BELLINGHAM, Wash. – In just a couple of hours on Saturday, Robert Joshua and Andrew Bell turned the Civic Stadium straightaway into their own personal speedway.
 
Joshua broke the converted Seattle Pacific school record in the men's 100-meter dash, then ran the program's fastest-ever fully automatic time in the 200, and Bell became the first SPU hurdler ever to break 14.5 seconds, going 14.45 in the 110s, all at the Ralph Vernacchia Invitational track and field meet.
 
 

"Robert and Andrew both had big days. Andrew got us started right off the bat and ran a much cleaner race than yesterday," head coach Karl Lerum said. "Robert had a good day – it was a great field that he was in, and he looked right at home out there."
 
Lerum was delighted to see Joshua and Bell reap the results of their work.
 
"It's exciting to watch Robert's progress and watch his improvement – it's pretty remarkable," he said. "It's good for Andrew that he gets that positive feedback (from his time). He's been working hard and hurdling great."
 
THIS TIME, IT COUNTS
Seattle Pacific's original record in the 100 was set way back in 1958 – 67 years ago – when it was still the 100-yard dash and Roy Duncan ran a hand-held time of 9.6 seconds.
 
Using two conversion factors – plus 0.9 seconds to go from yards to meters (100 meters is longer) and plus 0.24 seconds to go from hand-held (which is considered to be faster) to electronic – the time to beat at the start of this season was 10.74.
 
Joshua came close with a 10.85 at the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational on April 12. Last Saturday at the CWU Wildcat Invitational in Ellensburg, he ran 10.59. But the tailwind was a +7.3 – way beyond the legal limit of +2.0. That being the case, it couldn't count as the school record, although it is able to be included in Joshua's file in the national track database
 
Saturday's race was wind-legal at +1.3. So Joshua's 10.70 does count as officially beating Duncan's converted record.
 
 

"Definitely a relief – I was like, 'Thank goodness it's legal wind," Joshua said.
 
He acknowledged feeling some butterflies before the race. But those went away with his first stride out of the blocks.
 
"I've never been so nervous for race besides the GNAC indoor championships," he said. "But as soon as the gun went off, I was really determined and focused and I knew I was going to race well. Everyone was a lot older than me in that heat. But honestly, when you focus on just your race and what you can control, that's the best way to go about things."
 
Joshua wasn't finished yet. He still had the 200 on his Saturday docket, a couple hours after the 100
 
Coming in with a career-best time of 21.96, the converted school record (also set by Duncan) is 21.04 in 1956. Catching that was going to be a stretch. But the fastest fully automatic time was 21.95 set in 2013 by David Ferguson – just one-hundredth faster than Joshua's mark.
 
He beat it with time to spare, coming across in 21.62. Once again, it was wind-legal, albeit barely at +1.9. (Just moments earlier, in the heat immediately preceding Joshua's, it was an over-the-limit +3.1.)
 
"Karl just encouraged me to get out strong and be very confident in my race and be confident in my fitness," Joshua said.
 
As for setting those two records on the same day, he was keeping it all in perspective.
 
"I'm just very blessed and thankful that the season has been going very well," Joshua said.
 
FIVE DECADES IN THE MAKING
For 51 years, no Seattle Pacific hurdler had ever run faster than 14.50 seconds.
 
Didn't matter whether it was a hand-held stopwatch of the mid-20th century  or the most state-of-the-art electronic timing system of the early 21st.
 
Didn't matter whether it was 120 yards or 110 meters (a difference of just 10.6 inches).
 
No Falcon beat 14.50 … until now.
 
 

Bell finally beat it on Saturday with his 14.45 after going exactly 14.50 a week ago at the CWU Wildcat Invitational in Ellensburg.
 
The SPU record of 14.5 was a hand-held time by Mark Stream in 1974. Converting that to electronic timing made it 14.74, and Bell has been faster than that all season.
 
Now, he's finally faster than 14.5. The only damper on the day was the wind factor. It was recorded as a tailwind of +2.1 meters per second That's barely over the legal limit of 2.0 – arguably not enough to make a significant difference. But in the world of track and field record keeping, 2.0 is the firm red line.
 
"It didn't feel like that," Bell said when talking about Saturday's reading. "Over in Ellensburg (last Saturday), it was 2.0, and we had way more wind." (Those breezes were swirling all different directions all day long.)
 
Even so, the clock did stop at 14.45 for Bell, That time  - and the distinction of being the first Falcon to go in the 14.4s - is his to keep.
 
"It felt really good for the first seven hurdles. Then on Hurdle 7, I tapped it and lost a lot of momentum," he said. "That was kind of my downfall. But I felt really strong for the majority of the race. I just wish I had kept it for the last couple hurdles."
 
He certainly had a sense of satisfaction with breaking that 14.5 mark, but is already looking ahead to taking off even more tenths of a second. His next chance to do that will be on this same Civic Stadium straightaway in two weeks at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships.
 
"It felt really good to see the time," he said. "But it was kind of offset by the fact that I hit the hurdle. I know it should have been a lot faster. It could have been at least another tenth or so off ifI didn't lose my momentum."
 
"It's one of those things that just happens," Bell added. "It's more (a matter of) I need to stay focused on my race more and focus on keeping my hips up so I don't tap the hurdle."
 
AND THAT'S NOT ALL
-- For the second day in a row, Hannah Chang won the women's 100-meter hurdles, this time with a 14.03. That was two-hundredths of a second in front of Alaska Anchorage's Liv Heite, who was at 14.05. They had the same order of finish in Friday's Pee Wee Halsell Invitational when Chang recorded her second-ever sub-14 (13.93) and Heite clocked 14.10.
-- Freshman Justin Brooks picked up his first overall college victory when he took the men's 400 dash in 48.47 seconds. He won his heat of the 800 last week in Ellensburg.
-- After NCAA-qualifying performances in the 5000 and 10,000 in her most recent two meets, Annika Esvelt took a break from the longer races and ran the 1500, posting a personal-best 4:33.92, placing fourth.
-- Senior Johanna Brown ran a personal-best in the women's 200 dash for the second straight week, coming across in 25.40. That bettered the 25.43 she ran last Saturday in Ellensburg.
-- Joining Brown in the PB department was freshman Evey Rowland at 25.79.
-- Sophomore Mason Hrcek went a season-best 14 feet, 5¼ inches for third place in the men's pole vault.
-- Sophomore Anna Prussian came through with a 26-second PB in the women's 5000 meters, breaking the 18-minute mark for the first time with a 17:49.61, which gave her eighth place. Her only previous 5K was 18:15.65 on March 21 at the Oregon Preview.
 
UP NEXT
That's it for the regular season. The Falcons will spend the next two weeks preparing for the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships, set for Friday and Saturday, May 9-10 at this same Civic Stadium venue.
 
The event-by-event schedule has not yet been finalized, but tentative starting times have been penciled in: 12:30 p.m. for field events and 3:00 for track events on Friday; 11:00 a.m. for field and 1:30 p.m. for track on Saturday.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD
Ralph Vernacchia Invitational
Saturday, April 26, 2025
Civic Stadium / Bellingham, Wash.
 
Team scores – Not kept.
 
SPU EVENTS ONLY
200 – 1, E'lexis Hollis (CWU) 23.49.  SPU – 9, Johanna Brown 25.40; 11, Evey Rowland 25.79 13, Jada Sarrys 25.87
400 – 1, Elise Hopper (CWU) 56.39.  SPU – 4, Johanna Brown 57.77; 5, Jada Sarrys 58.34; 8, Evey Rowland 59.64.
1500 – 1, Ila Davis (WWU) 4:30.42.  SPU – 4, Annika Esvelt 4:33.92; 22, Madelyn Buckley 4:50.11; 25, Nicki Yorges 4:51.65; 42, Ella Milanovich 5:12.59.
5000 – 1, Kaylie Turner (Cochrane Endurance Project) 17:12.45.  SPU – 5, Maya Ewing 17:31.16; 8, Anna Prussian 17:49.22; 11, Matise Mulch 18:12.21; 13, Alexa Gossett 18:22.61.
100 hurdles – 1, Hannah Chang (SPU) 14.03.  No other SPU.
 
 
 
NCAA MEN'S TRACK & FIELD
Ralph Vernacchia Invitational
Saturday, April 26, 2025
Civic Stadium / Bellingham, Wash.
 
Team scores – Not kept.
 
SPU EVENTS ONLY
100 – 1, Jacob Hall (Simon) 10.57.  SPU – 4, Robert Joshua 10.70 (breaks converted school record of 10.74 set by Roy Duncan in 1958).
200 – 1, Jacob  Hall (Simon) 21.32.  SPU – 3, Robert Joshua 21.62 (breaks fully automatic timing school record of 21.95 set by David Ferguson in 2013).
400 – 1, Justin Brooks (SPU) 48.47.  No other SPU.
5000 – 1, Ryan Clough (WWU) 14:25.30.  SPU – 17, Isaac Venable 15:22.06.
100 hurdles – 1, David Brown (CWU) 14.44.  SPU – 2, Andrew Bell 14.45.
Pole vault – 1, Bryce White (UBC) 15-9 / 4.80m.  SPU – 3, Mason Hrcek 14-5¼ / 4.40m; 9, Mikel Saxon 13-5¼ / 4.10m.
 
 
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