Stretch run begins. As the track & field season turns toward the final stretch, every meet looms larger and larger, and with Seattle Pacific University's teams involved in a couple meets, this represents a particularly big week. The Falcons begin by sending five athletes to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Multi-Event Championships in Monmouth, Ore., Thursday and Friday (Apr. 24-25). The balance of the activity takes place Saturday (Apr. 26) with SPU entering a select group of athletes in the Oregon Invitational and Twilight Invitationals in Eugene. Next week, the GNAC Championships will be held in Ellensburg.

Name of the game. Anticipating a close contest for the women's conference title, Coach Jack Hoyt is anxious to earn points whenever and wherever possible. A year ago, the heptathlon results gave the Falcons a jump-start and they went on to win the overall crown by 31 points over Western Oregon. Hoyt hopes for more of the same as Danielle Ayers-Stamper (Fr., LaCrosse, Wa.), Laura Widman (Sr., Colfax, Wa.) and Laura Blake (Fr., Richland, Wa.) have the potential to sweep the top three places in the combined events. Widman is also gunning for the NCAA provisional standard and her fourth trip to nationals while Blake is looking to improve her provisional score of 4446. Ayers-Stamper is the GNAC performance leader and a virtual lock on going to the NCAA Championships next month with a score of 4909. In the decathlon, title contender Chris Randolph (Fr., Lone Tree, Co./Denver Christian) is joined by teammate Jason Radel (Fr., Kalispell, Mt./Flathead).

Hallowed Hayward. For nine individuals, Saturday represents a rare treat: to tread the track of Oregon's famed Hayward Field. It's not only the home track of the Ducks and legends like Steve Prefontaine, but the site of many an NCAA and USA championship meet, plus a backdrop for such highbrow films as Animal House. History lessons aside, the Falcons will be fine-tuning the performances of standouts such as Sarah Kraybill (Sr., Seattle, Wa./Ballard). Kraybill, an entry in the 800, will go after her sixth straight win but is likely to face stiff competition from a largely Division I field of runners.

Live and let Di jump. Last week's Spike Arlt Invitational featured several fine individual performances, with Dianna Grossglass (Fr., LaConner, Wa.) the most notable. Grossglass won two events, including the high jump where she leaped 5 feet, 6 1/2 inches to make the NCAA provisional list. It was her second win and personal record in as many weeks, and Grossglass also made her debut in the triple jump, going to the top of the GNAC performance list and No. 5 all-time on the school chart with a first-place mark of 36-6 3/4. Grossglass shared GNAC female athlete of the week honors with Ally Studer (Jr., Redmond, Wa./Redmond), who cleared 11-9 to earn her third win in four meets. Improving her provisional mark and finishing second in the pole vault was Allie Hedges (Fr., Richland, Wa./Richland), who cleared 11-9 for a new PR.

And that's not all. Seattle Pacific didn't win the Arlt meet (Western Oregon's women prevailed, 152-149 and the SPU men were sixth) but certainly made it presence known, winning nine events in all. Besides Studer and Grossglass, Kraybill extended her win streak by easily capturing the 1500 in 4:41.8. Ayers-Stamper hit a season-best long jump of 18-7 3/4, Jennifer Pyeatt (Jr., Graham, Wa./Bethel) threw a PR shot put (42-8 1/4) for the second week in a row and Paul Mach (Jr., Seattle, Wa./King's), in his first 800 race, won in a GNAC-best time of 1:53.94. Rounding out the winner's circle were Kelsey Gleason (Fr., Salem, Or./Salem Academy) in the 400 hurdles (a PR of 1:05.53); and Nicole Seana (Jr., Carnation, Wa./Kamiakin) in the 10,000 (42:00.0). Mach also anchored the 1600 relay which took second to Western Oregon (3:19.26) in 3:20.00-the No. 2 time in school history. Joining Mach on the relay were Micah Kellcy (Sr., Lakewood, Wa./Clover Park), Randolph and Scott Van Hess (Sr., Salem, Or./McKay).

Missing links. For the latest and best information on Seattle Pacific University athletics, stay where you're at -- on The Falcons Online. For updated standings and statistics, see the Great Northwest Athletic Conference web site.