Falcon’s track and field veteran is four years deep and has continued to test his limits.
Peyton Harris has dedicated a majority of his time to the track and field team at Seattle Pacific University. Although his time here did not start so positive, due to an injury he missed all but one race his freshman year.
However, Harris took off once he began his track and field debut. His sophomore year he reached new personal bests in the long jump, 4×400 relay, 60m hurdles and long jump. He was even able to take his talents to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championship stage.
The men’s track and field team for Seattle Pacific is made up of a smaller roster and attending the GNAC championship is not as common of an occurrence as larger rival squads.
The hard work continued into Harris’s junior year.
Harris was again, another highlight in the men’s track and field team. Landing several personal bests and a spot in the GNAC championship.
Harris said it had been incredibly hard to match the personal bests that he set during his sophomore and junior year.
As a way to focus completely on his performance on the track, Harris forfeited his time with the SPU soccer team to overcome his previous years personal bests.
“My first three years at SPU I was a part of the men’s soccer team, so I always had to train in the summer and fall for soccer and not track,” he said.
Harris said he wanted to come out guns blazing this year, so he would leave his senior year with all new personal bests.
“After deciding to focus on track for senior year, I expected to be running way faster and jumping further than I did in previous years. This hasn’t necessarily been the case,” he said.
As Harris has struggled to pull together the stellar season he was hoping for, the career best times he is looking for may be just around the corner.
Harris hinted on this during his most recent competition where he earned a time of 15.16 seconds, which was just nine-hundredths off from his career-best of 15.07 in the 110m hurdles.
Despite being just short of the personal best, “it was a relief to run that 15.16 and come within .1 of my [personal best],” he said.
Harris said he believes he has enough time to make his marks for the senior season and best he previous years times.
Although, “Even if I don’t get the times or distances that I want, I will be happy with this year, because of the good times I’ve had with the team and the relationships I have built with the coaches,” Harris said.
Harris has two more guaranteed races before his final season comes to an end.
Saturday, May 5, at the Ken Shannon Invitational on the University of Washington track and May 11 through the 12, at the GNAC championships.
“I am excited to go into my final opportunities to showcase myself on the colligate stage and I am hoping to perform well and end with a bang,” Harris said.
