Baby, it’s dry inside. Elsewhere, athletes are seeking refuge from the snow and cold. Around the Northwest, the indoor track & field season is an escape from the rain, and for the next couple months it will provide a dry place for Seattle Pacific University athletes on the weekends. The Falcons will join other local collegians and club athletes for the first of six regular season meets Saturday (Jan. 14) at the University of Washington. The SPU women will go after their third straight Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship Feb. 18 in Idaho, and the indoor campaign will culminate with the NCAA Championships Mar. 10-11 in Boston. Outdoor meets commence March 4.

The greats indoors. While the Falcons have plenty of holes to fill, they possess five past NCAA indoor qualifiers and a total of six indoor and outdoor All-Americans between the men’s and women’s teams. Pole vaulters Allie Hedges (Jr., Richland, Wa./Richland) and Amy Harris (Sr., Corvallis, Or./Crescent Valley) qualified a year ago, and both Josie Lavin (Sr., Bremerton, Wa./Bremerton) and Karin Rohde (So., Bellingham, Wa./Mount Baker) ran on the distance medley relay which placed seventh. Jennifer Marsh (So., Kirkland, Wa./Juanita) qualified for the 800 in 2004. Gone are NCAA indoor high jump champion and heptathlon runner-up Danielle Ayers-Stamper, who transferred to Cal Poly, and Karen Dickson, the runner-up in the indoor 5000. Seattle Pacific finished eighth in both the Div. II indoor and outdoor women’s championships last year. Chris Randolph (Sr., Lone Tree, Co./Denver Christian) is the dominant male, having won the NCAA decathlon crown and three GNAC indoor events last season. In terms of national potential indoors, Randolph’s strongest event is the long jump, where he holds the GNAC record.

Team to beat? If SPU aspires to stay in the top 10 nationally, or retain its GNAC indoor women’s title for the third year in a row, it will require a true team effort. Ayers-Stamper and Dickson figured in all of the team’s national meet scoring, and combined for 43 points at conference (the Falcons finished 50.5 ahead of the runner-up). Lavin (800), Rohde (5000) and Hedges are defending league champions, along with Randolph (400, long jump, high jump). Kelsey Cooley (So., Missoula, Mt./Hellgate), an outdoor All-American in the heptathlon, has national qualifying potential in the high jump, as does Mary Moriarty (Fr., Seattle, Wa./Ballard) in the mile. For the men, Lerum has hopes for Eddie Strickler (Jr., Richland, Wa.) in the 800 and Doug Gibson (Jr., Yakima, Wa./Riverside Christian) in the mile. Both the men and women could form strong distance medley relays.

Indoor plants. Aside from the GNAC Championships in Nampa and the NCAA Championships, all of the Falcons’ indoor meets will be at the Dempsey Indoor facility...A total of nine men’s and four women’s school indoor records were established in 2005, and nine broke conference standards. Randolph holds the SPU 400, 60 hurdles, long jump, high jump, pole vault and heptathlon marks... Seattle Pacific athletes have won four NCAA indoor titles, including two by triple-jumper Karin Grelsson (1993-94), plus others by shot putter Mike Olson (1993) and Ayers-Stamper...Seattle Pacific’s sole outdoor home meet, the Ken Foreman Invitational, will be at Husky Stadium May 13...The men were fourth in the league meets last winter and spring. The women were second to Western Oregon outdoors. SPU is coming off a GNAC championship in women’s cross country last fall. The men were fourth.