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SEATTLE – Brittany Aanstad gets another chance at a national javelin title. Ali Worthen realistically can take aim at a top-3 medal in the heptathlon. And Nate Seely will become the first Seattle Pacific man to compete at nationals since 2007 when he joins Aanstad and Worthen in Pueblo, Colo., for next week's NCAA Division II Track & Field Championships.
 
The Falcons trio officially became participants when the qualifying lists were released on Tuesday morning.

The meet is set for next Thursday through Saturday, May 24-26, at the Neta and Eddie DeRose ThunderBowl in Pueblo, Colo.
 
SPU senior Aanstad (Lake Stevens, Wash./Lake Stevens HS) is the D-2 leader in the jav with a throw of 161 feet, 11 inches on April 7 at the War V meet in Spokane. But sophomore Makayla McPhail of Fort Hays State (Kansas) is close behind at 159-4. Looming in third place is Great Northwest Athletic Conference rival Amanda Schumaker of Western Oregon at 158-11. Schumaker had the upper hand at last week's GNAC meet at her home field in Monmouth, Ore. She won with a toss of 154-1; Aanstad had to settle for second at 144-6.
 
Aanstad will be looking to be climb the final rung on the NCAA ladder. She finished second last year at 151-1. Now-graduated Monika Gruszecki of Western Washington won at 163-6. McPhail was not among the qualifiers, and Schumaker finished eighth at 137-10.
 
Worthen (Coos Bay, Ore.) will compete not only in the heptathlon, but in the high jump, as well.
 
In the hep, the SPU senior comes in as the No. 4 seed on the career-high score of 5,199 points with which she won the GNAC title on April 30-May 1 in Ellensburg. She set personal-best marks in five of the seven events, and won two of the seven. She already had become an automatic national qualifier on April 2-3 in Santa Barbara, Calif., when she scored 5,071 points at the Sam Adams Multi-Events meet.
 
Defending champion Lindsay Lettow of Central Missouri will be the overwhelming favorite to win it again, coming in top-seeded with 5,703 points – more than 300 points ahead of teammate and No. 2 seed Erin Alewine (5,363). The only other competitor ahead of Worthen is Cheryl Bourne of Ashland (Ohio) with 5,335.
 
Worthen is the 20^th seed in the high jump at 5-7¾, a mark she recorded on April 2 at the Sam Adams meet. The top seed is Barbara Szabo of Western State (Colo.) at 5-11¼.
 
Falcons junior Seely (Lynden, Wash./Lynden HS) will be riding some major momentum into the 800 meters. In last Saturday's GNAC finals at Western Oregon, Seely charged into the lead in the first 200 meters, gradually stretched it out, and pushed it hard all the way to the finish line, winning in 1 minute, 50.61 seconds. That moved him from 29^th on the national list – well below the cutoff line – all the way up to sixth.
 
After other results from around the country were added in at the end of the weekend, Seely settled into the No. 8 seed for NCAAs. The two primary title contenders are well out in front – Aduo Omot of Augustana (S.D.) is at 1:48.51; Boris Berian of Adams State (Colo.) is at 1:48.93. But the other 14 qualifiers, including Seely, are bunched within one second of each other, ranging from 1:50.36 at No. 3 to 1:51.12 at No. 16.
 
Seattle Pacific's last male participant at nationals was Eddie Strickler. At the 2007 meet in Charlotte, N.C., Strickler finished ninth in the 800 in 1:50.59.

The heptathlon begins Thursday, May 24, and concludes on Friday. The 800 preliminaries are Friday, May 25, with finals on Saturday. The entire javelin competition is Saturday the 26th.