Over their past two meets, many athletes on Seattle University’s Men’s and Women’s Track and Field teams have blazed to new marks in the program’s record books.

Given that last year’s entire outdoor track and field season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Redhawks have enjoyed getting the opportunity to compete again over the past two months. Many male and female athletes have set either school or personal best times in their respective races with some records being broken more than once.

On April 24, the Seattle U track and field contingent competed in the Fresno State Invitational in Clovis, California. In this meet, three Seattle U runners set new track program records, while 17 other Redhawks set marks within Seattle U’s all time top-10 outdoor list.

Freshman Morgan Young established a new school record in the women’s triple jump, jumping 12.16m (39′ 10.75″) to overtake the top of the record board from Bryana Rogers who had also broken the record earlier this season. 

“I am very happy to be competing again after not competing for the last two years,” Young said. “I didn‘t go into this meet with the intention to break the record as I am just wanting to be the jumper that I know I am. My jump happened to pass the record. I can’t wait to go back and hopefully break it again in Texas as I try to push myself to be the best athlete that I know I can be on the track.” 

Junior Tricht Jocelyn set the school record in the women’s 100m dash, sprinting 12.09 seconds to beat the record by .01 seconds. She also ran the 200m event in 25.18w (2.8 m/s), the fastest time this season for Seattle U female 200m runners. 

Jocelyn expressed the shock and relief that came over her when she found out that she had set the record.

“I honestly didn’t know that I broke the record until one of my teammates told me,” Jocelyn said. “I have been going through a challenging season because I had high expectations that I wasn’t hitting. Yet, when I hit 12.09, I felt better and relieved. Now that I am more involved with my teammates, I am running times I want and want to keep breaking my record.” 

Regarding why she has had a challenging season, Jocelyn expressed the adjustment process that she has had to make transferring from her former school, University of Charleston (a Division II school) where she was the fastest in her conference, to Division I Seattle U. At Seattle U, she is experiencing the humbling experience of not winning every race. However, now that Jocelyn is finding her stride, she is looking forward to WAC Championships as that will be her first major track meet.

Lastly, Sophomore Isaiah Payne sprinted the men’s 200m race in 21.51 seconds, tying the school record and improving his personal record (PR) by .14 seconds. Payne also did well in the 100 meter event as he finished in 10.68 seconds.

Some other standout performances from this meet came from Freshmen Noah Payne and Brant Yamamoto in the 100m dash, Freshman Maya McCabe in the 800 meter race and Sophomore Ansel Pendley-Griffin in the 1500m run. 

Pendley-Griffin continued his strong form this past weekend at the OSU High Performance Meet in Corvallis, Ore. At this meet, he became the new school record holder in the 800m run after finishing with a time of 1:52.72.  

“After breaking the record and setting a four second PR in the 800, I didn’t have a strong emotional reaction. I just had a good day, especially because the 800 isn’t even my event as I was training for the mile. This is a payoff of all the training that I have been doing since freshman year,” Pendley-Griffin said.

Payne and Jocelyn also continued to impress as each won their races for the second straight meet. Payne conquered the 200m with a time of 21.77 seconds, while Jocelyn eked out a .01 second victory in the 100m race.S

Now that Seattle U track and field athletes seem to be hitting their stride, look for them to continue setting personal and school records as they hit the final stretch of the season and prepare to compete at the outdoor WAC Championships, May 13-15.