SEATTLE (Jan. 11) -- The first of five indoor meets for the Seattle Pacific University track & field teams is Saturday at the University of Washington's new Dempsey Indoor facility.

Coach Jack Hoyt has placed greater emphasis on this particular indoor season than years past, with the expectation for at least a few Falcons to compete at the NCAA Division II indoor championships in March. The Great Northwest Athletic Conference is considering sponsorship of an indoor championship beginning in 2003. The SPU women are two-time defending outdoor champions.

While Hoyt does not expect many athletes to reach national qualifying standards in this month's three meets, he did note that thrower Dionna Anderson, pole vaulter Ally Studer and multiple-event standouts Stephanie Huffman and Jennifer Pyeatt have been excelling in preseason training. Anderson was the GNAC shot put winner as a junior and Studer an All-America and school record-holder in the pole vault. Huffman placed fourth in the NCAA heptahtlon in 2001 while Pyeatt, an All-America hurdler and conference champion as a freshman in 2000, is returning from a redshirt season.

Laura Widman, like Pyeatt, an injury redshirt in 2001, will compete unattached indoors and return to the Falcon lineup once outdoor meets begin in March. Widman, a junior, is a two-time All-America in the heptathlon.

Among the promising members of the men's team is 3000-meter runner Nathanael Castle, who qualified for the NCAA cross country championships last fall.