Indoor meets outdoor. As the indoor track & field season builds to a climax, the outdoor campaign will soon get underway. Seattle Pacific University, with perhaps its most potent women's squad of the last 10 years, will drive across town Mar. 2 for the University of Washington's Husky Last Chance Qualifier Mar. 2 at the Dempsey Indoor facility. The sole purpose will be to lay the groundwork of a drive toward a top-five finish at the NCAA Division II Championships outdoors come May. The Falcons' first scored meet and exclusively outdoor action is Mar. 9 at the Salzman Invitational.

Loaded to the gills. Not since 1992, when the women accounted for three NCAA individual titles and took fourth overall, has SPU begun a spring with so many hot prospects. Coach Jack Hoyt not only returns the nucleus of his back-to-back conference champions but has five past All-America athletes in the fold. Seattle Pacific was a runaway winner of the Pacific West Conference in 2000 and 2001 (12 event winners), tied for ninth in nation a year ago and it figures to be the overwhelming favorite to claim the inaugural Great Northwest Athletic Conference crown. Meanwhile, the men's program hopes to improve on its sixth-place conference finish and get its first national qualifier in four years.

We three queens. Hoyt has three women who have the potential win the GNAC crown on their own and possibly score over 40 points at the NCAAs. Stephanie Huffman (Sr., Brush Prairie, Wa./Prairie) was the conference athlete of the year as a junior, winning the javelin and long jump and taking second in the high jump and 100-meter hurdles. She has finished second and fourth in the national heptathlon and was also third in the javelin last season. Rachel Ross (Sr., Kennewick, Wa. /Kennewick) is a six-time conference champion in cross country, 800m and 1500m, and ranks No. 3 all-time in the 800 at SPU. She ran to a pair of top-five NCAA finishes as a junior. Last year Huffman and Ross were SPU co-athletes of the year. Now, add to that duo another do-everything, multi-talent in Laura Widman (Jr., Colfax, Wa./Colfax), the top scorer in the conference and NCAA silver medalist in the 2000 heptathlon. Widman, No. 4 all-time in the heptathlon, was one of two All-America injury redshirts for 2001 and also elected to redshirt during the 2002 indoor campaign.

Super sophomores. The pipeline of championship prospects should keep on pumping long after Ross, Huffman and Widman are gone, thanks to some strong sophomores. Ally Studer (So., Redmond, Wa./Redmond) broke the school pole vault record (12-2) in her first month and went on to take fifth in Div. II. Jennifer Pyeatt (So., Graham, Wa./Bethel) was the frosh phenom of 2000, qualifying for nationals in the 400 hurdles in her first race and later bolting to victory in both hurdles at conference and placing eighth nationally. Pyeatt stands No. 3 all-time on both hurdles. She missed the 2001 season with a back injury. On the men's side, intermediate hurdler Paul Mach (So., Seattle, Wa./King's) is coming off a conference title in his first season and ranks No. 3 all-time. Nathanael Castle (Sr., Gooding, Id.) is coming off a strong cross country season in which he became the first SPU male to qualify for the NCAA Championships, He ranks No. 5 all-time in the 1500. Back to the women, Jamie Witt (So., Folsom, Ca./Folsom) hit provisional qualifying marks in the 3000 and 5000 as a freshman only to opt out of the meet due to injury. Now she's coming off a stellar cross country season.

The great indoors. Not since 1994 have the Falcons sent qualifiers to the NCAA indoor championships, but with conference and SPU placing renewed emphasis on the winter schedule, Hoyt has submitted three athletes for the national meet in Boston Mar. 8-9. The NCAA will select the field Feb. 26. Dionna Anderson (Sr., Lynnwood, Wa./Edmonds-Woodway) is coming off a breakthrough in the shot put. She won the Vandal Invitational last week with a heave of 45 feet, 3 3/4 inches­two feet beyond her previous PR­and the eighth-best throw in Div. II. Studer is tied for 10th on the pole vault provisional list at 11-5 3/4. Ross ranks 15th among provisional qualifiers in the 800 and has won two mile races indoors.

SPU Coaches. Coach Jack Hoyt, 37, has the Falcons on the fast track back to national prominence going into his third season. In his first two seasons, Hoyt was voted conference coach of the year and in 2001 he had the women's program back in the top 10 for the first time in eight years, tying for ninth. He was ideally suited to take charge of the program as a former All-America decathlete at SPU and serving as an assistant to the legendary Ken Foreman for seven years. Doris Heritage, the coach of cross country and track runners from 800 meters up, is a legend in the world of athletics. She is a member of halls of fame for both athletes (one-time world record-holder, two-time Olympian and five-time world cross country champion) and coaches (two Olympic staffs, 53 all-America cross country and track runners at SPU). Juli Van Pelt, former All-America in heptathlon and high jump, returns for her second season on the staff of her alma mater. Algerian Hart, former Long Beach State star, is in his first year as hurdles/sprints coach.