Laura Easley/The Falcon Senior Teona Golding clears another height to stay in the competition at the the UW invitational on Saturday.

Qualify for nationals: check.

The University of Washington (UW) Invitational on Saturday saw more SPU indoor track and field competitors post automatic qualifying scores and break records.

Now the Falcons have seven athletes heading to Mankato, Minn., on March 14 and 15 to participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Indoor Championships.

That includes the women's distance medley team, which posted a final time of 11:38.24--over seven seconds faster than the previous school record. The young squad is made up of four sophomores: Jane Larson, Jessica Pixler, Latasha Essien and Lisa Anderberg.

Senior Teona Golding said that this team is comprised of a lot of youthful talent.

"It's encouraging for the seniors to have people coming in who are so gifted," she said.

The Falcons sent 13 team members--whose career times qualified them for the meet--to Dempsey Indoor Stadium at UW, where "those who had a chance to [compete] did so beautifully," head coach Karl Lerum said.

Freshman Brittany Aanstad, who finished 14th overall in the pentathlon, said that, as a first-year athlete, she plans on growing and improving on her performance.

"I can only hope that my hurdles can get better," she said. "They're my biggest downfall."

Aanstad came in last in the hurdle event out of 16 competitors, which dropped her score. She said that her biggest strength is the high jump, in which she gained the most points--783--placing her in sixth for that event.

Laura Easley/The Falcon Sophomore Nyema Sims prepares to sprint during Saturday’s track competition.

Pixler and Larson posted national qualifying times in the women's 800, giving them a second nationals event after they qualified for the women's mile on Jan. 19.

Pixler's final time of 2:07.57 was a new Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) record.

Golding, who competes in the high jump, tied for fifth place with three others with a final height of 1.69 meters. She said that she was not particularly pleased with her performance.

"I have high expectations of myself," she said. Her jump was not good enough to qualify for nationals, and she said she is going to focus on improving it over the next three meets.

As the final stretch of the indoor season looms, injuries are not currently a huge factor, although Lerum said that the team is always suffering from nagging injuries.

"At this point, most...are hoping to finish out the indoor season strongly," he said in reference to the fact that no team member is seriously hurt right now.

Golding agreed, saying that a few athletes are suffering from shin splints, but for the most part everyone is out at practice every day.

Next on the docket is the GNAC Championships on Feb. 18 in Nampa, Idaho. Lerum does not see it as a huge opportunity to earn more spots in nationals.

"It's more of an event to itself," he said. "There are not as many nationally qualifying times because athletes are doubling, tripling on events. It's a chance to compete with our peers."

Should SPU be in the top 12 teams in the GNAC, they will be able to send four athletes per event to the conference championships. Otherwise, they can select three per event. Lerum said that they hope to send most of the team.

Golding said that there is extra motivation for SPU to win--defending their conference title.

"I've been here three years, and we've won it the last two," she said. "We're going in wanting to win it."