Athletics

Women’s basketball team travels to Dominican Republic to serve and learn

The Seattle Pacific women’s basketball team traveled to the Dominican Republic in September. Coach Julie Heisey connected her team with Go Ministries, a nonprofit organization that partners with local leaders to strengthen churches, address humanitarian needs, and run sports outreach programs in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mongolia, and urban America. Each player was responsible for raising $1,000 toward expenses. With these funds and numerous donations, the team raised a total of $52,000 — more than enough to cover costs. In the DR, Falcon players and coaches dove into their work, painting walls at a new health clinic, leading basketball clinics for young children, and playing three basketball games with local players.

SPU awarded NCAA Presidents’ Award for Academic Excellence

Seattle Pacific was honored by the NCAA with a Presidents’ Award for Academic Excellence. The award is earned for achieving a four-year academic success rate of 90 percent or higher. The academic success rate is the percentage of student-athletes who graduate within six years of their initial collegiate enrollment. It encompasses virtually all Division II student-athletes, including transfers and those not receiving athletics scholarships. SPU is one of three schools with a 97 percent ASR, tied for the second-highest in all of the Division II schools. “We are extremely proud of the success of our fantastic student-athletes,” says SPU Athletic Director Jackson Stava. “They are a remarkably diligent and driven group of students, and the award is well deserved.” Seattle Pacific is one of just two schools in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, and one of only five in the West Region (GNAC, Pacific West, and California Collegiate Athletic Association) to receive the honor. Its 97 percent ASR is significantly higher than the national ASR of 72 percent for student-athletes who entered college from 2007 to 2010.

SPU gymnasts compete at USA Gymnastics Collegiate Championships

Seven Seattle Pacific gymnasts, headlined by all-arounders Darian Burns, McKenna Zimmermann, and Itzia San Roman, received at-large invitations to compete at the USA Gymnastics Collegiate Championships in April in Denton, Texas. That trio was joined by four teammates who qualified for individual events, including Lena Wirth on the vault and balance beam, Autumn Huskie on the vault, Sienna Brane on the uneven bars, and Miyuki Matsune on the beam. Burns, Zimmermann, and San Roman were three of the four athletes competing for the all-around championship along with individuals from the eight qualifying teams.

Basketball player Jordan McPhee named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America second team

Seattle Pacific senior Jordan McPhee was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America second team, an elite national award that recognizes athletic and academic achievement. Just 16 players from the entirety of NCAA Division II were selected for the honor, voted on by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America. McPhee is a business administration major and carries a 3.98 GPA. She is a three-time Great Northwest Athletic Conference All-Academic honoree. On the court, the 5-foot-10 guard helped the Falcons go 23-8 this past season, earn their first-ever trip to the GNAC Basketball championships, and return to the NCAA West Regionals for the first time since 2015.

Women’s basketball team competes in NCAA Division II championships

In March, the Falcons were selected for the NCAA Division II women’s basketball tournament, slotted in as the No. 6 seed in the eight-team West Regional. SPU opened play against No. 3 seed UC San Diego at Azusa Pacific University, the regional host school. This was Seattle Pacific’s first NCAA Tournament since 2015. “Our goal all year was to get to the NCAA Regionals, and that’s what we worked for,” says Coach Julie Heisey, who had her team in the NCAAs for the eighth time in her 13 years at the helm.

Renick Meyer and Scout Cai dominated the Great Northwest Athletic Conference heptathlon and competed in the NCAA Division II championships 

Seattle Pacific freshman Renick Meyer captured the Great Northwest Athletic Conference heptathlon crown in May at Northwest Nazarene University. Thanks in part to a national-caliber 20-foot, 5-inch leap in the long, Meyer finished the two-day, seven-event test with 5,114 points, combining with sophomore teammate Scout Cai for a 1-2 finish. Cai also topped 5,000, tallying 5,017. Their scores moved both into the national top 10. Meyer and Cai are just the seventh and eighth GNAC athletes to surpass 5,000 points. Meyer’s score now ranks No. 5 all-time; Cai’s is No. 7. Meyer was the seventh SPU athlete in the 17-year history of the GNAC meet to win the heptathlon. The Falcons have nine conference heptathlon titles altogether. The pair, along with senior Mary Charleson and sophomore Kate Lilly, went on to compete at the NCAA Division II Track & Field Championships in Charlotte, North Carolina, in late May.