Seattle Pacific University sports had a short but meaningful weekend from April 5 to April 6. On Saturday, April 6, women’s rowing raced in the Pioneer/Pilot Invitational, hosted by Lewis & Clark College, on Vancouver Lake in Vancouver, Washington. The track and field teams hosted their first and only home meet of the outdoor season at Renton Memorial Stadium on Friday, April 5.
Named after SPU alum and former coach Doris Heritage, the First Lady of American Distance Running, two-time Olympian and a Falcon Legends Hall of Fame member, the meet allowed the current track and field team the opportunity to bid farewell to their exiting seniors.
Since 2017, Senior Day celebrations have occurred at the Doris Heritage Invitational to honor student-athletes who leave SPU at the end of the academic year. Exiting seniors on the women’s side are Marissa Crane, Lizzy Daugherty, Aniya Green, Charlie Hill, Charisma Smith and Emily Thomason. The seniors exiting on the men’s side are Evan Carpenter, Kade Franco, Kainoa Lee and David Njeri.
However, before the team could send off their seniors, the SPU athletes took on their respective events. Sophomore Hannah Chang competed in the women’s 200-meter dash, 100-meter hurdles, high jump and javelin events. Chang finished first in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.01 seconds and fourth in javelin with a distance of 28.88 meters. Smith finished sixth in the 400-meter event at 1:01.15 (her personal best is 1:00.25).
Over the past three weeks, junior Johanna Brown set two new personal bests in the 200-meter (25.92 at the PLU Open on March 16) and the 400-meter (57.86, her first time below 58 seconds at the PLNU Invitational on March 23). However, Brown could not break new records despite finishing fourth in the 200-meter (26.55 seconds) and third in the 400-meter (58.49 seconds).
Green finished first with a time of 12.72 in the 100-meter (personal best is 12.61) and second in the 200-meter (25.92, personal best is 25.30). Thomason finished second in the pole vault event at 11 feet, 8 inches (personal best is 12 feet, 4.5 inches).
Njeri finished second in the men’s long jump (6.84 meters, personal best is 7.20 meters) and first in the men’s triple jump (14.45 meters, personal best is 15.18 meters). Carpenter finished first in the 400-meter (51.28, personal best is 50.04) and sixth in the 200-meter (23.22, personal best is 22.50).
Freshman Silas Demmert competed in the 5000-meter for the third time in his college career. He finished in fourth place with a new personal best of 15:17.82 (his previous best was 15:45.24 from the PLU Open on March 16).
The track and field teams will return to action over a long weekend from Thursday, April 11, to Saturday, April 13. Over these three days, the Falcons will compete in the Pacific Coast Invitational in Long Beach, California, and the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa, California.
At the Pioneer/Pilot Invitational, SPU rowing took first place over the University of Portland and Lewis & Clark College in the Open 4+ race with a time of 9:15.6. The Falcons’ lineup for the 4+ race was sophomore Lexi Roybal, sophomore Racquel Wesley, junior Addie Clark, junior Mary Goodhew and senior Hannah Miller.
In the Varsity 4+ race, the Falcons (sophomore Aleksia Haugen, freshman Emmerson Spencer, sophomore Anna Boatman, sophomore Emma Jones and sophomore Amelia Pape) took third place with a time of 8:48.00 behind Western Washington University and Embry-Riddle University.
In the second heat of the Varsity 8+ races, the Falcons (senior Lucy Sandahl [coxswain], senior Natalie Korolenko, senior Megan Popielak, sophomore Ixchel Watson, junior Audrey Rekedal, sophomore Bella Lisenby, senior Megan Rouse, junior Emma Ely and sophomore Gem Gatmaytan) finished in third place with a time of 8:01.20 behind Portland and California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt.
The final race before leaving the water was the first heat of the junior varsity 8+ races. Roybal (coxswain), freshman Jadyn Hawley, sophomore Brittan Dalberg, senior Cookie Yitbarek, freshman Grace Combs, freshman Mari Ceesa, freshman Mia Vittori, freshman Jenna Casem and freshman Faith Akutagawa finished in third place with a time of 9:00.40 behind Portland and WWU.
Unfortunately, the second half of the women’s rowing regatta on Saturday, April 6, was canceled due to rough weather conditions. The women’s rowing team will have their next regatta from Saturday, April 13, to Sunday, April 14. They will compete in the Knecht Cup on Cooper River in New Jersey.
