During the week of Jan. 21 to Jan. 28, 2024, three of Seattle Pacific University’s sports programs competed. Both men’s and women’s basketball struggled, while many of SPU’s runners surpassed their previous personal bests.

The women’s basketball team played two away games against SPU’s biggest rivals: the Western Washington University Vikings on Jan. 25 and the Simon Fraser University Red Leafs on Jan. 27.

The Falcons lost their game against Western, 73-61. Although they mostly kept pace in the first, third and fourth quarters, the Vikings trounced SPU 22-13 in the second. The Falcons had many opportunities during the fourth quarter to get back into it, but they could not sink the basket enough, going 5-14 on field goals.

SPU’s top scorers in the game were junior forward Olivia Mayer, who had 14 points, six rebounds, and two assists, freshman guard Layne Kearns (14/6/1), freshman guard Haylie-Anne Ohta (10/2/1) and redshirt junior guard Hunter Beirne (8/4/4).

While SPU’s loss against Western on Thursday was somewhat close, their game against Simon Fraser on Saturday was a blowout. SPU was outscored in every quarter, making just 33.3% of their field goal attempts to the Red Leafs’ 49.2% and 18.2% of their three-pointer attempts in comparison to Simon Fraser’s incredible 47.4%. The Falcons lost, 83-57.

The top scorers against Simon Fraser were junior center Schuyler Berry (21/2/1), Mayer (10/6/1), Beirne (9/3/2), and junior wing Lolo Weatherspoon (7/5/1).

The men’s basketball team also went on the road this week, playing against the Montana State University Billings Yellowjackets on Saturday, Jan. 27. SPU went down early, going into the second half 38-26. Although they attempted a comeback, the Falcons lost that game, 81-75.

Saturday’s top scorers were senior forward Shaw Anderson (20/6/3), graduate forward Kyle Luttinen (15/1/5), sophomore guard Owen Moriarty (14/1/4), and sophomore guard Trace Evans (12/7/1).

SPU’s track and field team had another meet in their indoor season at the University of Washington Invitational held on Jan. 26 and 27. Players on both the men’s and women’s teams showed improvement, as 11 of the 13 runners in the mile-run event on Saturday made personal records. Several had not competed in an indoor mile before, such as senior Brennan LeBlanc and sophomore Isaac “Big Mike” Venable. LeBlanc and Venable each scored improvements of over ten seconds, as Venable scored 4:28.54 (his previous outdoor best was 4:41.53) and LeBlanc clocked in at 4:24.55 (after a previous best of 4:38.99). 

Two of SPU’s women ran the 400-meter dash in under a minute, both of which were personal bests. Marissa Crane ran 58.56 (her previous best was 58.77), while Johanna Brown made 59.13 (besting her previous record of 59.78). Meanwhile, Annika Esvelt, with a time of 16:59.72 in the 5000-meter event, ran her second National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II indoor qualifying time.

The track and field teams will go down to Oregon, with meets at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 3, at George Fox University and Sunday, Feb. 4, at Portland University, which has yet to be scheduled. 

Meanwhile, both basketball teams return home for two games each at Royal Brougham Pavilion. Both men and women will face off against the Central Washington University Wolves on Thursday, Feb. 1, the women at 5:15 p.m. and the men at 7:30 p.m. For the women, this is their Pink Game. Then, both teams go up against the Northwest Nazarene University Nighthawks on Saturday, Feb. 3, the men at 2:00 p.m. and the women at 4:15 p.m.