Two Falcons only improve with every passing meet, carrying their school name with pride as they soar through the competition.
Seattle Pacific track and field competed at the UW Invitational at Dempsey Indoor on Friday, Jan. 31, and Saturday, Feb. 1.
Track events:
Fifth-year Annika Esvelt delivered another impressive performance, running Division II’s third-fastest time this season in the women’s 3000 meters at 9:24.80. She won her heat and placed 10th overall.
Esvelt’s time also moved her up from No. 7 to No. 4 on the all-time Great Northwest Athletic Conference list. She is less than two seconds away from the 9:23.24 SPU record set by Jessica Pixler in 2009.
Besides Esvelt, four other Falcons finished the weekend with new personal bests.
Freshman Robert Joshua ran the second-fastest 60-meter dash time in school history, clocking 7.01 seconds at the UW Invitational last Saturday. That is just .01 away from the school record that was set in 2022.
Joshua also posted a personal-best 22.55 in the men’s 200-meter dash, bettering his previous best of 22.71 from his college debut at the Spokane Invitational on Dec. 14. This is the fourth-fastest time for the indoor 200 meters in SPU history.
Junior Maya Ewing ran a personal-best 5:06.40 in the women’s mile run, finishing first in her heat and 97th overall. Her previous best was 5:18.20 from the 2024 GNAC Indoor Track & Field Championship on Feb. 20.
Junior Isaac Venable finished 106th in the men’s mile run with a new personal best of 4:24.79. His previous best was 4:28.54 from the 2024 UW Invite on Jan. 27.
Senior Johanna Brown ran a new personal-best 58.04 in the women’s 400-meter dash, beating her previous best of 58.88 from the 2024 Husky Classic on Feb. 9. Brown placed second in her heat and 16th overall.
The Falcons’ women’s and men’s teams also debuted in the 4000-meter distance medley relays at Friday’s meet.
Senior Madelyn Buckley, freshman Lucia Templeton, freshman Alexa Gossett and junior Anna Prussian assembled the women’s team and placed 11th at 12:51.37.
The men’s team, composed of sophomore Silas Demmert, freshman Noah Bouknight, freshman Nathan Korth and sophomore Isaac Venable, placed seventh at 10:39.17.
Field events:
Off the track, SPU had fewer noise-making performances.
Andrew Bell continued to turn heads in his freshman season. He broke the SPU record in men’s 60-meter hurdles for the fourth time at 8.13 seconds, putting him onto the NCAA Division II provisional qualifying list.
Bell finished first in his heat and third overall. The previous record of 8.21 seconds was set by Bell at the UW Indoor Preview on Friday, Jan. 17.
Graduate student Lizzy Daughtery placed ninth at 3.86 meters and senior Emily Thomason tied for 13th at 3.71 meters in the women’s pole vault. Daugherty fell 0.05 meters short of her career-best 3.91 meters, set at the 2024 Spokane Invitational. Thomason’s personal-best 3.83 meters was cleared at the 2024 GNAC Indoor Track & Field Championship.
Freshman Sophie Hanay placed 10th in the women’s triple jump at 10.31 meters. In the women’s long jump, freshman Tia Cates placed 17th at 5.15 meters.
Upcoming:
The Falcons will compete in the GNAC Championships in Spokane, Washington, on Monday, Feb. 17, and Tuesday, Feb. 18.
Head coach Karl Lerum said he and assistant coach Chris Hansen will decide which Falcons to send to the championships over the next two weeks.
“The way our conference qualification works is we get to bring whichever athletes we feel are competitive and ready to compete,” Lerum said. “We’re now trying to line up our best performances, try to get a little sharper and put our best [foot] forward for the conference championship before we move right into outdoor.”
Further out, Esvelt and Bell are the only Falcons who have qualified to compete at the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Thursday, March 13, and Friday, March 14.
“Across the board, our [athletes] came out and gave it their best shot,” Lerum said. “I’m proud of all the progression that all of our [athletes] are making. It’s easy to point to who’s climbing the national list, but we have a lot of [athletes] who are who are improving each week.”
