Complete 800-meter run results (PDF)
        Complete women' results (PDF)
        Complete men's results (PDF)

ALLENDALE, Mich. – She saw a challenge lurking behind her in the shadows.
 
But in front of McKayla Fricker, it was nothing but broad daylight …
 
… all the way to the finish line.
 
The Seattle Pacific senior, after a near-miss at the national indoor 800-meter title in March, won the outdoor crown going away on Saturday night, pulling into the lead up the back side early in the second and final lap, then cruising down the homestretch at the NCAA Division II championship meet.
                       
She came through the wire in 2 minutes, 6.18 seconds – a personal best by nearly nearly three-quarters of a second and a winning margin of well over a full second ahead of Shawnee Carnett of Concord (W.V.) at Grand Valley Track & Field Stadium.
 
"It's unreal. I just can't believe it just happened," Fricker said after tasting a national title for the first time. "It's what I've been determined to do ever since I set foot at SPU – just to persevere and stay determined after everything I've been through in the last four years.
 
"To be able to do it like this is just surreal."





Carnett was the runner who fended off a charging Fricker to win the indoor crown by half a second on March 15 in Winston-Salem, N.C.
 
Once again on Saturday, with the temperatures somewhat more pleasant toward evening after touching 80 earlier in the day, it was she who had the best chance to chase Fricker down.
 Fricker (Canby, Ore.) was in fourth place, but right with the lead pack – including Carnett – as she took the bell lap. Coming out of the curve to start up the back of the bright blue oval, Fricker surged into the lead, and quickly started to stretch it.
 
"When she came around (the end of the first lap) at 62, 63 seconds, we kind of knew that it was to play in her hands a little bit," Falcons assistant coach Audra Smith said. "She has been through that so many times before, that you just knew she was in good position, and it was going to be game over.
 
"She had three more gears – and two more gears after that," Smith added with a laugh.
 
Carnett attempted to close some ground going around the last curve. But Fricker responded immediately.
 
"I saw the shadow of Shawnee behind me, and did not let her get close to me. I just kept going," Fricker said. "I don't know where she's at coming down that last stretch. I kind of checked a little bit and kind of just kept running for it, running scared all the way through the finish."
  
"About five to 10 meters before the finish, I knew I had it," she said, "and I was just 'Yes. Really? Really? Wow.' "
 
Waiting for Fricker at the awards stand was her father, Mark, to hand out the trophies. That task usually goes to the winner's head coach, but SPU's Karl Lerum is not in Michigan this week, as he sent assistants Audra Smith and Chris Reed along with the team's six athletes.
 
It was Reed who walked up to Mark Fricker, himself a former star runner at Oregon State, handed over his coach's pass, and told him that he should present the awards.
                                                          
"That was really special," McKayla Fricker said. "I either wanted only him or Karl, and since Karl wasn't able to be here, I had my dad."
 
Fricker's victory gave her another All-American honor. She finished her career with six of them.
 
This marks the third straight year that the Falcons have ended the spring with a national champion. Brittany Aanstad won the javelin in 2011, and Ali Worthen captured the heptathlon crown last season. It also is the fifth time in the last six years that Seattle Pacific has had an NCAA winner.