Between Feb. 29, 2024, and March 2, 2024, the Seattle Pacific University basketball teams went to Alaska for their final two regular-season games. The first games were on Feb. 29 against the University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves. Both teams’ second games occurred on March 2, where they faced the University of Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks.
The men’s team won two close contests, while the women’s team lost the first and won the second. Meanwhile, track and field began the outdoor season at the Ed Boitano Invitational.
SPU women’s basketball played against Alaska Anchorage and suffered a tough loss, as the Seawolves bested the Falcons 51-39. The first three quarters threw SPU into a 40-22 hole, and their strong fourth quarter was not enough to gain them the upper hand.
The Falcons had one silver lining: junior forward Olivia Mayer’s double-double (a stat marking when a player has 10 or more points and 10 or more rebounds). She finished the day with 11 points, 11 rebounds and one assist. Other top scorers for the game were redshirt junior guard Hunter Beirne (9/9/2) and junior center Schuyler Berry (9/0/1).
In their second game, the Falcons fared better. SPU won 72-64 with a standout performance by Beirne (28/5/4). Other top scorers were Mayer with another double-double (15/14/2) and junior wing Lolo Weatherspoon (15/1/0).
The women’s team ended their season with an 8-10 in-conference record, just good enough to get the sixth seed in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference women’s basketball championship tournament in Ellensburg, Washington.
The first game of the tournament is on Thursday, March 7, against the third-seed Alaska Anchorage Seawolves. If SPU wins, the women’s team will play on March 8 against the second-seed Western Washington University. The championship game is on Saturday, March 9.
The men’s team, meanwhile, won two nail-biters. On Feb. 29, the Falcons gained a 55-40 lead halfway through the second half, but the Seawolves roared back and brought their score within one point of SPU. One final stroke of luck kept the Falcons in the win column, as senior Seawolves guard Jaron Williams missed a potential game-winning layup in the paint with one second left, giving SPU the 65-64 win.
Top SPU scorers were senior forward Shaw Anderson (23/7/2), sophomore guard Owen Moriarty (10/6/3) and sophomore forward Jonas La Tour (9/3/0).
The game on March 2 was a come-from-behind win for the Falcons. Though the Nanooks had a slim 44-37 lead halfway through the second half, SPU edged out a 62-56 win. Top scorers for the game were Anderson (16/7/3), graduate forward Kyle Luttinen (16/3/1) and junior guard Trace Evans (11/7/1).
Anderson’s performance brought him to 1,959 points, breaking the SPU school record for most points in a career. He surpassed previous record holder Loren Anderson, who scored 1,948 points between 1955 and 1958. Anderson led the GNAC with 652 points this season, the best season of his career (his previous best was 564 in the 2022-23 season, also conference-leading).
The men’s basketball team rounded out the year with a 10-8 in-conference record, good for fifth place in the GNAC and a playoff spot in the GNAC tournament in Ellensburg, Washington. The men’s team will play their first game on March 7 against the fourth-seed Central Washington University.
The winner of that game will play in the semifinal against the first-seed Montana State University Billings on March 8. The men’s championship game will be on Saturday, March 9.
Outdoor track and field began their season with the Ed Boitano Invitational at Baker Stadium in Tacoma, Washington.
On the women’s side, junior sprints runner Johanna Brown placed first in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:24.41. In the same event, sophomore sprinter Marissa Crane (2:27.46) and senior sprinter and relayer Charisma Smith (2:29.93) placed in third and fifth, respectively.
Smith, Brown, senior sprinter Aniya Green and sophomore multi-runner Hannah Chang led SPU to a first-place finish in the 4×400 meter relay with a time of 4:03.35. Sophomore distance runner Maya Ewing came second in the 5000-meter run, while Chang placed third in the long jump with a 4.92-meter jump.
On the men’s side, senior jumper and hurdler David Njeri placed first in the triple jump with a distance of 13.50 meters and got fifth place in the long jump with a distance of 6.31 meters. Distance runner Brennan LeBlanc placed third in the 5000-meter run with a time of 15:24.58.
Senior sprinter Evan Carpenter, freshman distance runner Jonathan Lieb, sophomore distance runner Ethan Erickson, and redshirt sophomore distance runner Ben Sheirbon combined for sixth place in the 4×400 meter relay with a time of 3:40.13.
Although the outdoor season has already begun, one last indoor event remains. Annika Esvelt, who won her second GNAC title in the women’s 5000-meter event on Feb. 18, and will now be one of 13 GNAC track and field athletes competing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II indoor championships. The event will be held at the Robert W. Plaster Center in Pittsburg, Kansas on March 8 and 9.
