TRACK AND FIELD:

On Saturday, Jan. 15, the Seattle Pacific University Falcons secured several victories at the University of Washington’s Dempsey Indoor Track Facility. Although the team did not win the meet overall, several Falcons managed to establish new personal records, as well as their own moments in Falcon history. 

Freshman runner Isaiah Archer reached his new personal best as a college athlete when he competed in the men’s 600-meter run. Archer took first place overall with a time of 1:21.72. He was the only Falcon to do so in their respective event. 

Not only was this a big win for Archer, but also an accomplishment for the Falcons as a whole. The SPU Falcons had not taken first place in a men’s track event at the Dempsey since 2013 and Archer is the first Falcon to win an event at Dempsey in nine years.

Sophomore Annika Esvelt may not have taken first in her respective event, but she did manage a personal record time of 9:51.80, beating her old time of 9:57.68 by nearly six seconds. 

Esvelt competed in the women’s 3000-meter run, finishing 18th overall. Although not enough for a team win, Esvelt’s new best has her now nationally ranked No.11, which is two places up from her previous sport at No.13. 

Apart from Archer, three other Falcons beat their records. Junior sprinter Julius Shepard took fifth overall in the men’s 200-meter dash with a personal record of 23.18 seconds. 

Freshman Nicki Yorges took 29th in the women’s 3000-meter run, landing her a new record of 10:38.46 and sophomore Evan Carpenter took fifth place in the men’s 400-meter dash with a time of 51.56 seconds, almost a full second faster than his last recorded best at 52.70 seconds. 

The only other Falcon to place in their respective event was junior David Njeri in the men’s triple jump. Njeri placed third overall with a jump of 14.55 meters.

The Falcons’ next track meet will be on Friday, Jan. 28 at the University of Washington. 

MEN’S BASKETBALL:

SPU Men’s Basketball team took their fourth loss in the last couple of weeks on Saturday, Jan. 15th, against Montana State University Billings. This leaves the team with a 1-3 conference record, and an 8-7 overall record for the 2021-2022 season thus far. 

The Falcons started the game off strong, ending the first half with a 31-28 lead over the Yellowjackets. SPU gave it their best effort, but it was not enough to hold off their opponents, as the second half was won by the opposing team with a score of 39-23. 

The game ended with a score of 67-54 in favor of Montana State University Billings. This marks the Falcons’ second consecutive loss of the season, following their game against the University of Alaska Anchorage on Thursday, Dec. 30 where they lost 88-83. 

The top scorers for the Falcons in this game were senior guard Divant’e Moffitt, graduate-student guard Harry Cavell and sophomore guard Zack Paulsen. They scored sixteen, twelve, and thirteen points respectively. Moffitt remains the Falcon’s top scorer for the season after this game with 273 points total. 

Their next game will be on the Falcons’ home court in  Brougham Pavilion against Saint Martin’s University on Monday, Jan. 17. 

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: 

Both Women’s basketball games on Thursday, Jan. 13, and Saturday, Jan. 15 were canceled due to a rise in COVID-19 cases on the team.