hall (CWU) 10.56.  SPU – 2, Robert Joshua 10.59.
200 – 1, Bautista Diamante (CWU) 21.53 .  SPU – 2, Robert Joshua 22.08.
110 hurdles – 1, David Brown (CWU) 14.15.  SPU – 2, Andrew Bell (SPU) 14.50.
400 hurdles – 1, Josh Boast (CWU) 54.98.  SPU – 10, Andrew Bell 1:02.14.
4x100 relay – 1, Central Washington 42.06.  SPU – 2, Seattle Pacific (Tarelle Hunter, Robert Joshua, Andrew Bell, Justin Brooks) 44.42.
 
 
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