By MARK MOSCHETTI
Seattle Pacific Sports Information
 
SEATTLE – It's the final conference race of her career. Annika Esvelt is standing at the starting line halfway up the back side of the Civic Stadium track.
 
The sun has finally poked through in Bellingham, and it's practically perfect conditions to go for a nice Saturday afternoon 5000-meter run.

 

The gun fires. Esvelt and the 18 others in the race round the far turn, and come down the homestretch on the first of their 12½ laps. They navigate the near curve and start up the backstretch. Just 300 meters into it, Esvelt already has a comfortable-and-soon-to-be-commanding lead, arms and legs moving in a smooth, synchronized rhythm.
 
That's the part of her race that everyone can see. But there's more to the 22-year-old Seattle Pacific distance running star than that steady, speedy stride.
 
Look closely as she runs past, whether it's on an outdoor track in Bellingham, an indoor one in Seattle, or a cross country course in Steilacoom or Tacoma or Ferndale. Esvelt is so dialed in, so in-focus and on-task that one can just picture the wheels turning inside her head. Analyzing every step. Melding every word of coaching advice with how she's actually feeling at any given moment.
 
"She has the unique ability to be present during a race," Falcons head coach Karl Lerum said. "Many athletes, regardless of distance, kind of have an almost blackout or out-of-body experience during racing. But talk to Annika after a race, and she'll break it down in detail, like, 'This happened, and this happened, and this happened.'
 
"It's like she's able to slow time down a little bit in a different way. That's the mark of a great athlete."
 
On the stopwatch, Esvelt has spent this final year of her college career speeding time up – and more than just a little bit.
 
Now, this soft-spoken fifth-year standout, who has All-American credentials both on the track and in the classroom (we're talking a 3.99 grade-point average) will make two more trips to the starting line as a Falcon. Both will come at this week's NCAA Division II national championships in Pueblo, Colorado.
 
On Thursday, Esvelt will run the 10,000 meters, coming in as the No. 3 seed among the 22 qualifiers. That race on the red oval at Colorado State Pueblo's Neta & Eddie DeRose ThunderBowl starts at 7:10 p.m. Pacific time.
 
Then on Saturday, she'll be the No. 5 seed in the 5000 meters, which goes off at 7:05 p.m. Pacific.
 
It will be Esvelt's seventh NCAA meet, and her third for outdoor track. As a sophomore in 2022, she was fourth in the 10K and 10th in the 5K. Last year, she was second in the 10 in a scintillating down-to-the-final-lap battle against West Texas A&M's Florence Uwajaneza. About 48 hours later,  she took seventh in the 5.
 
"I'm really excited … I think," Esvelt said with a smile and a bit of a laugh in looking ahead to her last college nationals. "There's some bittersweetness to it. But I think the occasion of this year makes me feel extra-ready to have a celebratory end to my career as a college athlete."
 
SPU assistant coach / distance coach Eric Hansen has no doubt whatsoever that Esvelt will have plenty to celebrate.
 
"When you look at who she is as a person, she's great at everything she does," he said. "All of her professors say she's the best they have. The (physical therapy) company she interns with, she's the best intern they have. Obviously, she's one of the best runners in the country.
 
"She has something in her that whatever she wants to do, she's going to do it to the best of her ability," Hansen added. "And running is obviously no exception."
 
THE YEAR THAT ALMOST WASN'T
Her first cross country nationals last fall – and an All-American fourth-place finish.
 
Her third indoor track nationals in the winter – and two All-American seventh-place finishes, one in the 5000, the other in the 3000. On top of that, a school 5K record and conference crowns in the mile and the 3K.

 

Another outdoor track nationals this spring. A chance for two more All-American awards. Another Great Northwest Athletic Conference crown in the 5000. And on April 4 at the Stanford Invitational, her first-ever sub 16-minute performance at that distance.
 
It's the kind of year most runners dream about. And yet, in Esvelt's original plans, this year wasn't even supposed to happen.
 
Esvelt came to SPU in the fall of 2020 after graduating from West Valley High School of Spokane. But that year's cross country season got canceled  because of the pandemic shutdown. Ditto for the 2021 winter indoor track season. And the 2021 outdoor track season was limited, even though shutdown restrictions were slowly easing.
 
Along with all of that, Esvelt was dealing with an injury.
 
"I felt like I had a really hard time transitioning to college," she said. "I didn't really have a social life because of Covid. Emotionally, there was stuff going on, and I honestly didn't think it was that fun at the time. But I knew circumstances were weird because of Covid.
 
"Maybe I had an inkling of, 'Should I keep doing this?' But it was more than 50 percent that 'Of course I'm staying.'
 
The good news for Esvelt and thousands of college athletes like her across the country is that none of those three seasons – fall 2020, winter 2021, and spring 2021 – counted against her eligibility by ruling of the NCAA. At the end of her true freshman year in spring 2021, she still had four years of eligibility for cross, indoor, and outdoor.  
 
Fast forward to the 2023-24 year. Then a senior, Esvelt's thought was to wrap it all up – her undergrad degree in applied human biology, and her athletics career – and then take a gap year before starting post-grad training toward becoming a physical therapist.
 
UNPLANNED CHANGE OF PLANS
That was still her thought process in March 2024 when she headed to Kansas for the NCAA indoor nationals and a spot on the starting line in the 5000 meters.
 
For 4300 meters, Esvelt was looking great, well-positioned for a top-8 finish and a spot on the awards podium. But with about 700 to go – a little more than two laps on Pittsburg State's 300-meter oval – her foot caught the inside rail, and she tumbled to the track. Momentarily stunned, she got back up, got back in the race, finished 10th and still posted a personal-best time in the process.
 
"It felt really good, it felt strong. I felt I was doing really well," she said later that day. "I'm not like angry or anything because I think I raced really well and I covered all the moves that the other girls were going for. I just know that I had more in me and could have gone with that momentum."
 
It didn't take Esvelt very long to stop thinking about a gap year and start thinking about using that final year of eligibility. (As distance coach Hansen tells it, Esvelt was already thinking about it the next afternoon when they returned to the track to watch the final day of the meet.)
 
By late spring, her mind was mostly made up to use that extra eligibility, thought she acknowledged still vacillating a little bit right up to the start of cross country practice late last summer.
 
"I had some second thoughts until I really started the year," Esvelt said. "It sort of just hit me that I might regret not taking advantage of this limited opportunity with my eligibility. Once I realized that it was possible – because my plans were to take a gap year before grad school – I thought I might feel left out if all of my roommates were together on the cross country team.
 
"All of those thoughts just kind of hit at once, and I guess all of those made me decide (to come back) even before I realized I'd decided to come back for another year."
 
 

Former SPU distance coach Chris Reed, who worked with Esvelt for three years before becoming the head coach at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, wasn't at all surprised that Esvelt decided to go for it.
 
"Her staying was 100 percent her choice, and one doesn't make that choice without figuring out why they're doing it," he said. "She decided she had some unfinished business. Her 'why' (to come back) was she loves this sport and wants to see how good she can be.
 
"You don't want to regret hanging it up early."
 
NAVIGATING THE BUMPY PARTS
As well as Esvelt has run the past two years – especially this year – it might be easy to think it has always been this way.
 
But it hasn't. And hanging it up early has crossed her mind a few times over the years.
 
After getting through the pandemic-impacted freshman year, Esvelt had a solid sophomore season, earning All-American in the indoor 5000, along with the  outdoor 5000 and 10,000  She won three GNAC championships (indoor 3K and 5K, and outdoor 10K).

 

  "Even though I had a great sophomore year athletically, my health wasn't in the best place," Esvelt said. "I lost a lot of weight. Then I felt during the summer that I was more focused on gaining weight and meeting dietitians' expectations to be eligible than I was on running. That was super unpleasant. I felt super not confident (about coming back).
 
"But my team … I fell in love with my team and wanted to come back for them and do it for the reasons I did, which was just to have a lot of fun."
 
Her 2022-23 junior year was tough, as she was slowed by an injury and in fact missed the entire indoor track season during the winter of '23. Once again, Esvelt wondered if maybe it was just time to stop.
 
Once again, she decided to keep going – but with a different mindset.
 
"I just wanted to do it for fun and make decisions that were best for my health and not put running above my health," she said. "Then we were able to figure it out."
 
Esvelt made her senior year debut at the PLU Open cross country meet on Sept. 16, 2023. She hadn't raced in nearly four months. On a warm Saturday morning in Tacoma, she was second, trailing only speedy Constance Nankivel of Trinity Western, but finishing a massive 16 seconds in front of the rest of the field.
 
"It was just knowing how much I love running and competing and racing, and having any opportunity to do it again," Esvelt said after the meet. "I just wanted to take advantage of that. And to just keep doing it while I can keeps motivating me.
 
"I just needed to get that race high and the excitement of being out there with my team all working hard for a similar goal," Esvelt added. "That's what I got, and it was a lot of fun."
 
FOCUSING FORWARD
Those darker days seem so distant now.
 
"I cried sometimes. I ranted to my dad (Mark, a cross country and track coach at West Valley-Spokane), I ranted to everyone who would listen," Esvelt said. "Both him and my mom, I feel so blessed that I can be honest and open with them.
 
"I prayed. It was remembering that God is in control and what's meant to happen sort of will happen. It's controlling what you can control and remembering there's a lot that I can't control."
 
Another part of getting through all of it is that the Annika Esvelt who is on her way to Colorado this week is not the same Annika Esvelt who arrived at SPU in 2020.
 
"It's part of time passing and growing up," she said. "I just feel like God gave me the perspective that this is a gift and saying, 'I just want to see you happy and I'm happy that you enjoy running so much.'
 
Former Falcons coach Reed totally gets that.
 
"People who don't spend time around this sport don't know all that goes into it," he said. "They see the highlights, but they don't see the tears very often. They don't see the doubts and emotions. (Understanding those things) is what makes the highlights more special."
 
In fact, from that 2023 September Saturday morning on Pacific Lutheran's cross country course, Esvelt has, in a way, looked at every day as a highlight just by being able to get out there and run.
 
"There's always that thought in the back of your mind of 'Should I keep doing this? Because there are so many reasons not to do it," Esvelt said. "But I'm so glad I did. I think what keeps me going is thinking about if I did quit, would it really be that much better? I can't guarantee that it would be better. And running is so good for you. Even if you mess up sometimes or overdo it, it's good for you.
 
"When you run and you're able to give thanks during that run and pray and experience that gratitude, the runner's high … It's just the simple things."
 
 

That started coming through right away to those around her, including SPU coaches Lerum and Hansen.
 
"It felt as if she had been freed up from external pressure and the need for external validation and was just enjoying racing and enjoying the moment of running against big-time runners," Lerum said. "She got to experience the joy of racing in a way that was different from the year prior."
 
Hansen, who joined the SPU staff just prior to the 2023 cross country season, picked up on that almost from his very first conversation with Esvelt.
 
"She was going into her senior year at the time, and when I asked her what her goals were, she went, 'I just want to have fun.' After seeing her TFRRS page (the national database that includes results for every college runner at every level) I was a little surprised when that was the first thing that came up. But the more I got to know her and the story of her previous three years, that became our goal was just to have fun again."
 
SURROUNDED BY FAMILIAR FACES
Well …so this is it. A stellar college career is down to its last 15,000 meters. The final 37½ laps. Another 50 or so minutes, give or take a couple, while racing at nearly 4,700 feet of altitude.
 
Annika Esvelt is ready – maybe more ready than she ever has been.
 
"I feel really confident about my speed in a way that I probably haven't before," she said. "I've had some really good workouts and closed the workout at a pace that I haven't been able to before. My last race (the 5000 at GNAC on May 10), I closed with a 69 (on the last lap). Those numbers are just really encouraging because I haven't always been able to do that."

 

She'll see some familiar faces on the ThunderBowl starting line. Jenna Ramsey-Rutledge of Colorado Mines is in both Thursday's 10,000 and Saturday's 5000. Ditto for Breanna Robles of Adams State. Chico State's Molina twins, Della and Iresh, will be there, too.
 
Ramsey-Rutledge won the NCAA indoor 5000 and finished one spot ahead of Esvelt at cross country. Robles was third, one place behind Esvelt in last year's outdoor 10K. The Molinas (Della fourth, Iresh fifth) were ahead of Esvelt (sixth) at NCAA West Regional cross country last November. But two weeks later, she was ahead of both of them at nationals.
 
"I'm definitely familiar with them. It will be exciting for sure," Esvelt said. "There's maybe a little bit of pressure of being with those top individuals because I know I can be. That also takes a little bit of pressure off because it's not guaranteed that I'll be up there – that makes it exciting for me."
 
Hansen agrees that there are no guarantees – certainly not at the national level. But he does feel Esvelt has one particular thing working in her favor.
 
 

"When it comes to racing, she has no fear," he said. "She's not afraid to race with anybody. No matter how good they are, no matter what their PRs are, she has no hesitation about going out and racing whoever is on the start line."
 
One thing Esvelt is really looking forward to is having teammate Maya Ewing make the trip to Colorado with her. Ewing will be racing in the 3000-meter steeplechase, with prelims on Thursday, about 90 minutes before the 10,000. A top-12 placing in those prelims would put Ewing into Friday's finals.
 
They're not only teammates. They're also roommates.
 
"She is so positive and she listens so well." Esvelt said, "She is so driven, and we share that, and we uplift each other every single day. It's huge having someone so close to you and making you better. I'm so excited to go to nationals with her."
 
Ewing is well-acquainted with the running side of Esvelt, and loves being able to see her "people side," as well
 
"She has so much passion for the sport. But she's not just focused solely on running," Ewing said. "She loves spending time with us. On weekends, we and the other cross girls will go to coffee shops and do homework, and go to church together. She is so supportive and confident, and that has really helped me."
 
PASSING THE TORCH
When she slips out of that uniform top on Saturday evening for the final time, her Seattle Pacific career will be complete.
 
Her legacy, however, figures to be a long-running one, enduring far into the future.
 
"She's obviously one of the greats here at SPU, and she joins a rare club of (previous Falcon) female distance runners," Lerum said. "But I think her legacy is much bigger than track. She has impacted her academic community, her church community, and her teammates in a very unique and lasting way."

 

In fact, those non-track aspects ultimately matter more to Esvelt than anything she did on the ovals or the trails.
 
"I hope I'm remembered as being kind and will probably be remembered as really hard-working," she said. "I want to be remembered as being fun," she said, then added with a grin, "but I gotta work on that one.

"And I want to be remembered as being happy. Happy and joyful and helpful."
 
Also thankful ... grateful ... and blessed.
 
And speedy. Arms and legs moving in a smooth, synchronized rhythm. Not only around the ovals of competition …
 
… but also around the ovals of life.. 


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