Pixler leaves D2?

If this is to be believed, Seattle Pacific's Jessica Pixler will transfer to D1 Colorado.

While certainly a loss for D2, this type of transfer is not unheard of. At Adams State, future Olympian Julie Jenkins ended up at BYU.

Pixler might feel she's in familiar company when she faces the likes of Adams State and Western State.

Pixler's 4:11 at Mt. SAC is nearly best-ever D2 effort

Jessica Pixler came away with easily D2's best performance at Mt. SAC.
The senior finished second and .4 behind what I'm assuming to be a familiar foe (Katie Follett of Washington). Amazingly, Pixler's time is the second-fastest ever by a D2 runner. Only Tina Colebrook (Cal Poly-SLO) ran faster in 1990. (Her 4:07 was recorded in Cologne.) So that makes Pixler the fastest D2er ever on American soil. Wow!
So now that we know the winner in Charlotte (?!), what did Mt. SAC inform us about the second-best?
Seattle Pacific's Jane Larson was fourth out of 86 (!) finishers in the 1,500, but ran 3 seconds slower than at Stanford (4:26).
While D2 men made their presence felt in the steeple, it was more muted in the 800 and 1,500.

Drew Graham of Adams State ran a 3:43.7. Michael Wickman (Chico State) finished two places back in fourth and 3:44. (Graham isn't on the D2 performance list yet, perhaps to a results mixup, but Andrew Graham of Utah Valley runs the 110 highs and 400 hurdles.) Otherwise, Adams State's Drew Soucy was the only D2er under 3:50.

One D2er managed to dip under the auto standard of 1:50, as Anthony Luna (Metro State) was last in the fast 800 on Saturday, but ran a nice 1:49.1. Surprise indoor champ Denise Mokaya (Mankato State) registered a 1:51 in one of the zillion heats earlier in the meet.
On the women's side, Chanelle Caldwell (Grand Valley State) ran a 2:07 -- well under the auto standard. She might be Pixler's biggest challenge in Charlotte.

What will Pixler do?

After putting forth a nice 2:08 effort at her conference championships, d2cross wonders what Seattle Pacific's Jessica Pixler plans to do for nationals. With no 5,000 time in the books (yet), perhaps a 800-mile-DMR routine? Three golds (yes, I've watched too much Olympics)?

A pretty quiet week in d2-land, although Shippensburg had two auto qualifiers in the mile (Neely Spence and Mary Rell), and Pittsburg State isNo. 4 in the men's DMR after a 9:55 somewhere.