Month of champions. Some say it's really the only month that matters in collegiate track & field, and May begins with the best of Seattle Pacific University's athletes seeking numerous individual titles as well as a successful defense of the women's team crown at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships Saturday (May 4) in Bellingham. The final opportunity for national qualifying marks comes May 11 when SPU hosts the Ken Foreman Invitational. The NCAA Division II Championships are May 23-25.

Could be close. The Falcon women dominated the Pacific West Conference the past two years but the question is whether the move to the GNAC is merely a matter of semantics or there is to be a significant challenge to their throne. Seattle Pacific won 12 events in both 2000 and Œ01, and was a runaway team champion by margins of 90 and 116 points, respectively. This year Coach Jack Hoyt expects Western Oregon to mount a serious threat, with the outcome likely to be decided in Saturday's final events. SPU owns the conference's top entry marks in six women's events and already owns a 24-5 edge over Western Oregon following last week's heptathlon. The Wolves, strong in the distance running and throws, hold top marks in five events.

Repeat thy self. More than a few Falcons will no doubt take the GNAC Championships personally. Rachel Ross (Sr., Kennewick, Wa./Kennewick) is a six-time conference cross country and track champion who will be vying to three-peat in both the 800 and 1500 runs. In the latter she will face longtime rival Alicen Maier of Central Washington, who is coming off a personal-best performance at the Oregon Invitational. Stephanie Huffman (Sr., Brush Prairie, Wa./Prairie), who handily won the league heptathlon title, is defending champion in the long jump and javelin, and owns the top GNAC marks in long jump and 100 hurdles. Dionna Anderson (Sr., Lynnwood, Wa./Edmonds-Woodway/Edmonds CC) is an overwhelming favorite in the shot put, which she won as a junior. No thrower has come within five feet of her season-best throw of 46 feet, 6 1/4 inches. Seattle Pacific has swept both relays each of the past two seasons.

Men likely to add-on. A year ago, the men's team claimed its first conference event title. In 2002, the Falcons could more than triple that production. Defending 400 hurdles champion Paul Mach (So., Seattle, Wa./King's) is coming off his PR and the No. 2 time (53.72) in school history at Oregon while Nathanael Castle (Sr., Gooding, Id./Gooding) is a double threat in both the 800 and 1500. Mach, selected as the conference co-athlete of the week, has the No. 1 GNAC time as does Castle in the 800. Both run legs of the 1600 relay, which is also No. 1. Western Oregon has won two conference men's team titles. Seattle Pacific has finished no better than fifth.

Make it a dozen to go. Seattle Pacific carries considerable momentum into the month of May after adding two more women's provisional qualifiers, improving three others and getting 25 personal-best efforts in Oregon. Pushing the women's qualifier list to an even dozen were Laura Widman (Jr., Colfax, Wa./Colfax) and Jennifer Pyeatt (So., Graham, Wa./Bethel). Widman was runner-up in the GNAC heptathlon with 4658 points­an improvement of 219 points over just a week earlier. At the Western Oregon Open, Pyeatt ran her first 400 hurdles in nearly two years but remarkably did so in 63.56 seconds. Leah Wiiest (Sr., Spokane, Wa./Deer Park) secured a 1-2-3 sweep of the heptathlon with a score of 4649 to take third. Also improving their qualifying marks were Sarah Kraybill (Jr., Seattle, Wa./Ballard), who won the day session of the Oregon 800 in a PR of 2:13.00, and pole vaulter Ally Studer (So., Redmond, Wa./Redmond) who cleared 11-5 3/4 to place second.

It all happened in Oregon. Kraybill bettered her PR by nearly one second to cross the finish line in just ahead of Utah's Tara Hall (2:13.03) for her second win in a row. Mach, whose hurdles time missed the provisional standard by 0.32 seconds, ran a leg of the 1600 relay which won its second straight in 3:23.66. Despite running his best 1500 (3:53.24), Castle was overtaken by Nate Carlson of Saint Martin's down the stretch. Pyeatt was the race leader through eight hurdles before Western Oregon's Cassie Moorhouse surged past to win in 63.06. In the shot put, Anderson's four-meet win streak was snapped as she finished fourth with a best throw of 43-5. Jawea Harder (Sr., Port Townsend, Wa.) ran one of her best 400 hurdle races in 62.47 seconds yet took sixth. Ross, first boxed in and later bothered by a tight calf muscle, placed seventh in the twilight 1500, still in a season-best of 4:33.18. She withdrew from the 800, in which she's undefeated, and the relay, which scratched.

Fractions. The Falcons have as many as 13 men's entries for the GNAC meet and 65 for the women, although the latter will certainly shrink after Hoyt determines where to deploy his multiple event athletes. Other GNAC leaders are Harder and the 1600 relay...Nine of the 10 GNAC schools­Alaska Anchorage, Central Washington, Humboldt State, Northwest Nazarene, Saint Martin's, SPU, Seattle U., Western Oregon and Western Washington­will send athletes this week...More notable marks from last week include a third straight PR in the 1500 (3:56.37) by Tim LeCount (Fr., Battle Ground, Wa.) and a conference qualifying time and PR in the 800 (1:58.56) by Scott Van Hess (Jr., Salem, Or./McKay). Widman's breakthrough was possible, in part, by a long jump of 18-0 1/2, a high jump of 5-0 1/4 and a shot put of 38-11 1/2. Wiiest ran the team's top 200 of the season (25.75) Huffman's high jump of 5-5 was her best of the year.