Bridger Hanis

Track & Field Primed for Breakout 2025 Season

By Mark Albanese, Director of Sports Communication

We’re excited. It was a really good fall. We have two teams that are ready to compete and have put a lot of work in.

PLU Head Coach Trey Henderson

The Pacific Lutheran University men's and women's track & field programs are looking to have a breakout season in 2025, returning several veterans from a year ago as Head Coach Trey Henderson enters his third year at the helm and his eighth season overall with the Lutes.

Henderson has created a recipe for success, boasting 11 All-Region selections, eight Northwest Conference Champions, four NCAA qualifiers, and two All-Americans in his two years as the head coach. Several pieces return from a 2024 season that saw the PLU men finish third at the NWC Championships and saw PLU win five conference titles and qualify two for the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

For the men's team, the expectations are high, returning several key athletes from a team that finished third at the Northwest Conference Championships last Spring. That experience includes three returning conference champions, including Grady Lemma who was a dual champion after winning the 110-meter and 400-meter hurdles.

I think the expectations are high just with who we return. We obviously graduated some talent but that’s a talented senior group, people who have been high conference performers over their entire career. That group is really important to how we are as a competitive team but there’s also young talent who are ready to take that next step and continue their progression.

A Walla Walla, Washington native, Lemma sets the standard for the Lutes. An NCAA qualifier in the indoor heptathlon, the looks to close out his career on a high note.

The senior hurdler has four NWC titles to his name over his decorated career. In addition to his two crowns last spring, Lemma won the 2023 conference title as a member of the 4x400-meter relay team and was the conference champ in the 400-meter hurdles in 2022.

“You look to someone like Grady to continue to take that next progression and obviously when you win two titles at conference as a junior, your goal is always to be at the top each year. But for him as a captain and how talented he is, he kind of leads the way for the rest of the team.”

But Lemma isn't the only veteran Lute with a title under their belt. Also in the fray is distance runners Owen Ladinig and Ryan Stracke.

Ladinig was the NWC Champion in the 10,000 meters last April, winning the event by over 15 seconds in 31:06.40. The California native has shown no signs of slowing down. This fall, Ladinig earned All-Region honors in cross country for the third consecutive year after placing 27th overall.

A Puyallup native, Stracke is back this spring as a graduate student with a loaded resume that includes conference championships and NCAA appearances both on the track and in cross country.

The distance star was runner-up in both the 1,500-meters and 5,000-meters last spring at the NWC Championships. Stracke was the 10K champion at the 2023 NWC meet and had won cross country titles in both 2022 and 2021. His resume includes an NCAA appearance in the 5K during the 2022 season along with trips to the cross country national meet in both 2023 and 2022.

Ladinig and Stracke aren't the only experience the Lutes return in the distance events with Stefans Lusis a returning All-Conference performer in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. The super senior has finished in the top eight in the event in each of the last four seasons, placing eighth in 2023, sixth in 2021, fifth in 2022, and a third place showing last spring.

You can’t replace experience and you can’t coach experience. You look at Owen or Ryan and what they’ve done over the years. Stef continues to raise his game each season and be a bigger and bigger factor. Their experience and their approach to training, their approach to how they take care of themselves, those are big factors for that entire group in the distance room. For the younger guys to be able to chase that competitiveness with them. That’s the big thing. Obviously the talent’s there but the experience at big meets and big competitive fields. That’s something that brings value not just to that group but to the entire team because those guys have kind of seen it all in their careers.

Anchoring the sprints crew this spring with be Kellen Meade and Lebron Smith.

Meade was on the championship winning 4x400 relay back in 2023 and made the finals at the NWC meet in both the 100 and 200 last spring. That included a sixth place finish in the 200, rocking a career-best time of 22.18 while logging a seventh place showing in the 100.

Henderson is optimistic about Smith who heads into the spring healthy after battling injuries that past few seasons. Despite that, Smith had a strong 2024 season, running an 11.19 at the conference meet.

The Lutes also have high hopes for Kaimana Satterfield who joins the squad from Punahou School in Hawaii.

I think you look to Kellen as the leader in that group with what he’s ran in his career. Lebron's had injuries previously that he’s been able to bounce back from. I thought he ran really really strong last season, especially coming off the injuries that he had. That’s somebody who you want to see continue to build on that, stay healthy. He’s got a ton of talent, has the right mindset, and works hard. And then Kaimana is somebody that has a ton of talent and it’s exciting to see what he does this year and what he continues to bring to that group.

In the jumps, the Lutes look to Seth Kramer, Bridger Hanis, and Tiger Willingham.

Kramer continues to improve in the long jump, finishing eighth at the league meet as a first-year before placing fifth last spring with a career-best jump of 22' 6 ¼".

Hanis had a strong debut last year, finishing sixth at the NWC Championships in the high jump before clearing a personal best 6' 1 ¼" at the Portland Distance Carnival in mid May.

Willingham looks to build on his rookie campaign last year in the long jump while Blake Leahy looks to improve on his efforts last spring in the pole vault where he cleared 13' 9 ¼" at the PLU Open.

There’s talent and each year you want to see them continue to grow and I think that those guys have all had really good falls and are in a good position to be really successful and healthy through the season.

A strength of the team has been the throws in recent seasons and this year is no exception.

Leading the way will be Micah Ragaza-Bourassa and George Sonko— a pair of football players that have made a super sized impact for the Lutes in the spring.

Ragaza-Bourassa was fifth in the hammer throw and sixth in the shot put last spring at the league meet while Sonko was seventh in the discus at the conference championships in 2023 and fourth in 2024.

Rejoing the squad is Noah Childress. Another football player, the Henderson, Nevada native placed 12th in the discus at the 2023 NWC meet before taking last spring off.

Each season I go into it just kind of one day at a time and don’t put too many expectations on how far people are gonna throw or what place we do at conference or anything like that. They work hard, they’re dedicated to it, and they have a passion for it, which is the number one thing. We always have high competitive expectations and I think that group is young. We have some new faces that are gonna be talented throwers for us. You look at those two— George and Micah— as being the ones to lead the way and continue to hold the standard we have as a throws group going forward.

PLU Men's Track & Field Roster

PLU Women's Track & Field Roster

On the women's side, the Lutes return a pair of conference champions from a season ago in triple jumper Madison Downey and thrower Eva Wirth from a team that finished seventh at the NWC Championships.

It’s all about progression. The conference meet gives you a placing but it doesn’t always tell the entire story. So again, there’s a lot of talent, it’s a young group, and we brought in a first year class that I feel really good about that I feel will contribute in multiple events for us.

Our expectations go up as each athlete gets more experience. So for that group, our expectations are to continue to build and to continue to progress. If we do that, we’re going to be a successful team because there is a lot of talent, it’s all about that group continuing to push themselves to reach their potential.

Leading the sprint group for the Lutes will be Spanaway native D'Yhana Clemons. As a first-year last season, Clemons finished 10th at the NWC Championships in the 100-meter dash and was a part of the Lutes' 4x100-meter relay.

“D’Yhana is one to look out for in that group. She had injuries last season that slowed down her year and got a later start becuase of that. She’s been healthy this year and has a ton of talent so that’s one in particular that you look at and see a lot of potential. It’s about staying healthy and getting the experience to compete each weekend which she wasn’t able to have last year. The more races she gets the better she’s going to be and has a really high ceiling and will be a factor in the conference.”

Anchoring the distance crew will be veterans Annika Deazley and Victoria Lindley.

Deazley holds the eighth fastest 3,000-meter steeplechase time in school history and has competed in the event that last three seasons at the NWC Championships. That included an eighth place showing in 2023 while finishing 10th last Spring.

A Lakewood native, Lindley had a strong cross country season this fall, running her fastest ever 6K time at the NCAA West Region Championships to close out the season in November.

Joining those two will be first-year phenom Sal Mattivi. The Bremerton native had a banner cross country season this fall, finishing 22nd at the NWC Championships and was PLU's top finisher at the West Region meet.

Another first year looking to make an impact with be Sophia Czar who like Mattivi had a promising debut in cross country in the fall.

Annika and Victoria are experienced. You lean on them as having been through it, having been at conference meets, and having put the work in over the summer and the cross country season. They’re ready to go for the track year and we have good freshman talent with Sal and Sophia coming into that group. So you look to them to set the standard on how they compete but also bring along the first-years as they go through their first track season.

Sophomores Madison Downey and Kyleigh Archer are looking for an even bigger second season in Luteville, after both making a splash as first-years in 2024.

Downey popped off an almost three foot personal best at the NWC Championships, winning the triple jump title with a leap of 36' 7 ¾". The Salem, Oregon native also finished 11th in the high jump, 15th in the long jump, and was a member of the 4x100-meter relay.

Archer, a member of the NWC Champion PLU women's soccer team, was runner-up last spring in the triple jump (36' 4 1/4") while placing 10th in the long jump.

Henderson also looks to get key contributions from newcomer Ki Neir from Yelp, Washington. A pole vaulter, Neir is a two-time state qualifier in the event in high school for the Tornados.

It’s a talented group, and the results at conference showed that. We look at them and the expectations are always high to just push yourself. There’s talent and Maddy and Kyleigh both kind of lead the way there. The first years we brought in are going to contribute and elevate the group as a whole.

In the throws, Eva Wirth is back as the reigning league champion in the hammer throw.

The Olympia native came to Luteville as a goalkeeper on the soccer team but has quickly progressed to one of the league's best throwers.

Wirth was fourth in the hammer throw and 11th in the discus in 2022 at the NWC Championships before placing fifth in the hammer and sixth in the discus in 2023.

The senior had a breakout 2024, winning the hammer throw and finishing fourth in the discus.

Eva is a great example of somebody who bought in from the very beginning with how we build our techniques. She’s one of the hardest workers. As new athletes come into the program they’re able to look at the upperclassmen and see the success they’ve had and then see their progression and see them go from someone like Eva who was competitive as a freshman and then two years later she’s a conference champion. It took a lot of work to do that. It took a lot of dedication to how we approach the weight room and how we approach our training sessions each day. The success in this group is a product of the athletes willing to make the sacrifice and have the focus on a day to day basis.

The Lutes had a soft launch to the season back in December, sending a small group of athletes to the Spokane Invitational. That meet yielded big results with Abi Caprye clearing 5' 3 ½" in the high jump and Grady Lemma clocking a time of 8.32 in the 60-meter hurdles. Caprye's efforts place her 14th nationally in NCAA Division III in that event while Lemma's time is the 20th best effort in D3 this year.

As for the remaining indoor meets over the next month, Coach Henderson is using them as opportunities for athletes to get reps and build competitive fitness to be ready to roll for the outdoor season.

The most important thing is experience. So indoor is getting early opportunities for our returners and freshmen getting their first meets. That’s how I view it. It’s opportunities to build competitive fitness.

At the end of the day you want to give your athletes as many competitive opportunities as possible and as long as that fits with their training its a positive for us. At the end of the day you can’t make up for good competition and the more we do that, the better we get.

The Lutes open up the calendar year later today at the UW Preview Meet. It's the first of three more indoor meets up in Seattle. PLU begins the outdoor season on March 1, making the short trip across town for the Ed Boitano Invitational. The following week is the first of three home meets, with the Lutes hosting the PLU Open.

Growing the number of home meets over the last couple of years with this year having three is exciting. We’ve always done well at our home meets and we always get good competition at our meets. You check a lot of boxes but for us, being a team that hosts often is something we’re excited about and something we enjoy doing. As a University we show up to home meets really well and it’s always a good environment.

2025 Season Schedule