6/2/2010 6:10:45 PM


SEATTLE – It’s not a triple crown as most people know it. But for Seattle Pacific distance running star Jessica Pixler, it’s a triple crown nonetheless.

Pixler was named the NCAA Division II national Outdoor Athlete of the Year by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association on Wednesday. That gave her a sweep of this year’s USTFCCCA Athlete of the Year awards: cross country last fall, indoor track this past winter, and now outdoor track.

The Falcon senior became just the second woman to win all three of those awards in the same school year. The only one to do so previously was Mandy Zemba of Grand Valley State (Mich.) in 2005-06.

“That’s extremely difficult to pull off,” SPU head track coach Karl Lerum said. “Jessica is a phenomenal runner and arguably the most dominant runner ever in Division II.”

Added assistant track coach and head cross country coach Erika Daligcon, “It’s really wonderful for her to have this happen in her senior year. It shows that Jessica doesn’t take any racing opportunity for granted and is able to get out there and give 100 percent and show her love for racing and for competition.

“It’s really nice that she is being recognized (by coaches nationwide, who vote on the award) for the hard work and performances that resulted in this,” Daligcon added.

Last weekend at the Division II national outdoor finals in Charlotte, N.C., Pixler (Sammamish, Wash./Eastlake HS) won the 1,500 meters for the second straight year and for the third time in her career.

That was Pixler’s 12th NCAA championship. In addition to those three in outdoor track, she also won three straight cross country titles, four straight indoor mile titles, an indoor 5,000-meter title, and was part of this past winter’s victorious indoor distance medley relay team.

During a span of three weeks in the early and middle stages of the outdoor season, Pixler rewrote three longstanding Seattle Pacific records. On March 26 at the Stanford Track & Field Invitational, she won the 1,500 meters in 15 minutes, 44.07 seconds, shattering the old record of 16:16.12 that had stood since 1978.

Then, in less than 24 hours in mid April, Pixler broke two more school records. On April 16 at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif, she beat the SPU 1,500-meter standard with a mark of 4:11.06. That not only broke the 22-year-old record of 4:13.12, it also, at that time, ranked No. 4 in the world for the current year.

The next day at the Beach Invitational in Cerritos, Calif., Pixler won the 800 in 2:04.89. The old mark, set in 1977, was 2:06.6.

All three of Pixler’s school-record times also went down as Great Northwest Athletic Conference records. In May, Pixler rewrote the GNAC championship meet records in the 800 (2:06.38) and the 1,500 (4:24.01).