THE SCHEDULE:    
                       Seattle Pacific at NCAA Division II Championships
                        Thursday-Saturday, May 26-28, 2016
                        IMG Academy / Bradenton, Fla.
                        THURSDAY: Field 7:30 a.m.   Track 2:30 p.m.
                        SPU prelims: W 1500 3:10 p.m.; W 400 3:40 p.m.;
                        W 400 hurdles 5:40 p.m.
                        FRIDAY: Field 6:30 a.m.   Track 2:30 p.m.
                        SPU prelims: W 800 3:20 p.m.; W 100 hurdles 3:55 p.m.
                        SATURDAY:  Field 8:30 a.m.   Track 2:00 p.m.
                         SPU finals: W 1500 2:45 p.m.; W high jump 3:00 p.m.;
                         W 100 hurdles 3:05 p.m.; W  400 3:25 p.m.;
                         W 800 4:05 p.m.; W 400 hurdles 4:30 p.m.
                         All times Pacific.
                         Live Webcast        Live results


        Weekly release, with bios of Falcon competitors (PDF)
        Complete meet schedule (PDF)
        Meet home page (HTML) 

SEATTLE – Four of them have fleet feet. The fifth is a high flyer.
 
All five of those Seattle Pacific Falcons are flocking to Florida this week for the NCAA Division II Track & Field Championships.
 
The SPU contingent of seniors Jahzelle Ambus, Lynelle Decker, Maliea Luquin and Jalen Tims, and freshman Geneva Lehnert will display their talents for the final time this spring when they convent at the IMG Academy in Bradenton on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
 
Competition begins at 7:30 a.m. Pacific time on Thursday, but the Falcons won't have to be up nearly that early, as their events don't begin until mid-afternoon, all in preliminary heats. More track prelims are set for Friday, then all of the finals potentially involving the Seattle Pacific group are set for Saturday.
 
SPU's competitors are coming off of noteworthy performances at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships, with Ambus (400), Decker (1500), and Luquin (100 hurdles) all giving themselves some national momentum in their respective events by emerging victorious in Monmouth, Ore. Lehnert (high jump) was second, as was Decker in the 800 while Tims (400 hurdles) was saddled on the sidelines with an injury, but has been back in training to prepare for her final collegiate meet.
 
BRINGING THE ACTION TO YOUR SCREEN
Falcon followers who aren't in Florida still will be able to keep up with the events as they happen. Live results will be available throughout all three days of the meet, and the NCAA also is offering a free live Webcast. The appropriate links can be found at the top of this story.
 
IN A WORD: HOT
Those making the trip won't need sweatshirts or heavy jackets, although a rain slicker might be necessary on occasion. The thermometer is forecast to reach 88degrees on Thursday and Friday, and 87 on Friday, with night-time lows never dipping below 70.
 
Florida is known for some mid-day thunderstorms, and those are in the forecast for both Friday and Saturday.
 
NICE DIGS FOR NATIONALS
For the first time, the NCAA is taking its championship meet to the elite IMG Academy. The facility had its beginnings in 1978 as the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, and the now-450 acre campus includes 50 tennis courts.
 
But since purchasing the academy in 1987, IMG has added programs for football, golf, soccer, baseball, basketball, lacrosse, cross country, along with track and field.
 
The NCAAs will take place inside the 5,000-seat sports stadium complex. It has an eight-lane track, two pole vault runways, two runways for long / triple jump, and specific areas for the longer throwing events, with multiple circles and cages. Throughout the year, the stadium also hosts football, soccer, and lacrosse.
 
Next year's nationals also will take place in Bradenton before switching to Sioux Falls, S.D., in 2018.
 
SCOUTING THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
It was at last year's NCAAs in Michigan that perennial qualifier Lynelle Decker broke through to capture her first All-American award by finishing seventh in the 800 meters. She added three more at the indoor nationals in March, and now is poised to cap her career with two more top-8 finishes. Decker (Vancouver, Wash. / Mountain View HS) come in as the No 6 seed in the 800 and No. 9 in the 1500.

 

Decker's entry time of 2:08.08 was logged on April 2 at the Stanford Invitational, and it led the country for two weeks until Carsyn Koch of Cedarville (Ohio) ran a blistering 2:03.58 at the Mt. SAC Relays, a time she since has lowered to 2:02.39. In essence, the race is Koch's for the taking, as she is nearly four seconds up on second-seeded Fellan Ferguson of Johnson C. Smith (N.C.). But Decker, the indoor 800 silver medalist behind Koch, has the 2:06 range in mind's eye. Three others are behind Decker in the 2:08 neighborhood.
 
That is just one of Decker's two races. At No. 9 in the 1500 with her time of 4:27.16, she's in the middle of a group of five in the 4:27s. If she can get out of the prelims, a spot within the top 5 is well within reach. The race for the title could be extremely close between top-seeded Sarah Berger of Walsh (4:21.25) and No. 2 Emily Oren of Hillsdale (4:21.69).


 

Jahzelle Ambus arrives in Florida as the No. 14 seed in the 400-meter dash, but that's not as far down the list as it initially sounds. Ambus (Portland, Ore.) is one of 11 runners in the 54s, ranging from No. 6 seed Kissi-Ann Brown of Texas A&M-Kingsville (54.02) to No. 17 Crystle Hille of Southern Connecticut State (54.89). Carly Muscaro of Merrimack (Mass.) is the big favorite coming in at 51.17, more than a full second ahead of No. 2 seed Kendra Clarke (52.54) of Johnson C. Smith.

 

Maliea Luquin was the last qualifier into the 100-meter hurdles. It took her personal-best time of 13.97 from the GNAC preliminaries to get there, but the Falcon senior got there. She probably will need a time in the 13.7s for at least a shot at making finals. But Luquin (Portland, Ore.) showed during indoors that she can drop time when the chips are down.
 
Except for the 100-meter dash, it doesn't get any tighter than this particular race. The top two seeds – Sherrelle Jordan of Nova Southeastern (Fla.) and Chrisdale McCarthy of Lincoln (Mo.) are dead even at 13.38. And, the entire field of 21 is within 59 hundredths of a second (13.38 to 13.97).

 

Jalen Tims was hoping to have broken one minute in the 400 hurdles by now. But an injury kept her out of the GNAC Championships. So she comes to Bradenton with her school-record time of 1:00.06 set on April 16 at the Beach Invitational.
 
That has Tims (Portland, Ore.) in the No. 10 slot. Tantalizingly ahead of her are nine runners who have broken a minute, led by top-seeded Tia-Adana Belle of St. Augustine's (N.C.) at 55.82. Belle will be hard to catch, as she has a three-second bulge on second-seeded Courtney Nelson of Pittsburg State (Kan.). Among the other times ahead of Tims are 59.82, 59.83, 59.84, and 59.92.

 

Prior to the GNAC meet, Geneva Lehnert was very much on the national high jump bubble at 5 feet, 7¼ inches – or 1.71 meters if you're scoring in metric. All she needed to get in the door was another half inch – or one centimeter. That's precisely what she got on her second look at it, and now, Lehnert comes in as one of eight jumpers to clear that height, tying for the No. 9 seed.
 
With 22 qualifiers – the last six of whom are re still at 5-7¼ / 1.71 – a spot in the top 8 is wide open. There's no clear-cut favorite for the title, either, as Pittsburg State's Emilee Iverson is the pre-meet leader at 5-10, and Central Washington's Taylor Fettig is one of two jumpers right behind at 5-9 ¾.
 
SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- All five Falcons are making their second NCAA appearance in a span of 12 weeks. They were in Pittsburg, Kan., for the indoor nationals on March 11-12.
-- Once there, they made the most of their time. Lynelle Decker ran to second place in the 800, was part of the third-place 4x400 team, and raced on the fifth-place distance medley relay. Jahzelle Ambus was on both relays, and placed 13th in the 400. Jalen Tims led off the 4x4 and took 17th in the 400. Maliea Luquin was 10th in the 60-meter hurdles, coming within .02 of making finals. Geneva Lehnert finished 14th in the high jump.
-- The Falcon women are currently No. 7 in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Program of the Year standings with 27 points. In essence, teams receive points corresponding to their finish at nationals. Seattle Pacific was 15th at cross country in the fall (15 points) and was part of a three-way tie for 11th at indoors (12 points). Michigan rivals Grand Valley State and Hillsdale are tied for first with five points. Alaska Anchorage from the GNAC is deadlocked with Adams State of Colorado for fourth at 17.5.
-- Seattle Pacific had a total of 18 NCAA provisional qualifying marks this spring: 17 for the women and one for the men.
-- Although she's here in the 400 hurdles, Jalen Tims did not hurdle at all during the winter, focusing instead on the open 400 and the 4x400 relay.
-- Along with Tims' 1:00.06 school record in the hurdles, Ambus' 54.68 in the 400 is an SPU school record. She is the fastest Falcon ever at that distance, both outdoors and indoors (54.87).
-- With the 800 and 1500, Decker is doing more than one event for the second straight nationals, following her indoor triple (800 and both relays).
-- Just as she did during the indoor 60-meter hurdles this winter (going from 8.94 to a school-record 8.53 in four weeks), Luquin has steadily dropped time in the 100s this spring. Her initial time on April 1 at the Stanford was 15.06 (although she smacked the first hurdle on that day). On the subsequent three weekends, Luquin logged 14.53, 14.34, 14.13, and a wind-aided 13.98. She beat all of those with her 13.97 in the GNAC prelims on May 13.
-- Lehnert won the high jump in three regular-season meets: the Doris Heritage Distance Festival on March 26, the Emilie Mondor Invitational on April 9, and the Spike Arlt Invitational on April 23.
 
THERE ARE STREAKS … AND THEN THERE'S THIS ONE
Throughout the entire school year, some Seattle Pacific teams are maintaining very impressive postseason streaks.
 
In the fall, the women's soccer team has made 13 straight NCAA tournaments. During the winter, the men's basketball squad owns a 12-year NCAA qualifying streak – the longest one currently alive among Division II men's hoops programs.
 
But those two taken together don't match what the Falcon women have done. This is the 35^th year in a row that Seattle Pacific will be represented in the NCAA outdoor nationals. It began in 1982. Furthermore, not only have Falcons athletes been there, one or more of them have scored team points in all 34.
 
The only school even coming close to that is national power St. Augustine's of North Carolina, which also has scored in all 34 NCAAs.
 
That SPU streak actually goes back a bit further – to 36 years in a row, as the program was represented in the final Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national meet in 1981.
 
THINK AMBUS ISTHINKING REDEMPTION? YOU THOUGHT RIGHT
 

Jahzelle Ambus has more than one reason to make the most of her opportunity in the 400-meter dash this weekend.
 
For one thing, it's the final college meet of her career. For another, Ambus also would like to avoid a repeat of what happened in March. She arrived in Kansas for the NCAA indoor championship as the No. 9 seed with a 54.87, well positioned to get into that top 8 and earn an All-American award. But things didn't work out that day, as she finished 13th in the prelims at 55.70.
 
To her credit, Ambus put that behind her and helped the Falcons earn All-American honors in the 4000 distance medley (fifth) and the 4x400 relay (third and a school-record time).

SPU does not have a relay in this meet, so if it is to be, it's up to her. She's the No. 14 seed among the 21 entrants.
 
DECKER DOUBLE-DIPPIN'
For a while, Lynelle Decker was torn. Her early April time of 2:08.08 virtually assured her of getting to nationals to run in the 800 meters. In fact, it ranked No. 1 in D2 for two weeks.

 

But the on April 15, she ran 4:27.16 in the 1500, and there was no question that it also would be good enough to make the cut.
 
Decker thought about doing both (she was faced a similar decision last year), but was still leaning toward just the 800, possibly with a chance to go for the win after finishing second to Cedarville's Carsyn Koch at indoor nationals.
 
However, over the next two weeks, Koch came up with performances of 2:03, then 2:02. That made her the overwhelming favorite to win, perhaps by a large margin. Decker then decided to cap her college career go racing in both the 8 and the 15, with an excellent chance to make All-American in both.

TIMS TAKES IT ONE STEP AT A TIME
The way Jalen Tims sees it, she has a chance to run one more college meet – and an NCAA meet, to boot. That's all the Seattle Pacific senior wants as she recovers from an untimely hamstring injury.
 
 

It happened on May 11 as the Falcons did a final, very light workout before departing for Monmouth, Ore., and the GNAC Championships. Tims pulled a hamstring and was subsequently ruled out of action, thereby missing out on a chance to defend her top seed in the 400 hurdles.
 
The following Tuesday, she received medical clearance to take a shot at NCAAs, and has been doing limited training ever since, with the hope of being able to lay it all on the line come late Thursday afternoon in Bradenton.
 
ONE EVENT IS A LIGHT DAY FOR LUQUIN
For senior Maliea Luquin, having only the 100 hurdles on her docket this weekend is probably going to see kind of strange. Up until now, she has been rushing here, there, and everywhere every time she has shown up at a track facility this month.

 

On May 2 and 3, Luquin was at Saint Martin's in Lacey, about 60 miles south of Seattle Pacific, for the GNAC women's heptathlon – which she won, leading from start to finish. But that meant four events on the first day (100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, and 200-meter dash), and three on the second day (long jump, javelin, and the 800 meters).
 
The following week on the first day (May 13) of the full conference meet, Luquin ran the 100 hurdles prelims (retaining her top-seeded position), hustled across the field to the long jump (winning it), then ran the 400 hurdles semis, qualifying for the finals).
 
On Saturday the 14th, Luquin won the 100 hurdles, took third in the 400 hurdles, then filled in for injured Jalen Tims on the leadoff leg of the 4x400 relay. That gave her 13 events on the four days combined.


LEHNERT'S RARE FALCON FRESHMAN FEAT
 

As she winds up her first year in college, Geneva Lehnert is already getting ready for her second NCAA meet. The freshman high jumper from Eugene, Ore., comes in ranked No. 9 in that event.
 
While that's quite an accomplishment, just getting into the meet is even more so. The last Falcon to qualify as a freshman was Lynelle Decker in 2013, as she raced the 1500 meters in Pueblo, Colo.
 
Before that, it was back to 2010, when Amanda Alvarez made it in the triple jump.
 
RISING IN THE WEST
All five Falcons in Florida earn places on the USTFCCCA All-West Region team that was announced on May 18.
 
Lynelle Decker made it for both the 800 and the 1500, as well as the 4x400 relay. Jahzelle Ambus is on for the 400 and both the 4x100 and 4x400. Maliea Luquin is on the list for the 100 hurdles, along with the 400 hurdles and the heptthlon. Jalen Tims is on the list for the 400 hurdles and both relays, and Geneva Lehnert made it in the high jump.
 
Other Falcons earning the honor were Kyra Brannan (long jump, 4x100), Cheryl Hong (4x400) and Becca Houk (4x100).
 
The All-Region squad is comprised of the top five marks in each individual event, and the top three relays from the three West conferences combined: GNAC, California Collegiate Athletic Association, and Pacific West.
 
POLLING PLACE Even after winning the GNAC team title for the second year in a row, the SPU women remain outside of the national top 25. The final USTFCCCA poll prior to the nationals has the Falcons at No. 32.
 
Lincoln of Missouri has taken over the No. 1 spot from Saint Augustine's of North Carolina. Alaska Anchorage, at No. 10, is the only GNAC team in the top 25. A total of five West Region teams are in the top 25, led by No. 6 Chico State.

The Falcons finished No. 2 in the final West Region rankings behind Chico State.
 
UP NEXT
As of Saturday night, the track season is officially finished. The next action for the Falcons will be on the cross country trails. That season is tentatively scheduled to open on Sept. 10 in an invitational at Humboldt State.