Castle Jumps to 4th on Track Qualifier List
February 8, 2003

NAMPA, Ida. (Feb. 8) -- Nathanael Castle of Seattle Pacific University was runner-up in the men's 800 meters with the fourth-best time among NCAA Division II qualifiers at the Western Heritage Invitational indoor track & field meet Saturday.

Castle (Sr., Gooding, Id.), running the metric half-mile for the first time this winter, finished strong in 1 minute, 53.37 seconds--just off his personal-best, set outdoors last spring. UCLA's Nick Thornton won handily in 1:51.63. Paul Mach (Jr., Seattle, Wa./King's) of SPU just missed the provisional qualifying cutoff, finishing fifth in 1:54.34. Castle later took third in the mile, but his time of 4:16.79 was 2 seconds off his previous season best.

The Falcons' Sarah Kraybill (Sr., Seattle, Wa./Ballard) won the women's 800, although her clocking of 2:16.86--attributable to a relatively slow field--was 4 seconds off her provisional qualifying time set last month.

In the pole vault, Amy Harris (Fr., Philomath, Or.) cleared a season-best 10 feet, 8 inches. The provisional cutoff is 11-0¼. Teammate Allison Hedges (Fr., Richland, Wa.) vaulted 11-2¼--3 inches short of her best. Seattle Pacific's Ally Studer, the No. 1 qualifier, did not compete.

SPU resumes activity next Saturday at the Washington Invitational at Dempsey Indoor.