THE SCHEDULE:     Seattle Pacific at Apple Ridge Run Invitational
                                   Saturday, September 10, 2011
                                   Apple Ridge Run / Yakima, Wash.
                                   Women's 4K, 10:30 a.m. Men's 6K, 11:15 a.m.
                                   Apple Ridge Run Invitational meet information


        Weekly release, with individual results (PDF)

SEATTLE – Now that's what they call getting off to a fast start.

After a highly successful trip to Alaska for the opening meets of the 2011 season last week, the Seattle Pacific cross country teams will try to keep it going when they compete much closer to home this weekend. The Falcons head across the Cascade Mountains for the Apple Ridge Run Invitational. The meet takes place on the course of the same name on the hills above Yakima, with the women going at 10:30 a.m. and the men at 11:15.

For new and experienced runners alike, this is a chance to get onto the course that will host the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship meet. The distance this week – 4 kilometers for the women, 6K for the men – will be shorter than in October, when the standard 6K for women and 8K for men will be used.

The Falcons certainly are coming on the ultimate kind of runner's high. The men won both the long-course and short-course team titles in Alaska last week. On the women's side, senior Natty Plunkett (Bellevue, Wash./Newport HS) won both individual races, and SPU finished second among the three teams both days.

The teams will return from Yakima to get ready for one of their biggest meets of the season: the Sundodger Invitational, set for next Saturday, Sept. 17, at Lincoln Park in Seattle.

GNAC HONORS PLUNKETT
On the heels of sweeping the two races in Fairbanks, senior Natty Plunkett has been named the first women's cross country Athlete of the Week for 2011. Plunkett (Bellevue, Wash./Newport HS) successfully defended her long-course title on Sept. 1, winning the 6K race in 22 minutes, 59 seconds. She added the short-course title two days later in 15:14.3.

The weekly award is the first for Plunkett during her Falcons career. Along with two spots on the all-conference team and back-to-back berths on the GNAC All-Academic team, she was named the Freshman of the Year in 2008.

SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- Apple Ridge is the place where Alli Cutting earned her first victory for Seattle Pacific. Cutting (Sequim, Wash./Sequim HS), now a sophomore, went the distance in 15 minutes, 45 seconds last September, winning by 20 seconds.
--Two different runners – at opposite ends of the graduation calendar – have led the Seattle Pacific men so far. In last Thursday's long-course meet, it was redshirt senior Jacob Wahlenmaier (Everett, Wash./Cascade HS) in front for the Falcons and second overall. In Saturday's short-course race, freshman Alex Horton (Kent, Wash./Kentridge HS) set the SPU pace and was second overall. Wahlenmaier was SPU's first placer at Apple Ridge last year, taking 24th.

SCOUTING THE APPLE RIDGE RUN INVITATIONAL
This meet has become an annual part of Seattle Pacific's schedule, and it offers not just an early look at the GNAC championship course, it give the Falcons a chance to run against conference competition.

Scheduled to join SPU in Yakima are host Central Washington and perennial power Western Washington, and it will be the first meet of the year for both schools. Western won the women's meet easily last year, and SPU edged Central Washington for third place.

Great Falls was the runaway winner in the 2010 men's meet, nabbing four of the top spots, but is not entered this year. SPU was fifth among seven teams last season.

On the women's side, sophomore Alli Cutting is the defending individual champion, as she was 20 seconds in front at the wire. But she is the only Falcon returner among the seven who ran at Apple Ridge last September, as the other six have either graduated or left the program.

Jacob Wahlenmaier set the pace for the SPU men in the 2010 meet, finishing 24th overall in his first official cross country race for the Falcons. He remained SPU's front runner for most of the season, and opened the 2011 campaign in that same position, as placed second overall in the long-course race at Fairbanks last week, then was barely more than a second behind teammate Alex Horton in the short-course race.

The Falcons had solid pack running among their men in the 2010 race (79 seconds from No. 1 to No. 5), a trend that continued throughout the season and was evident during both races at Fairbanks (74 second between the top five in the 6K long-course race; 20 seconds in the 4K short-course).

SPEAKING OF THE FALCONS
Coach Erika Daligcon is aiming to strike a fine balance this week to make the Apple Ridge meet a meaningful one for all of her runners while also keeping in mind that the Sundodger Invitational is coming up next weekend.

“We're really going so we can check out the conference course (at Apple Ridge). Some people are going to be hitting it pretty hard, others are going to be running more for tempo,” Daligcon said. “I'm planning to get most of our freshmen over there and any of our returners who are in need of a race. We just want to get a taste for the course and get into a mindset so when we start running workouts geared for Apple Ridge, they'll have an idea of what we're trying to do.”

As happy as she was with the final results at Fairbanks last week, Daligon was even more pleased with how those results were earned – especially on the men's side.

“It was really nice to see that pack, and then coming back and repeating that two days later,” she said.

MOST RECENT SPU TOP 5 – WOMEN
Sept. 3, 2011 at Alaska Nanook Invitational Short-Course
4 kilometers at West Ridge Ski Trails / Fairbanks, Alaska

Seattle Pacific 2nd / 3 teams, 43 points

Runner                                 SPU place     Overall     Time
Natty Plunkett                             1                     1         15:14.3
Heidi Laabs-Johnson              2                     2         15:18.7
Alli Cutting                                  3                   10         16:13.9
McKayla Fricker                         4                   12         16:34.5
Josie Becker                              5                   20         17:44.4
Team traveled just five runners


MOST RECENT SPU TOP 6 – MEN
Sept. 3, 2011 at Alaska Nanook Invitational Short-Course
4 kilometers at West Ridge Ski Trails / Fairbanks, Alaska

Seattle Pacific 1st / 3 teams, 23 points

Runner                                 SPU place     Overall     Time
Alex Horton                                 1                     2         12:58.9
Jacob Wahlenmaier                 2                     3         13:00.5
Will Harrison                              3                     5         13:07.5
Jordan Wolfe                              4                     6         13:16.7
AJ Baker                                      5                     7         13:18.8
Nathanael Sleight                     6                   15         13:48.0
Team traveled just six runners

RETRACING LAST WEEK'S STEPS
Coach Erika Daligcon was quietly confident that the Seattle Pacific men could make their presence felt in the Alaska Nanook Invitational long-course and short-course meets. The Falcons went out and justified the confidence by winning both races.

In the 6-kilometer long-course run on Sept. 1, senior Jacob Wahlenmaier led SPU to the day's low total of 27 points, a 10-point margin on second-place Montana State Billings. Wahlenmaier was second overall, and junior Will Harrison (Tucson, Ariz.), back from an injury-hampered sophomore season, was right on his heels in third.

The Falcons put their pack running to effective use in the 4K short-course event on Sept. 3. This time, it was freshman Alex Horton (Kent, Wash./Kentridge HS) in the lead for Seattle Pacific, taking second overall as the Falcons finished with 23 points. From lead man Horton to No. 5 scorer AJ Baker (AuGres, Mich.), the margin was just 20 seconds, helping to leave second-place Billings 26 points behind SPU.

For senior Natty Plunkett, the adage of “the longer, the better” certainly held true in the women's 6K race on Sept. 1. Plunkett defended her long-course title with 10 seconds to spare, helping the Falcons finish second behind host Alaska Fairbanks.

But two days later, Plunkett proved she could handle the short stuff, too, winning the 4K event by four seconds over teammate Heidi Laabs-Johnson (Salt Lake City). Once again, Seattle Pacific finished second to Fairbanks in the team standings.

SHADES OF 2004?
It's way too early to start making comparisons to one of the most successful seasons in SPU men's cross country history. Even so, it has been that long since an SPU men's team won back-to-back meets. The '04 squad also pulled off that fete in Fairbanks, although it was just a straight dual meet against the Nanooks that year. By the time the season was over, those Falcons, led by Tim LeCount, had won five meets, including the school's only GNAC men's title.

Other meets won by the 2004 team included the Emerald City Invitational and the Western Washington Invitational. Both of those meets are on the 2011 schedule, as well – Emerald City on Oct. 1 at Seattle's Lower Woodland Park, and Western Washington on Oct. 8 at Bellingham's East Lake Padden Park. However, the Emerald City is on the same day as the Charles Bowles Invitational, and most of the SPU varsity regulars very likely will be at that meet in Salem, Ore.

WAY TO RUN, NEWBIES
The increased intensity, training and racing distances – can and often does catch even the best college freshman runners off guard. But some of SPU's cross country newcomers were right in the groove last week in Alaska.

Freshman Alex Horton, after going out too strong in Thursday's long course race, kept to a better pace in the short-course event and led the Falcons' pack across the finish line. Another freshman, Jordan Wolfe (Bend, Ore.) was the No. 3 SPU runner in long course and No. 4 in short course – and was within 15 seconds of the team pacesetter in both.

On the women's side, junior Heidi Laabs-Johnson, in her first year of cross country (she ran indoor and outdoor track last winter and spring after coming over from soccer) was Seattle Pacific's No. 2 runner in both races. She was just 33 seconds behind Natty Plunkett in the long-course event, which was the standard women's 6-kilometer distance.

POLLING PLACE
The Falcon women are ranked No. 10 in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) West Region preseason poll, which was released on Aug. 24. The men are not among the West's top 10, and neither team is ranked nationally.

Within the GNAC, Alaska Anchorage is ranked nationally in both women (No. 5) and men (No. 12). Ditto for Western Washington in men (No. 19) and women (No. 23).

No new polls were released this week. The first regional poll of the regular season will be out on Sept. 20, followed the next day by the first regular-season national poll.

AROUND THE GNAC
Click on this link for a look at news, notes and results from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.

UP NEXT
Aside from the postseason races, it's the meet that gets circled on more Pacific Northwest cross country calendars than any other: the Sundodger Invitational. The 19th annual University of Washington-hosted meet is set for next Saturday, Sept. 17, at Seattle's Lincoln Park. The 6-kilometer women's open race gets the day started at 9 a.m., and the 8K men's open is set for 9:40. Other races, including high school and college competition, continue throughout the day.