THE SCHEDULE: Seattle Pacific at UW Invitational
Friday, Jan. 30, 3 p.m./Saturday, Jan. 31, 9 a.m.
Dempsey Indoor (UW)/Seattle, Wash.
Live stats/results on this link.
Weekly release, with individual performance lists (PDF)
UW Invitational schedule
UW Invitational heat sheets
Falcon 5K Fun Run/Walk set for Saturday morning
SEATTLE -- The Seattle Pacific Falcons needed just the first day of the new indoor track and field season to make their presence felt -- both in the school record book and on the NCAA entry list.
Suffice to say the Falcons are primed to see how much better they can be in their second meet now that they’ve had an additional two weeks of practice.
They’ll find out this weekend as they head back to the Dempsey Indoor facility on the University of Washington campus for the UW Invitational. Friday’s schedule, with most of the focus being on the women’s pentathlon and men’s heptathlon, begins at 3 p.m., with the last event scheduled for 9 p.m.
The bulk of the competition will be on Saturday, with running events starting at 9 a.m. and field events at 10. The last event is set for 5:55 p.m.
At the UW Indoor Preview on Jan. 16. SPU’s women’s distance medley relay team of Jane Larson, Chrystal Sims, Lisa Anderberg and Jessica Pixler set a school and Great Northwest Athletic Conference record and posted an NCAA Division II automatic qualifying time. Chad Meis set a Seattle Pacific men’s mile record and earned an NCAA provisional qual time. And in her Falcon debut, freshman Amanda Alvarez established a school record for the indoor triple jump and was an NCAA provisional qualifier.
The Falcons will have another two weeks to get ready for the Husky Classic on Feb. 12 and the UW Indoor Open on Feb. 13. Those will be the final tune-ups for the GNAC Championships, set for Feb. 20 in Nampa, Idaho.
SPEAKING OF THE FALCONS
Because the indoor season schedule is so short and compact, SPU head coach Karl Lerum constantly emphasizes the importance of taking advantage of every opportunity. And he saw that happening at the opener two weeks ago.
“It’s hard to know what to expect the first time around,” he said. “But overall, I was excited to see the way our kids competed. Those who were able to compete got a good sense of where they are and what they need to focus their efforts on in the next couple of months.”
Aside from the school records and NCAA marks, the triple jump in particular stood out for Lerum on that first day, as SPU athletes, led by the record-setting Amanda Alvarez, placed fifth, 10th, 13th, 15th and in a tie for 16th.
“That was a great start for the girls. They don’t have anyplace to jump here, so that was their first time out of the gymnastics room,” Lerum said. “I think we could have a solid handful of 38-foot girls.”
This weekend will be the second of four meets leading up to February’s GNAC Championships.
“I’m excited to watch them compete as we get to the meets that are more available to them, and to get everyone qualified for conference in the events they want to compete in,” Lerum said.
SCOUTING THE UW INVITATIONAL
Versatility will be a watchword for SPU’s efforts on Friday and Saturday at Dempsey Indoor. The Falcons will have four athletes entered in the multi-event competition: sophomore Brittany Aanstad (Lake Stevens, Wash./Lake Stevens HS), junior Jennifer Pike (Vancouver, Wash./Skyview HS) and junior Chrystal Sims (Portland, Ore.) the women’s pentathlon, and freshman Nate Johnson (Boise, Idaho) in the men’s heptathlon.
Aanstad, back from an elbow injury that sidelined her for all of 2009, competed in an indoor pentathlon in 2008, totaling 3,154 points. Sims won the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC) outdoor heptathlon last spring while at Mount Hood.
Senior Chad Meis (Renton, Wash./Seattle Christian HS), just two weeks removed from his school-record mile run, will try to see if he can meet or beat that time on Saturday, and Amanda Alvarez will be back in the triple jump, seeking to get closer to the NCAA automatic qualifying distance of 39 feet, 0½ inches.
Senior Jessica Pixler (Sammamish, Wash./Eastlake HS) is entered in both the 5,000 meters and the mile, and is the defending NCAA champion in both. However, coach Karl Lerum said she’ll choose just one of those two for this weekend. Last year in this same meet, Pixler shattered both the school and GNAC records in the 5,000, placing second with a tie of 16 minutes, 12.65 seconds. That was 22 seconds faster than the old record of 16:34.72.
FALCON REPLAY
Racing around the 307-meter track at Dempsey Indoor, the Seattle Pacific foursome of senior Jane Larson (Fall City, Wash./Cedar Park Christian HS), junior Chrystal Sims (Portland, Ore.), senior Lisa Anderberg (Edmonds, Wash./Kamiak HS) and senior Jessica Pixler won the 4,000-meter distance medley relay in 11 minutes, 32.23 seconds at the UW Indoor Preview on Jan. 16.
That time was well below the NCAA Division II automatic qualifying standard of 11:47.90, and also bettered the time of 11:38.24 that had stood as both the school and the GNAC record since 2008.
Larson led off with the 1,200-meter leg, followed by newcomer Sims for the 400, Anderberg for the 800, and Pixler for the 1,600. Larson had the lead after the first leg, Sims and Anderberg held steady in third behind two Stanford teams in the middle legs, then Pixler surged to the front early on the anchor leg and crossed the line nearly 12 seconds in front of Stanford’s top team.
SPU’s time would have placed second at last winter’s D-2 nationals behind Shippensburg’s winning mark of 11:24.54.
They weren’t the only ones running into the record book. Senior Chad Meis, returning to indoor competition after taking last winter off to focus on outdoor training, logged a 4:11.39 time in the mile. That eclipsed the old mark of 4:14.07 set by Brian Cronrath in 2007 and put Meis onto the NCAA provisional qualifying list.
Freshman Amanda Alvarez (Vancouver, Wash./Columbia River HS) literally wasted no time setting the SPU women’s indoor triple jump record. On her first attempt of the day, she went 37 feet, 6 inches. That ultimately became her final mark and was more than a foot farther than the previous record of 36-4 than Alison Worthen went as a freshman last year to take third place at GNACs. Alvarez’ distance would have won the conference crown by nearly four inches and is an NCAA provisional qualifying mark.
ON THE HONOR ROLL
-- Jane Larson, Chrystal Sims, Lisa Anderberg and Jessica Pixler were honored as the GNAC women’s track Athletes of the Week for the week of Jan. 11-16 following their record-setting and NCAA-qualifying performance in the 4,000-meter distance medley relay at the UW Indoor Preview on Jan. 16.
FALCON FODDER
-- Junior Melissa Peaslee (Fox Island, Wash./Gig Harbor HS) and junior Terra Schumacher (Sublimity, Ore.) are part of a four-way tie for first among GNAC female pole vaulters, having cleared 11 feet, 1 inch.
-- Schumacher also ranks second in the 60 hurdles with her time of 9.43.
-- In addition to Schumacher, the Falcons have two other women currently at No. 2 in their respective events: freshman Trinna Miranda (Tigard, Ore.) in the long jump at 16-10, and freshman Amanda Alvarez in the triple jump at 37-6. Alvarez is 3¼ inches behind leader Laura Vonarx of Northwest Nazarene.
-- Sophomore Brittany Aanstad has the conference’s best high jump mark at 5-4¼. She also is No. 4 in the long jump at 16-9¼.
-- Seattle Pacific is the only GNAC school to have run a women’s distance medley relay so far.
-- The Falcons have three conference leaders on the men’s side: senior Chad Meis in the mile (4:11.39, converted to a 4:11.79 for ranking purposes because of track distance), senior Justin Felt in the long jump (22 feet, 3¾ inches), and freshman Nathan Seely (Lynden, Wash./Lynden HS) in the 800 meters (1:56.70, converted from 1:56.60).
Click on this link or a look at GNAC leaders, which includes a drop-down menu with options for conference and NCAA qualifiers.
COACH KARL LERUM
In his own quiet way, Karl Lerum has continued the long tradition of track success at Seattle Pacific.
Now starting his fifth year at the helm, Lerum has been named the West Region women’s indoor Coach of the Year for three straight years. The Falcons have won all six GNAC indoor women’s team championships, and Lerum has been in charge for the last five of those.
Lerum took over the Falcon coaching reins from Jack Hoyt in October 2005. He worked as an assistant to Hoyt in 2000 and again in 2003, and in between spent two years as an assistant coach at Trinity College, an NCAA Division III school in Hartford, Conn.
As an athlete, Lerum made his mark in two sports at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. On the football field, he set -- and still owns -- the school career records for receptions and receiving yards. On the track, Lerum has the Lutes record in the 400 meters and is among the school’s top 10 in the decathlon, 110 hurdles, long jump, 100 meters, and javelin.
After college, Lerum was on the San Francisco 49ers roster for the 1998 and 1999 preseason, and played with NFL Europe’s Amsterdam Admirals. In 2003 and 04, he was the head coach of the Oslo Vikings football program in Norway.
Lerum is a graduate of Franklin Pierce High School in Tacoma. He has a bachelor’s degree in history from PLU and a master’s in history from Trinity.
UP NEXT
The Falcons have next week off from competition. They will be back at Dempsey Indoor on Feb. 12 for the Husky Classic, and on Feb. 13 for the UW Indoor Open. The GNAC Championships will be the following weekend in Nampa, Idaho.
AROUND THE GNAC
Click on this link for a look at news and notes from around the GNAC.