In her four-year career at Seattle Pacific University, Jessica Pixler has won a record 12 NCAA titles, and countless other accolades. The U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association awarded her all three of their Athlete of the Year awards for 2009-10: cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track. And she won the CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine All-American of the Year, for the College Division of Women’s track and cross country.
Setting New Standards
Falcon Highlights 2009–10
Many precedents were broken in the 2009–10 athletic year.
Jessica Pixler was the first Falcon to be named Seattle Pacific University’s Athlete of the Year four years in a row. The women’s basketball team made their first NCAA Division II Elite Eight appearance under head coach Julie van Beek. And, the SPU women’s crew team won their first NCAA trophy, placing second at nationals in Rancho Cordova, California.
But one thing remained the same: The Falcons thrived. The SPU men won the conference Academic All-Sports title, and the Falcon men and women finished among the top 25 athletic programs in the NCAA Division II nationally. That’s out of 233 schools! SPU finished in 24th place overall in the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup standings for 2009–10.
Here are some of the numbers that factored into that calculation:
4 Teams in the National Top 10
14 All-American Athletes
15 Academic All-Americans
4 Conference Players/
Athletes of the Year: Jessica Pixler (cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track), Jocelyn Charette (soccer), Chris Banchero (men’s basketball), and Daesha Henderson (women’s basketball)
53 All-Conference
First Team Members
65 Academic
All-Conference Awards
4 Conference Coaches
of the Year
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