SPU's Annika Esvelt finishes seventh in NCAA D2 5000...
EDITOR'S NOTE: Apologies for the late post--we have been traveling all day from Seattle to Virginia Beach where our coverage of the NCAA Division I Indoor Championships will begin Friday.
Esvelt clocked 16:20.55 on the opening day of the championship event, earning her second-career first-team All-America nod in the indoor 5,000 meters. Esvelt got off to a strong start and led the pack of 18 runners for the early portion of the race, before settling into a good pace and maintaining her spot among the lead group.
“I was trying to just go off the other racers. I was prepared for pretty much anything,” Esvelt said. “We went out fast and settled in slow pretty quickly I felt pretty comfortable for the first mile, and then it felt really hard.
“Nothing went horribly wrong. I just didn’t do what I wish I had done,” she continued. “I’m just super-grateful for the opportunity. I wish I had more, but it’s not the end of the world and I’m still excited for the 3K on Saturday”
GNAC rivals E’lexis Hollis of Central Washington and Marie-Eloise Leclair of Simon Fraser lined up next to each other in the opening round of the women’s 60 meters. Hollis and Leclair cruised into the finals, with Hollis running 7.30 seconds and Leclair close behind in 7.38 seconds. Hollis’s time was just 0.01 seconds off her GNAC-record personal best of 7.29 seconds, and it was the third-fastest among the preliminary round on Thursday.
It took a PR from Western Washington’s Bec Bennett to make it into the finals of the women’s 400 meters, as she snagged the eighth and final spot in Thursday’s prelims. Bennett, who ran the second-fastest time in GNAC history earlier this year at 54.40 seconds, came across the finish line in 54.32 seconds to distance herself from the ninth-place finisher by 0.28 seconds.
Lauryn McGough of Central Washington, the GNAC indoor champion in the women’s pole vault, got her first taste of national competition in the finals on Thursday. The sophomore cleared her first bar at 12-4.5 (3.77m) before missing on three attempts at 12-10.25 (3.92m). McGough finished tied for 16th place in her NCAA Championships debut. Brynn King of Roberts Wesleyan broke the Division II record at 15-3.5 feet (4.66 meters) to win the national title in the women’s pole vault.
Former Washington Husky Sarah Ferguson, who transferred to Roberts Wesleyan, finished sixth with a best of 13-8.25 (4.17m).
The meet continues Friday with Western Washington’s distance medley relay, and Hollis in action in the 200m semifinal.
Also, both of Central Washington's men's entries, 800 meter runner Johan Correa, and 200 meter runner Bautista Diamante, race in their semifinals.
Correa, who is already an All-American in both cross country and outdoor track, is competing in his first NCAA indoor championship meet, where he's seeded seventh.
Diamante heads into the D2 championship meet seeded 14th in his event.
The meet will be streamed live on NCAA.com.
The NCAA Division II indoor championship meet microsite, which includes the start lists and time schedule is available here, while the fan site is available here.
NOTE: The NCAA, Great Northwest Athletic Conference, along with the sports information offices of Western Washington, Seattle Pacific, and Central Washington University contributed to this report.
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