Complete women's results (PDF)
        Complete men's results (PDF)

        ACTION VIDEOS: 
        Women's 200   Women's javelin
        Men's 800          Men's 400 hurdles                                       

MONMOUTH, Ore. – Good thing Tasia Baldwin is a sprinter. Going as she was between three events, that footspeed came in handy on Friday of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference track and field championships.
 
Came in handy on the stopwatch and on the measuring tape, too.
 
The Seattle Pacific freshman set personal-best times in the 100 meters, the 200 meters to make the finals in both races, and went farther than she ever had in the long jump to snag third place on the first day of the two-day meet at Western Oregon University's McArthur Field.
 
Baldwin (Tacoma, Wash./Foss HS) flew 18 feet, 2 ½ inches in the long jump, beating her previous best of 18-0 ¼ set just last Friday at the Western Washington Twilite in Bellingham.  Just moments later, she was on the track for the 200 preliminaries and came through the wire in 25.15 seconds, a full tenth faster than the 25.25 she ran on April 20 at the Bryan Clay Invite in Azusa, Calif. That gave her the No. 6 seed in Saturday's finals.
 
She started the day with a 12.34 in the 100 to earn the No. 4 seed in finals. It beat her previous best of 12.36, also from the Bryan Clay.
 




 “"I was most excited about the 200 – I didn't know I was going to do that well. That was my last event in those three events in an hour and a half, so that was the most surprising and the most exciting,” Baldwin said. “I was taking it one race at a time and one jump at a time … and knowing that each time, I have to do my best and just really (taking) each race and each event as its own significant event.”
 
The Falcons, in pursuit of their third straight conference crown, picked up some of the points they needed to try chasing down pre-meet favorite Alaska Anchorage. Through the seven finals (including last week's heptathlon) that were completed on Friday, SPU was on top of the Seawolves, 64-61, with Western Washington third at 53. Based on entry marks in those same seven events, Anchorage had been seeded for 66, SPU for 59½ and Western for 56½.
                                                                                                                 
Baldwin helped out in that regard by moving up from her sixth-seeded position in the long jump. Sophomore Robyn Zeider (Plymouth, Minn.) did her part by coming up big in the meet-opening 3,000-meter steeplechase. Zeidler was seeded just eighth, but delivered a solid fourth-place performance in 11 minutes, 9.78 seconds – fast enough to beat the NCAA Division II provisional qualifying time of 11:10, and dropping nearly 20 seconds from her previous PR of 11:29.11 last Friday in Bellingham.
 
Also climbing significantly was freshman Michaela Farner in the javelin. Farner (Molalla, Ore.) cut loose with a throw of 134 feet, 3 ¾ inches, more than seven feet beyond her previous best of 127-2, finishing fifth (she came in seeded eighth) and making NCAA provisional.
 
“They're putting everything they have out there, and that's all you can ever ask,” SPU coach Karl Lerum said. “I'm excited for tomorrow. All of our sprinters advanced today, and that's not easy – that's a red-hot field up here. … They're all doing what they can.”
 
The Falcons took three of the top five places in the javelin and there of the top six in the long jump. Senior Brittany Aanstad (Lake Stevens, Wash./Lake Stevens HS) led the javelin production, finishing second at 144-6 ½. (Second-seeded Amanda Schumaker of Western Oregon leapfrogged past Aanstad to win at 154-1 ½.) Junior Katy Gross (Everett, Wash.) was fourth at 136-3 ¼, then it was Farner in fifth.
 
Following Baldwin's bronze in the long jump was senior Ali Worthen (Coos Bay, Ore.) in fifth at 18-1 ½, and junior Trinna Miranda (Tigard, Ore.) in sixth at 17-9 ¾.
 
Seniors Natty Plunkett (Bellevue, Wash./Newport HS) and Heidi Laabs-Johnson (Salt Lake City) went 3-4 in the 10,000 meters.

SPU is seeded 3-4-5 in Saturday's 100-meter finals, led by sophomore and defending champion Kishia Mitchell (Puyallup, Wash./Rogers HS) at 12.20. The Falcons are 2-3-6-8 in the 200, and 2-4-5 in the 400. In both of those races, senior Myisha Valentine (Mountlake Terrace, Wash./North Sound Christian HS) set the Seattle Pacific pace with personal-best times: 24.90 in the 200 (old 24.94) and 56.36 in the 400 (old 56.47). The latter is just .06 away from NCAA provisional qualifying.
 




Senior Natalie Nobbs (Yakima, Wash./Riverside Christian HS) moved up one spot to the No. 2 seed in the 400 hurdles finals with a 1:04.83 – a season best and her first time in the 1:04s since 2010.
 
Junior AJ Baker came up with the best performance of the day for the Falcons men. Baker (Au Gres, Mich.) finished fourth in the 3,000 steeplechase with a season-best time of 9:16.40. Junior Ryan Endresen (Portland, Ore.) made the 400 hurdles finals as the sixth seed, and junior Nate Seely (Lynden, Wash./Lynden HS) got into the 800-meter finals as the No. 7 seed.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD
GNAC Championships
Friday, May 11, 2012
McArthur Field / Monmouth, Ore.
 
Team scores – 1, Seattle Pacific 64; 2, Alaska Anchorage 61; 3, Western Washington 53; 4, Central Washington 24; 5, (tie) Northwest Nazarene and Western Oregon 20; 7, Simon Fraser 19; 8, Montana State Billings 9.
 
FINALS
3000 steeplechase – 1, Susan Tanua (UAA) 10:24.44 (meet record, breaks old record of 10:50.62 set by Courtney Olsen of W. Washington in 2010). SPU placer – 4, Robyn Zeidler 11:09.78#.
10,000 – 1, Ruth Keino (UAA) 36:37.97. SPU placers – 3, Natty Plunkett 36:55.54; 4, Heidi Laabs-Johnson 37:42.56.
Pole vault – 1, Karis Anderson (WWU) 12-6 ¾ / 3.83m (meet record, breaks old record of 12-4 / 3.76m set by Ally Studer of SPU in 2003). SPU placer – 3, Terra Schumacher 11-7 / 3.53m.
Long jump – 1, Emily Warman (WWU) 19-1 ½ / 5.83m (meet record, breaks old record of 19-0 ¾ / 5.81m set by Danielle Ayers-Stamper of SPU in 2005). SPU placers – 3, Tasia Baldwin 18-2 ½ / 5.55m; 5, Ali Worthen 18-1 ½ / 5.52m; 6, Trinna Miranda 17-9 ¾ / 5.43m. Other SPU competitors – 15, Katy Gross 16-8 / 5.08m; 17, Natalie Nobbs 16-1 ½ / 4.91m.
Discus – 1, Jade Richardson (SFU) 139-6 / 42.53m. No SPU competitors.
Javelin – 1, Amanda Schumaker (WOU) 154-1 / 46.97m. SPU placers – 2, Brittany Aanstad 144-6 / 44.05m#; 4, Katy Gross 136-3 / 41.53m#; 5, Michaela Farner 134-3 / 40.93m. Other SPU competitors -- 10, Carly Andrews 123-6 ¼ / 37.64m; 11, Brittany Tri 123-0 ¼ / 37.49m.
 
PRELIMINARIES
100 – 1, Grace Morgan (UAA) 12.09 (meet record, breaks old record of 12.11 set by Latasha Essien of SPU in 2010 prelims). SPU qualifiers – 3, Kishia Mitchell 12.20; 4, Tasia Baldwin 12.34; 5, BryAnne Wochnick 12.39.
200 – 1, Morgan (UAA) 24.74. SPU qualifiers – 2, Myisha Valentine 24.90; 4, Mitchell 25.03; 6, Baldwin 25.14; 8, Ali Worthen 25.62. Other SPU placers – 10, Wochnick 25.66; 16, Kelsey Chase 26.60.
400 – 1, Eleanor Siler (WWU) 55.86. SPU qualifiers – 2, Valentine 56.36; 4, Jasmine Johnson 57.00; 5, Emily Quatier 57.28.
800 – 1, Sarah Sawatzky (SFU) 2:12.98. SPU qualifier – 5, McKayla Fricker 2:13.84. Other SPU placer – 13, Gabriella Serventi 2:24.42.
100 hurdles – 1, Haleigh Lloyd (UAA) 14.31. SPU qualifiers – 3, Worthen 14.47; 6, Maliea Luquin 14.84. Other SPU placer – 16, Katy Gross 21.87.
400 hurdles – 1, Lloyd (UAA) 1:02.23. SPU qualifier – 2, Natalie Nobbs 1:04.83.
 
 
 
NCAA MEN'S TRACK & FIELD
GNAC Championships
Friday, May 11, 2012
McArthur Field / Monmouth, Ore.
 
Team scores – 1, Western Washington 81 1/2; 2, Central Washington 55; 3, Northwest Nazarene 42; 4, Western Oregon 30 1/2; 5, Saint Martin's 21; 6, Alaska Anchorage 17; 7, Seattle Pacific 13; 8, Simon Fraser 10; 9, Montana State Billings 3.
 
FINALS
3000 steeplechase – 1, Ryan Brockerville (SFU) 8:56.13 (meet record, breaks old record of 9:02.798 set by Micah Chelimo of UAA in 2010). SPU placer – 4, AJ Baker 9:25.27.
10,000 – 1, Barak Watson (NNU) 30:43.83. SPU competitor – 11, Jordan Wolfe 33:30.64; 14, Will Harrison 35:50.52.
High jump – 1, Brennan Boyes (CWU) 6-9 / 2.06m. SPU competitor – 10, Nate Johnson 5-11¼  / 1.81m.
Long jump – 1, Matson Hardie (WOU) 24-1 / 7.34m. No SPU competitors.
Shot put – 1, Sam Washington (StM) 55-2 ¼ / 16.82m. No SPU competitors.
Discus – 1, Michael Hoffman (WWU) 160-9 / 48.99m. No SPU competitors.
 
PRELIMINARIES
100 – 1, Rimar Christie (NNU) 10.67 No SPU qualifiers. SPU competitor – 14, David Ferguson 11.26.
200 – 1, Alex Tilley (WWU) 21.89. No SPU qualifiers. SPU competitor – 13, Ferguson 22.64.
400 – 1, Ethan Hewitt (UAA) 48.37. No SPU qualifiers. SPU competitor – 11, John Corazza 51.15.
800 – 1, Chris Olsen (WOU) 1:52.23. SPU qualifier – 7, Nate Seely 1:54.09. No other SPU competitors.
110 hurdles – 1, Kody Rhodes (WOU) 15.05. No SPU competitors.
400 hurdles – 1, Maurus Hope (NNU) 52.81. SPU qualifier – 6, Ryan Endresen 55.19. No other SPU competitors.