The SPU track and field team swapped arenas without skipping a beat.

Already, the Falcons are racking up national qualifying scores on the outdoor stage, only three meets into the season.

"We started out with a bang," head coach Karl Lerum said. "The javelin team is doing well-we have three of the top five athletes in the country. And our middle distance team is humming."

Freshman Brittany Aanstad, who was named the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) athlete of the week, automatically qualified in the javelin at the Baldy Castillo Invitational on March 24, tenth in GNAC history with a mark of 147-9.

Through cold and wet weather, the Falcons persisted and came out with two first-place finishes at the Husky Outdoor Preview on Saturday. Sophomore Jane Larson took first in the 3000-meter run with a time of 10 minutes, 1.19 seconds. Sophomore Kate Harline and senior Megan Wrightman came in 11th and 18th place, respectively.

The Falcons also shined in shorter distances: sophomore Jessica Hinton sped to a second-place finish in the 100-meter dash in 13.06 seconds.

In the field, freshman Melissa Peaslee leapt first in the long jump, posting a distance of 4.56 meters.

Other provisional qualifiers at the Baldy Castillo included sophomore Lisa Anderberg in the 800, the freshman tag-team of Peaslee and Carrie Hauk in the pole vault, Larson in the 3000, and junior Suzie Strickler and senior Karin Rohde in the steeplechase.

For the men's team, sophomore Justin Felt leapt into 8th place with a jump of 21-8 3/4 in the long jump.

At the Big Green in the Desert meet, held in Scottsdale, Ariz., on March 21, junior Brittany Bekins won the heptathlon with a score of 4,554 points. The score also provisionally qualified her for nationals.

The outdoor season points towards the conference and national championship meets, Lerum said, which take place in May.

"For now, we send the team in all different directions to best suit them," he said. "We've got some important meets in California, Oregon, and Washington."

A third of the way through, Lerum is pleased with where the team is.

"The tracks are different, and some of the races are a bigger deal, but we're to the heart of the season and doing well," he said.

The indoor and outdoor seasons require less of a transition at SPU than at most schools, Lerum said, because the Falcons train outside for the indoor season, which finished on March 15 at Mankato, Minn.

"We had an outstanding performance," Lerum said of the indoor nationals meet.

All six competing Falcon women earned All-America honors in Mankato. Sophomore Jessica Pixler repeated as women's mile champion, with Larson taking second for a one-two SPU finish.

In the track events, senior Teona Golding placed fifth in the high jump, while Peaslee jumped for ninth place in the pole vault. The distance medley relay, made up of Peaslee, Larson, Anderberg, and Rohde, placed third.

Overall, the Falcons finished in ninth place, scoring ten more points than last season.

Pixler was named 2008 female indoor track athlete of the year after an outstanding season. Lerum was also honored, receiving the award for 2008 female team coach of the year in the GNAC.