SEATTLE – It's something new for Ali Worthen. For Karl Lerum, it's the continuation of a happy habit.
 
Seattle Pacific senior Worthen has been named the West Region Women's Indoor Field Athlete of the Year by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. And, for the sixth year in a row, Lerum is the West's indoor Women's Coach of the Year.
 
Worthen (Coos Bay, Ore.) won two championships, was part of a winning relay, and contributed 38 points to SPU's dominating victory at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships last month in Nampa, Idaho. Worthen went 18 feet, 9 ¼ inches on her final attempt to come from behind and claim the long jump title for the third time. The next day, she easily won the 60-meter hurdles, then ran the anchor leg on Seattle Pacific's victorious 4-by-400 relay team.
 
With the 38 points, Worthen finished with 110 for her indoor career, making her the most prolific scorer – male or female – in conference history and the first athlete of either gender to break 100 points. She also wound up with six titles, tying her with former Falcons distance running star Jessica Pixler and with thrower Krissy Tandle of Central Washington for the most in GNAC competition.
 
Worthen will compete in the heptathlon at next week's NCAA Division II Championships in Mankato, Minn. She comes in as the No. 7 seed with a career-best 3,729 points, which she tallied at the UW Invitational on Jan. 27 in Seattle.
 
Lerum guided the Falcon women to their ninth consecutive GNAC team championship. This one was in convincing fashion, as Seattle Pacific piled up 182 points, easily outdistancing runner-up Western Washington, which finished with 97½. No other team has won the women's indoor team title since the conference began sponsoring the winter version of the sport in 2004.
 
In addition to Worthen, Lerum will have two other athletes at nationals next week. Senior Terra Schumacher (Sublimity, Ore.) made it in the pole vault, and sophomore McKayla Fricker (Canby, Ore.) qualified in the 800 meters.
 
While Worthen and Lerum earned top regional awards, several other Falcons earned All-Region status as a result of their performances during the season.
 
On the women's side, Worthen made it in four events (pentathlon, 60 hurdles, high jump, long jump), while Heidi Laabs-Johnson (mile and 5,000) and Kishia Mitchell (100 and 200) were on in two events apiece. Earning spots in single events were Fricker (800), Katy Gross (pentathlon), Jasmine Johnson (800), Natty Plunkett (5,000) and Schumacher (pole vault).
 
For the men, Seth Pierson was on twice (mile, 800). Nate Johnson (heptathlon) and Nate Seely (800) made it in one event apiece.
 
All-region status is accorded to the top five marks in each event.