WEEKEND RECAP: Falcons and Saints open outdoor season at PLU Open...

With the collegiate indoor AND cross country seasons coming to a close, and pro track athletes chasing qualifying marks around the country for both the Olympic Trials and the Games, it's been very easy to overlook the fact that the collegiate outdoor season began for both Seattle Pacific and Saint Martin's.

On Saturday March 6th, both the Falcons and the Saints opened up the 2021 outdoor season at the Pacific Lutheran University open meet in Parkland.

Redshirt senior Scout Cai (photo courtesy SPU Athletics) of Seattle Pacific had the best mark of the day, as the 2019 D2 All-American cleared  a personal best 12-11.5 (3.95m) in the pole vault on a sometime-sunny, sometimes breezy day at the Pacific Lutheran track.

Cai's mark exceeded her previous personal best of 12-10 (3.91m) with which she won the 2019 Great Northwest Athletic Conference title. Just two weeks after that, she went on to place an All-American eighth at the NCAA Division II nationals.

Grace Bley, the Falcons' two-time defending GNAC champ, won the 200 in 24.81.

Other top marks came from Falcon freshman Jeff Gordon, who won the mens' 200 in 22.12; a double by Dania Holmberg in the 800 and 1500 of 2:18.99 and 4:41.15; multi event specialist Renick Meyer's win in the 100 hurdles in a wind-aided 14.80; and Peace Igbonagwam's debut in the 400 hurdles, winning in 1:05.21.

For Saint Martin's, Makiya Worthy earned her first victory of the year in the 100m dash with a time of 12.46 seconds. Margaret Zilla broke the 5-meter mark in the long jump, coming away with a first place finish at 16-8/5.08m. Josh Schulz captured the title in the long jump with his mark of 21-10.75/6.67m, and Jocelyn Saribay wiped the field in the shot put with a toss of 37-10.5/11.54m.

Seattle Pacific's recap is available here, while Saint Martin's is available here.

Seattle Pacific will host the Doris Heritage Track Festival featuring Saint Martin's, Western Washington and Central Washington on March 20th.

Complete results of the Pacific Lutheran Open are available here.

NOTE: The sports information office of Seattle Pacific and Saint Martin's contributed to this report.

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