It’s all about the team. Performance marks take a back seat to scoring points Saturday (Apr. 3) as the Seattle Pacific University track & field teams venture to the 23rd annual Vernacchia Invitational meet in Bellingham. The Falcons will be joined by Central Washington, Pacific Lutheran, Saint Martin’s, Seattle University, Simon Fraser, British Columbia and host Western Washington. The SPU women are seeking their fifth straight team title while the Viking men have won six in a row. Following the switchover to Daylight Savings Time, Seattle Pacific will send its teams to Tacoma and the Shotwell Invitational on Easter weekend.

Add her to the list. Another name was added to Seattle Pacific’s list of national qualifiers over spring break. Jennifer Marsh (Fr., Kirkland, Wa./Juanita) ran the No. 5 time in NCAA Division II in the women’s 800 at the Hornet Invitational in Sacramento. Marsh, racing for the second time in as many days, won in 2 minutes, 13.41 seconds. She had run a qualifying time of 2:13.82 at Stanford the previous day, taking sixth. Marsh was selected as the great Northwest Athletic Conference athlete of the week. She joins javelin thrower Sara Johnson (Jr., Kennewick, Wa./Kennewick-Spokane Falls CC) and pole vaulter Allie Hedges (So., Richland, Wa./Richland) as provisional qualifiers.

Subtraction continues. Unfortunately, Coach Jack Hoyt continues to lose people to injuries. The men’s squad will be without Chris Randolph (So., Lone Tree, Co./Denver Christian) for the second week after the all-conference decathlete sprained his ankle Mar. 20. Paul Mach (Sr., Seattle, Wa./King’s), first hampered by a hip injury and now illness, has yet to run outdoors and is questionable this week. Mach last competed in the 800 at the NCAA indoor championships Mar. 13. Meanwhile, the women’s team has three redshirts, all of All-America caliber: Danielle Ayers-Stamper (So., LaCrosse, Wa.), last year’s NCAA heptathlon runner-up; Ally Studer (Sr., Redmond, Wa./Redmond), a three-time All-America in the pole vault; and Josie Lavin (Jr., Bremerton, Wa./Bremerton), the GNAC cross country champion last fall.

While they were away. The travel squad which went to California over the break got a little bit of everything weather-wise, with the decathlon/heptathlon meet at Berkeley getting the brunt of the bad weather. The most balmy conditions and best marks came at Sacramento. In addition to Marsh’s 800, Janna Schaafsma (So., Soldotna, Ak.) bolted to a season-best 100 hurdles time of 15.12 seconds last week, and Karen Dickson (Fr., El Dorado Hills, Ca.) ran third in the 5000 in 18:26.01. Both are No. 2 marks in the GNAC. In the Stan Wright Invitational the previous week, Micah Kellcy (Sr., Lakewood, Wa./Clover Park) ran a season-best 400 hurdles (55.41). In terms of victories, Johnson won each of her Sacramento meets in the javelin but her best throw of the trip (143-5) earned sixth place at Stanford.