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SEATTLE – Will Harrison could have given up running a long time ago. Slowed by numerous injuries the past two years, he had all kinds of reasons to put the sport behind him.
 
And one big reason not to do that.
 
“I love running too much to ever quit,” the Seattle Pacific senior said. “It was frustrating to go seasons when I wasn't running my personal best.
 
“So I really appreciate racing a lot more now than when I was a freshman.”
 
Ahh, racing … now he's talking AJ Baker's language. Like Harrison, his senior classmate can go lots of different distances, whether on the cross country trails or on the track.
 
Just don't ask Baker to say which of the two sports he likes better.
 
“I've wrestled with that every season – and I still can't figure it out,” he said with a grin. “I just love racing.”
 
For Harrison, Baker and their SPU teammates, the most important racing of the fall – so far – is coming up this Saturday. That's when they'll step to the starting line at Kahuku Golf Course on the Hawaiian island of Oahu for the NCAA Division II West Regionals. The starting gun for the 10-kilometer race fires at 11 a.m. Pacific time.
 
At stake is a spot among the top five teams for a trip to the NCAA national championships, set for Nov. 17. A Falcon men's squad hasn't competed at nationals since 2004. But while tickets to Joplin, Mo., are no sure thing, both Harrison and Baker believe it's not just some far-reaching fantasy to get there.
 
They say SPU's chances are very realistic.
 
“To have a good enough race to get into the top five, no one person is going to have to something crazy that they've never done before,” Harrison said. “It's just going to take everyone running their best all on the same day.”
 
Added Baker, “The rest of the West Region schools are looking a little tougher as the season has progressed. So going into the weekend, everyone is going to be focused and ready to do their work.”
 
THEY SHOW THE WAY
Toward that end – being focused and ready to work – Baker and Harrison have been leading by example. As a result, one or the other of them had led the SPU pack in four of the team's five higher-profile meets this fall – Baker at the Alaska Fairbanks Short-Course and at Sundodger; Harrison at the Charles Bowles / Willamette Invitational and at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships.
 
For Harrison, it has been especially satisfying. He was a key contributor to the Falcons as a freshman in 2009, running in the team's top 7 at GNACs. The following September, he was at the front for Seattle Pacific in both races at Fairbanks, and was off to a solid start at Sundodger two weeks later when he slipped and went down on the rain-slickened course.
 
The rest of that season was a struggle for Harrison, and 2011 had its ups and downs. Even as he prepared for the 2012 schedule, he wasn't brimming with confidence that things would play out as well as they have.
 
“Being injured over the summer and at the end of track, I wasn't getting the consistent running in that I usually get,” he said. “In August, it was overwhelming to think about the not-so-great running fitness that I had. I just tried to take things one day at a time, focus on the things I could control, and just set day-by-day goals of being able to improve at every practice.”
 
He saw instant results with a time of 25 minutes, 57 seconds on the 8-kilometer Sundodger course at Lincoln Park – his first time below 26 minutes for that race.
 
“I was surprised to PR at Sundodger,” Harrison said. “At that point, I was ready to contribute and have a good season.”
 
The only person happier than Harrison with his performance this fall is SPU head coach Erika Daligcon.
 
“I feel like this is a reward for all the hard work he has put in,” Daligcon said. “It's just wonderful to see that things have come together for him this year.”
 
Baker has been the kind of runner that coaches everywhere love to have on board – not only day by day, but year over year.
 
Case in point: As a freshman, Baker placed 132^nd at Sundodger in 28 minutes, 1.12 seconds. This season, he finished 10^th in 25:23.
 
“Coming in (as a freshman in 2009), I didn't have any great expectations,” said Baker, who also has become a top-caliber steeplechaser for SPU. “I knew I was pretty underdeveloped as a high schooler. But I also knew I had a good work ethic and some sort of talent. I just wanted to come in and do my best and let the cards fall where they may.”
 
They have fallen quite nicely – no surprise to Daligcon.
 
“From the beginning, he was willing to put in the work,” she said. “Freshman year, his schedule prevented him from working out with the rest of the group, so we would go and have a separate workout – and he would work just as hard, if not harder. So I was really hopeful that with some solid miles under his belt and his adjustment to collegiate athletics that he would make that jump.”
 
STEADY CLIMB
In their four seasons here, this clearly has been the best SPU cross country squad on the men's side. The Falcons have been ranked in the West Region all season and head to Hawaii in the No. 8 spot. They also were ranked nationally for two weeks (No. 29) before mysteriously dropping off of that list the week after a school-best fourth-place finish at the Bowles Invite – a race in which only one other Division II school (San Francisco State) finished ahead of them.
 
“It's a lot older team than we usually have. Having a team with this much experience is helping,” Harrison said.
 
The Falcons, who caught people's attention last November with a seventh-place finish at regionals in Spokane after coming into that race unranked, are fully aware of some of the schools they need to beat in order to get that top-five finish. That includes perennial regional power Chico State, and any of the four schools – Alaska Anchorage, Western Washington, Montana State Billings, and Western Oregon – who finished ahead of SPU at conference.
 
But mostly, Seattle Pacific's runners are focused on their own efforts.
 
“There have been some unexpected speed bumps this season with injuries and other things that we worked through well at conference,” Baker said. “Especially with Turner (Wiley) and Alex (Horton) having some confidence, having a race or two under their belt, and having a full month of legitimate training – they're excited to run a 10K. For our four returning seniors who are traveling … we have to perform better than we have been.
 
“And we're hoping we can do that.”