The Oregon trail. The trail to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference track & field championships leads through Oregon this week as the GNAC holds its heptathlon Thursday and Friday (Apr. 25-26) in Monmouth and the rest of the top Seattle Pacific University athletes compete at the Oregon Invitational Saturday (Apr. 27). Held at historic Hayward Field, the Eugene meet consists of an open division followed by elite-caliber events in a twilight session. A handful of athletes will go to Monmouth Saturday for the Western Oregon Open. The GNAC championships are May 4 in Bellingham and the regular season concludes May 11 with the Ken Foreman Invitational.

Work to do. The Falcons own 11 provisional qualifying marks for next month's NCAA Division II Championships yet there remains much work to be done. The key word is provisional and only six of the marks rate among the top 10 nationally. So, with warmer weather and more competitive situations hopefully awaiting in these final three weeks Coach Jack Hoyt will expect his athletes to hit the accelerator. Not only will some qualifiers need to improve their standing but others who have been restrained due to past injuries will be put to the test. As for the GNAC championships, SPU goes into this week with 12 men's and 55 possible women's entries.

Extending the string. A couple of Seattle Pacific's NCAA-bound women will arrive in Eugene with lengthy win streaks. During the month of April, Dionna Anderson (Sr., Lynnwood, Wa./Edmonds-Woodway/Edmonds CC) has won all four of her shot put competitions and she ranks No. 5 among national qualifiers with a season-best throw of 46 feet, 6 1/4 inches. Anderson is the defending GNAC champion. Following a week off, Rachel Ross (Sr., Kennewick, Wa./Kennewick) is set to resume running. Ross is unbeaten in four 800-meter races and has finished first in three of her five 1500s. Nationally, she ranks Nos. 10 and 7, respectively. Ross is two-time defending GNAC champion in both the 800 and 1500. She's entered in both events at Eugene.

Encouraging signs. There were encouraging signs last week that Hoyt has his team peaking just in time. SPU picked up its 10th women's qualifier while two others improved their standing. At the Spike Arlt Invitational in Ellensburg, Sarah Kraybill (Jr., Seattle, Wa./Ballard) ran her best collegiate time in winning the 800 in 2 minutes, 13.86 seconds. She finished strong, taking the lead with 200 meters to go and finishing 1.05 seconds in front of the runner-up. Jawea Harder (Sr., Port Townsend, Wa./Port Townsend) virtually assured herself of a trip to the NCAAs in Texas by chopping 1.44 seconds off her previous best and winning the 400 hurdles in 61.24 seconds. That is the No. 3 time in the nation. Earlier, at the California Invitational heptathlon, Stephanie Huffman (Sr., Brush Prairie, Wa./Prairie) went over 5000 points for the first time since 1999, scoring 5005 to finish fourth. Also in that meet, Laura Widman (Jr., Colfax, Wa./Colfax) and Jennifer Pyeatt (So., Graham, Wa./Bethel) showed glimpses of their past and hopefully their near-future, scoring 4339 and 4086 points, respectively. Both were out with injuries in 2001. Widman, the NCAA heptathlon runner-up in 2000, high-jumped 4-10 1/2 and threw the shot 38-6 3/4. Pyeatt, who missed last season with a back injury after winning both conference hurdles titles as a freshman, ran the 100 hurdles in 15.38 and shot put 40-9.

Castle figures in wins. The Falcons' best hope for a male national qualifier, Nathanael Castle (Sr., Gooding, Id./Gooding), shifted into a higher gear at Ellensburg and figured in each of the team's victories. Castle held off Pacific Lutheran's Mike Houston by a margin of just 0.09 seconds for his first metric half-mile win of the season in 1:53.35­missing the provisional cutoff by 0.75 seconds. Neal Fryett (Sr., Pullman, Wa./Logos) was third in a season-best 1:55.62. He and Castle ran the final two legs of the relay, which won in 3:24.21.

Fractions. As far as NCAA qualifying goes, Pyeatt will concentrate on the 400 hurdles for the next few weeks and she is entered in that event at the Western Open. It was two years ago at Hayward Field when Pyeatt made her collegiate debut in the hurdles, winning the 100 in 14.20 seconds and taking third in the 400 in 60.56...Tim LeCount (Fr., Battle Ground, Wa.) dropped his 1500 PR by 8 seconds to 3:56.8 while finishing second at Ellensburg...Huffman's heptathlon included a 14.90 hurdles and a long jump of 18-10 3/4. Coming off a cold, Leah Wiiest (Sr., Spokane, Wa./Deer Park) scored 4400­201 fewer than a month earlier. She PR'd in the hurdles (16.03) and 800 (2:23.54)...Huffman, Wiiest and Widman will start the GNAC heptathlon in Monmouth...Castle now owns the top GNAC times in both the 800 and 1500 and Paul Mach (So., Seattle, Wa./King's) remains first in the 400 hurdles. For the women, Huffman is the leader in the 100 hurdles, long jump and heptathlon. Other leaders are Anderson, Ross (800) and Harder...Ally Studer (So., Redmond, Wa./Redmond), idle last week, will be trying to crack 12 feet in pole vault. She had gone over 11-6 four times by late April in her freshman season but has cleared only 11-4 1/2 so far this spring. Studer holds the SPU record of 12-2.