Oregon State track and field athlete Laura Carlyle and San Francisco track and field athlete Sophie Curl both qualified for the NCAA Division I National Championships in the 1,500 during the NCAA West Preliminaries on Thursday-Saturday, May 24-26, in Austin, Texas.
Carlyle ran track and cross country for Whatcom Community College during the 2007 season. She won the NWAACC Cross Country Championships that year.
Curl is a former Squalicum High School standout.
Carlyle finished fifth in her heat with a time of 4 minutes, 20.32 seconds. She became the first Oregon State athlete to qualify for the national meet in consecutive years since 1986.
Curl finished fifth in her heat with a personal record of 4:21.68. The trip to nationals will be Curl's second time qualifying for the meet.
The track and field National Championships are Wednesday-Saturday, June 6-9, in Des Moines, Iowa.
SEELY ENDS DROUGHT FOR SEATTLE PACIFIC UNIVERSITY
Former Lynden High School athlete Nate Seely helped the Seattle Pacific men's track and field team end a five-year drought during the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Track and Field Championships on Friday-Saturday, May 11-12, in Monmouth, Ore.
The Falcons haven't sent a male athlete to the NCAA Division II National Championships since 2007, but Seely broke the streak by qualifying in the 800. He ran a time of 1 minute, 50.61 seconds, which beat his previous personal record of 1:51.95.
Seely's qualifying time was good enough to claim the eighth seed at nationals.
"I live with a bunch of track athletes - all the distance runners - and we've always talked about the curse," said Seely in a news release. "A lot of (SPU) male distance runners have almost made it to nationals, then missed it by one or two spots. Finally, the curse was broken."
Seely did not advance past the preliminary round during nationals, which took place Thursday-Saturday, May 24-26, at Colorado State-Pueblo University in Pueblo, Colo.
He ran a 1:56.99 and earned a 14th-place finish out of the 17 athletes who competed in the 800.
DEBACKER TO COMPETE FOR UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA
The University of Montana recently announced a number of additions to its women's track and field team. One of those athletes is Sehome senior Shannon DeBacker.
DeBacker is one of a handful of athletes who have been accepted into the university. She will compete as a non-scholarship athlete during her first year when she joins the program in the fall.
"Our women's team was good for quite a while but now, even though we had some key redshirts and injuries this year, it feels like we're down just a touch, so we wanted to deepen our pool of talent," University of Montana track and field program director Brian Schweyen said in a press release.
DeBacker will compete in jumps for the Grizzlies. She finished fourth in the long jump with a mark of 16 feet, 10.75 inches during the 2A-3A-4A Washington State Track and Field Championships Thursday-Saturday, May 24-26, at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma. DeBacker also ran a leg in the Mariners' winning 4x200 relay team, as well as Sehome's third place 4x100 relay team.
TWO FORMER BELLINGHAM HIGH ATHLETES EARN NATIONAL BERTHS
University of Oregon track and field runners and former Bellingham High standouts Becca Friday and Chris Kwiatkowski qualified for the NCAA Division I National Championships during the NCAA West Preliminaries Thursday-Saturday, May 24-26, in Austin, Texas.
Kwiatkowski finished second in his heat in the 5,000 meters with a time of 14 minutes, 7.19 seconds to qualify.
Friday ran a 4:16.79 and earned a second-place finish in the 1,500 meter.
The track and field National Championship meet is Wednesday-Saturday, June 6-9, in Des Moines, Iowa.
PARKER FULFILLS DREAM OF PLAYING NCAA DIVISION I HOCKEY
On Tuesday, April 17, former Bellingham resident Katelyn Parker completed a personal goal to play NCAA Division I women's hockey.
Parker, who began playing boys' hockey for Bellingham's Whatcom Warriors at age 7 and played for the team throughout middle school, signed a National Letter of Intent to play for Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y.
Parker left the Whatcom Warriors to play for a girls' hockey team called the Washington Wild, which is based out of Seattle.
During her time with the Wild, Parker was recruited to play for Gilmour Academy in Gates Mills, Ohio, where she played the last two years. Parker graduated from Gilmour Academy with a 4.0 GPA on Saturday, May 26.
Reach ANDREW LANG atandrew.lang@bellinghamherald.com or call ext. 862.
