Athletics The Scholar-Athlete
Spring Sports Update
A year of national competition wraps up
By Mark Moschetti | Photo by Andrew Towell
Mary Charleson (535). Sarah Macdonald (546), and Hannah Calvert (533) helped the Falcon women win the GNAC outdoor track and field day title in May.
In four years at Seattle Pacific, University, Lynelle Decker ran in 11 NCAA championships meets. She made the most of her very last one, racing to a pair of AllAmerican finishes at the Division II Track & Field Championships in May.
Competing at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, Decker posted a personal-best time by more than two seconds (4:25.02) for sixth place in the 1,500 meters. She was back on the track just 75 minutes later and took fifth in the 800 with a time of 2:09.08.
In the days leading up to the finals, Decker won her preliminary heats in both races.
The Falcons had three other competitors at nationals, with freshman Geneva Lehnert placing ninth in the high jump, senior Maliea Luquin taking 14th in the 100 hurdles, and senior Jahzelle Ambus 17th in the 400-meter dash.
Seattle Pacific's women also made a national impact overall winding up sixth in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's Program of the Year standings. The Falcons were 15th at cross country, tied for nth at indoor track, and tied for 37th at outdoor track.
The women won a second straight Great Northwest Athletic Conference outdoor crack crown, edging Central Washington by five points, 148 1/2 - 143 1/2 on May 13-14 in Monmouth, Oregon. Luquin won three titles (100 hurdles, long jump, heptathlon) and was named Female Athlete of the Meet. Decker (1,500) and Jahzelle Ambus (400) also won.
Peyton Harris claimed the top prize in the long jump to become the first Falcon men's conference champion since 2013.
After winning her sixth and seventh national gymnastics titles in April, Maria Hundley capped her Seattle Pacific career by being named the school's Athlete of the Year for the third year in a row.
But that wasn't all. Hundley also was named the national at-large Female Academic AllAmerican of the Year by the College Spores Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). The at-large award is for those sports chat do not have their own specific Academic All-America team.