Thursday, May 26, 2022

ALLENDALE, Mich. – Seattle Pacific freshman Annika Esvelt earned her second All-American trophy of the year and her first outdoors as her fourth-place finish in the women’s 10,000 meters led GNAC athletes on day one of the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Thursday at the Grand Valley State Lacrosse & Track and Field Stadium.

After waiting out a lengthy rain and lightning delay and a late trip to the start line (9:55 p.m. local time), Esvelt went with the leaders and never lost contact. She spent most of the race in either third or fourth place and was no more than a second behind the leaders until the final two laps. Esvelt finished in a time of 33:51.65, moving her to No. 4 on the GNAC all-time list in the event. She is one of just four women’s athletes in GNAC history to run under 34 minutes in the 10,000.

Esvelt will have a chance to add a second outdoor trophy on Saturday in the finals of the 5,000 meters. She earned her first All-American trophy indoors, placing eighth in the 5,000 meters at the Division II Indoor Championships.

Esvelt’s trophy highlighted a day that saw four other conference athletes qualify for running-event finals on Saturday. The GNAC trio of Simon Fraser freshman Charlie Dannatt and junior Aaron Ahl and Western Washington senior Calahan Warren all qualified for Saturday’s final in the 1,500 thanks to a fast second preliminaries heat that saw the top eight finishers all go under 3:45.

Dannatt and Ahl were first and second for much of the heat and finished just one-thousandth of a second from each other. Dannatt turned in the top time of the preliminaries in 3:42.78 and Ahl clocked a time of 3:42.49. Warren was less than a second back in sixth place with a time of 3:43.68 as all of the time qualifiers came out of the second heat.

The odd man out was Western Washington junior Mac Franks, who was the first man left out of the finals. He finished fifth in the first heat and 13th overall in a time of 3:47.58 and just missed out on one of the four automatic qualifying positions.

Seattle Pacific senior Vanessa Aniteye qualified for Saturday’s final in the women’s 400 meters after she turned in a lifetime best time of 54.18 seconds to finish second in the second heat, earning an automatic qualifying spot. Aniteye set the SPU record in the process and improved her No. 3 position on the GNAC all-time list. Simon Fraser sophomore Emily Linsday placed 13th in a time of 55.12 seconds.

The Falcons’ women’s 4x100-meter relay team of senior Peace Igbonagwam, Aniteye, sophomore Aniya Green and senior Jenna Bouyer just missed Saturday’s final, finishing 10th in a time of 46.30 seconds that ranks No. 4 on the GNAC all-time list. Igbonagwam went on finish 16th in the women’s long jump with a leap of 18 feet, 4.5 inches.

Alaska Anchorage senior Elena Cano sits in 10th place after the first day of the heptathlon with a score of 3,013 points. Cano was strongest at the beginning and the end of the day. She placed fifth in the opening event, the 100-meter hurdles, in 14.10 seconds and fifth in the fourth event, the 200 meters, in 25.13 seconds. She closed the day with a 16th-place finish in the preliminaries of the 400-meter hurdles in a time of 1:01.97.

Seawolves freshman Coleman Nash posted a 13th-place finish in the only men’s running-event final of the day, the 10,000 meters, in a time of 29:50.84.

In the women’s steeplechase, Western Washington freshman Ila Davis just missed qualifying for the finals as she placed 13th in a time of 10:36.24. Simon Fraser junior Olivia Willett placed 19th in a time of 10:52.90.

Simon Fraser freshman Marie-Éloïse Leclair finished 14th in the preliminaries of the women’s 100 meters, clocking a time of 11.74 seconds. Her teammate, sophomore Megan Roxby, finished 15th in the women’s 1,500-meter preliminaries in 4:29.86.

Friday’s action begins at 11:30 a.m. (EDT) with the heptathlon long jump. Running events involving GNAC athletes on Friday include the preliminaries of the women’s 200 meters, men’s and women’s 800 meters, the men’s 110-meter hurdles and the women’s 4x400-meter relay.