Seattle Pacific University Women's Track

Having successfully continued a long-standing tradition of success with Seattle Pacific’s track and field teams, Karl Lerum is now in his eighth year as director of the school’s entire running program, including cross country, having taken on that role in the fall of 2013. Lerum is heading into his 16th year in charge of the SPU track program. In 2019, for the eighth time in school history, and all under his leadership, the Falcon women pulled an indoor-outdoor GNAC team title sweep. Both of the '19 wins came by four-point margins against Central Washington, 154-150 indoors and 166-162 outdoors. A few weeks after the season ended, Lerum was named the 2019 GNAC women's outdoor Coach of the Year. He also won the indoor coaching honor for 2019, the sixth time he has taken both in the same season. He now has 18 GNAC coaching awards altogether: nine for indoors and nine for outdoors. He also has six West Region women's indoor Coach of the Year awards and four outdoor awards, thereby giving him 28 conference and region honors altogether between the winter and spring seasons. Of Seattle Pacific’s 13 conference indoor team championships, Lerum has been the man in charge for 11 of those. The pandemic-affected 2020 season still had its share of Falcon successes, highlighted by a pair of individual GNAC indoor titles: Kate Lilly in the 3000 meters and Peace Igbonagwam in the long jump. SPU also posted 11 NCAA Division II provisional qualifying marks, with two athletes – Igbonagwam in the long jump and Dania Holmberg in the 3000 and 5000 meters – earning invitations to the nationals in Birmingham, Ala. However, that meet, along with the bulk of the outdoor season (every meet except the opener) were canceled because of the coronavirus. During the 2019 indoor season, the Falcon women posted 12 NCAA provisional qualifying marks, and sent three athletes (Scout Cai in the pentathlon and pole vault, Peace Igbonagwam in the long jump, and Kate Lilly in the mile) to the nationals, Outdoors, SPU racked up another dozen provisional marks, and four athletes (Cai in the heptathlon and pole vault, Lilly and Dania Holmberg in the 1500 and 5000, and Kaylee Mitchell in the steeplechase) were at nationals. Igbonagwam made first-team All-American in the indoor long, Lilly was first team in the outdoor 5000 and second team in the indoor mile, and Cai was first team outdoorsd in the hep and pole vault.  Lerum stepped up to the Falcons’ coaching helm in October 2005, taking over from Jack Hoyt. He worked as an assistant to Hoyt in 2000, and again in 2003. In between, he spent two years as an assistant coach at Trinity College, an NCAA Division III school in Hartford, Conn. While Lerum has coached numerous athletes with impressive accomplishments at SPU, he has quite an impressive athletic background of his own. As an athlete at Pacific Lutheran University in nearby Tacoma, Lerum made his mark in two sports. On the football field, he set – and still owns – the school career records for receptions and receiving yards. On the track, Lerum has the Lutes record in the 400 meters and is among the school's top 10 in the decathlon, 110 hurdles, long jump, 100 meters, and javelin. He was an All-American in the decathlon, finishing third at the NAIA nationals in 1996 and second in '97 and '98. He didn’t stop there. After college, Lerum was on the San Francisco 49ers’ roster for the 1998 and 1999 preseason, and played with the Amsterdam Admirals in NFL Europe. In 2003 and again in 2004, he served as the head coach of the Oslo Vikings football program in Norway. Lerum is a graduate of Franklin Pierce High School in Parkland, south of Tacoma. He has a bachelor’s degree in history from PLU and a master’s in history from Trinity. He and son Lukas live in Seattle.  

Reed is beginning his fifth year as a collegiate coach and his fourth year as an assistant at Seattle Pacific, joining the staff in December 2013.   The native of Klamath Falls in southern Oregon is a 2011 graduate of Western Oregon University, majoring in economics.   On the cross country course, he was a two-time All-Great Northwest Athletic Conference selection, finishing seventh as a junior in 2009 and third as a senior in 2010. He also was a two-time NCAA qualifier, earning All-American recognition in 2009.   On the track, Reed raced to a pair of All-GNAC honors, taking third in the 5,000 meters as a freshman in 2008, then placing third in the 1,500 as a senior in 2011. He also was fourth in the 5K as a junior and senior. Indoors, he won the 2011 GNAC mile title and anchored the Wolves' distance medley relay to All-American status later that season. Reed finished his WOU career with five school records: the mile, 5000, and DMR indoors, along with the 5000 and 10,000 outdoors. He ran in five NCAA championship meets (twice in cross country and outdoor track, and once in indoor track).   He became an assistant coach at Western Oregon in 2011 prior to joining the Falcons. He was named the West Region Women's Indoor Assistant Coach of the Year in 2015 by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. He also is the director of the Falcon Running Camp.  

Smith, who started out as a sprinter, became a heptathlete, and now has competed in four marathons, is in her fourth year on the Falcons coaching staff, coming aboard in August 2013.The graduate of Idaho State University spent the previous four years before joining the Falcons as a coach at the University of Washington one year as a multi-events assistant  for track, and the past three as a strength and conditioning coach. She now works primarily with SPU's sprinters, During the 2015-16 school year, the Falcon women won a bronze medal in the 4x400 relay at the NCAA Division II indoor meet, sent two women to the open 400 at indoor nationals and one for the 400 at outdoor nationals. New school records were set in the women's indoor and outdoor 400, the indoor 200, and the indoor 4x400 relay. Smith starred in the heptathlon at Idaho State, placing second at the Big Sky Conference meet in 2007 by tallying 5,085 points. She also was a member of the victorious 4x100 relay team, and scored in the 100, 200, 100 hurdles, and javelin as the Bengals won the team championship for the first time in school history. She was All-Big Sky six times in two years at the school, and was a USTFCCCA All-Academic pick as a senior, finishing her master's degree in health education. In the winter of 2016, Smith was named the West Region Women's Indoor Track Assistant Coach of the Year by the USTFCCCA. A native of Pima, Ariz., Smith has been in the Seattle area since 2008. She is married to Raul Sheen, a UW assistant coach for sprints, hurdles, and relays.