THE SCHEDULE:                  Seattle Pacific at Alaska Fairbanks Duals
                                                Thursday and Saturday, Aug. 30 and Sept. 1, 2012
                                                West Ridge Ski Trails at UAF / Fairbanks, Alaska
                                                Thursday: Women (6K) 6:30 p.m.
                                                                    Men (8K), 7:15 p.m. PDT
                                                Saturday:  Men (4K) 11 a.m.; women (4K) 11:30
                                                                                                                 
                                                Seattle Pacific at Lake Padden relays
                                                Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012
                                                East Lake Padden Park / Bellingham, Wash.
                                                2.6 miles (men and women), 10 a.m.
 

        Weekly release, with 2012 prospectus and 2011 stats (PDF) 
        GNAC preseason poll and preview (PDF)

SEATTLE – They got off to a fast start last year in Alaska. Now, the Seattle Pacific cross country teams will see if they can do it again.
                         
For the third year in a row, the Falcons will bring a contingent to the Last Frontier for the Alaska Fairbanks Duals. The Falcons and host Nanooks will link up with Black Hills State of South Dakota in a pair of races to start the 2012 season. The long-course (6 kilometers for women, 8 kilometers for men) starts on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. PDT. The 4K short course event (same distance for men and women) is Saturday beginning at 11 a.m.
 
Those SPU runners not going to Fairbanks will start the season on Saturday in Bellingham at the Lake Padden Relays. It is an informal meet with no team scores, as relay teams – men, women, or coed – complete a 2.6-mile loop around the lake. The first race is at 10 a.m.
 
RANK 'EM BOTH
The Seattle Pacific women and men are both listed among the top 10 in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) preseason West Region rankings. The women are in the No. 6 spot, and the men are No. 8. Alaska Anchorage and Chico State are 1-2 on the women's list, and it's those same two schools – but in the opposite order – for the men.

“That was fun to see," head coach Erika Daligcon said. "I sent that on to the team and said, 'OK, here's some motivation. Let's see what we can do with these rankings,'” she said. “I think that will give them a little boost here, and we'll see if they can move up.”

The Great Northwest Athletic Conference also did a preseason poll this year, and the Falcons are No. 4 on both sides. The top of the women's poll is Alaska Anchorage unanimously at No. 1, with Western Washington and Simon Fraser tied at No. 2. UAA and WWU are 1-2 for the men (Anchorage again unanimous), with Western Oregon at No. 3.
                                                                                                                   
The preseason national poll was due for release on Wednesday, but was delayed for because of Hurricane Isaac. The USTFCCCA office is located in New Orleans.
 



SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
--The Falcon men won both the long-course and short-course team titles last year – and both by considerable margins. SPU had a 10-point advantage on runner-up Montana State Billings (27-37) in the long-course meet, and won by 26 points (23-49) against Billings in short-course. Fairbanks was third in both meets.
--The men have won the short-course crown two straight years.
--SPU's women were second among the three teams in both meets. Fairbanks won both.
--Now-graduated Natty Plunkett won both women's races in 2011, and also was the short-course champion in 2010.
--While Western Washington and Alaska Anchorage traditionally are regarded as Seattle Pacific's top rivals, the SPU women have found themselves also chasing Alaska Fairbanks the past two seasons. Last year, the Nanooks went all the way to the NCAAs for the first time in school history.
 
SPEAKING OF THE FALCONS
Coach Erika Daligcon will have a handful of runners taking part in their first college races this week, but she is still setting her sights high in Alaska.
                                       
“It would be nice to go for some team wins – that's something we all would like to achieve,” Daligcon said. “It's just an opportunity for these athletes to run together and compete together. We have some freshmen in the mix, so it'll be fun to have these two races under their belts. Also, it's exciting that we have two distances (6K women/8K men on Thursday, then 4K for both genders on Saturday). We'll get a lot of valuable information from this that will shape our training from here on out.
 
Daligcon is especially interested to see what some of those newcomers can do on a race day.
 
“Lynelle Decker and Katie Morris both have very good track marks. Katie just had an injury she was dealing with, but she's back and healthy and eager to get after it,” Daligcon said. “And we're excited to see what Katie Thralls can do out there, considering her track season (this past spring) was about six weeks.
 
“On the men's side, it will be fun to get Colin Wilkins into races and transition him from his former soccer self. I'm also excited to see what my returners can do, in particular on the men's side with Seth Pierson and AJ Baker.”
  
SCOUTING THE ALASKA FAIRBANKS DUALS
Senior Josie Becker (Grapeview, Wash./White River HS) and sophomore Robyn Zeidler (Plymouth, Minn.) bring some Alaska experience back to Fairbanks. Becker was there last year, running 16^th in the long-course race, and 20^th in the short-course. Zeidler was third in both races in 2010.
 
Sophomore Jasmine Johnson, running in Fairbanks for the first time, scored for SPU in three of her five races in 2011 for Seattle Pacific.
 
Fairbanks returns four of the seven runners who got the Nanooks to nationals last year, led by junior Raphaela Sieber, who ran No. 3 for UAF at regionals, and No. 2 at nationals. Three of their top four at nationals, however, did graduate.

For the men, seniors AJ Baker (AuGres, Mich.) and Jordan Wolfe (Bend, Ore.) both know their way around the West Ridge Ski Trails. This will be Baker's third straight trip to Alaska, and he'll be looking to continue the improvement that he showed last year. As a sophomore in 2010, Baker ran the long-course race in 28:13.1, and the short-course in 13:38.6. In 2011, he dropped 22 seconds to 27:51 in the long course, and 20 seconds to 13:18.8 in the short course.
 
Wolfe made his SPU debut in this event last fall, finishing No. 3 for the team and fourth overall in 26:52.6 in the long-course, then running fourth for the Falcons and sixth overall in the short-course, clocking 13:16.7.
 
Black Hills State of Spearfish, S.D., is beginning its second year as an NCAA Division II member after moving up from NAIA. In 2010, both Yellow Jacket teams qualified for the NAIA nationals in Vancouver, Wash., with the women finishing third and the men placing 18^th. They are members of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
 
NO RACE LIKE THE FIRST RACE
Of the 11 Falcon runners making the trip, four will be running in their first college cross country races. On the women's side, that includes freshmen Lynelle Decker (Vancouver, Wash./Mountain View HS), Katie Morris (Spokane, Wash./Shadle Park HS) and senior Katie Thralls (Livermore, Calif.). For the men, freshman Colin Wilkins will make his inaugural run on a college course.
                      
Three other Falcons, while having college experience, will be on their first trip to the Alaska meet. That group includes sophomore Jasmine Johnson (Federal Way, Wash./Federal Way HS), senior Seth Pierson (Cashmere, Wash./Cashmere HS), and sophomore Tavish Taylor (Port Angeles, Wash./Port Angeles HS).
 
BACK TO WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
Robyn Zeidler's first two college cross country races also were in Alaska – but that was two years ago. Then a freshman, Zeidler (Plymouth, Minn.) finished third in both the long-course and short-course meets, then wound up redshirting the rest of the season with an injury. She returned to action last year, but did not run in the Fairbanks meets. She did run in four other races, however, and was No. 3 for SPU at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships, and at the NCAA West Regionals.
 
LEADERS OF THE PACK
Who's No. 1? For the Seattle Pacific men, that could be just about anyone. Of the eight returning lettermen, five of them set the pace in different races last year.
 
Seniors AJ Baker and Jordan Wolfe both did it twice Baker was up front for the Falcons at the Erik Anderson Invitational NCAA Pre-Regional meet in Spokane, and again at the GNAC Championships. Wolfe led the way at the Apple Ridge Run Invite in Yakima and at the Charles Bowles Invite in Salem, Ore.
 
Others who took their turn at the front were senior Seth Pierson (NCAA West Regionals), sophomore Tavish Taylor (Sundodger), and sophomore Alex Horton (Kent, Wash./Kentrdge HS) at the Fairbanks short-course race.
 
The No. 1 spot for the women also is there for the taking. In 2011, now-departed seniors Natty Plunkett and Heidi Laabs-Johnson essentially split it, Plunkett leading SPU five times, and Laabs-Johnson doing it three times.
 



WHERE'D THEY ALL COME FROM?
Though not quite doubled in size, the SPU women's roster is considerably deeper this fall. Last year, the Falcons had just nine runners from August through November. They'll open this season with 16. That includes seven freshmen, senior first-timer Katie Thralls, and sophomore newcomer Gabriella Serventi (Anchorage, Alaska), both of whom ran track last season and now have joined cross country.
 
PICKING UP WHERE SHE LEFT OFF
Thralls turned out for track last spring after winding up her third season on the SPU women's basketball team. She immediately established herself as a competitive distance runner, posting a GNAC provisional qualifying time in the 5,000 meters in her first official race. Thralls wound up running both the 1,500 and the 5K at GNAC, placing 11^th in the former and ninth in the latter.
 
SHE'S A CHAMP
While junior McKayla Fricker (Canby, Ore.) is a solid contributor to Seattle Pacific's cross country success, scoring in all seven of her races last fall, she really shines on the track, especially in the 800 meters. Fricker came from behind – and from a boxed-in position – to win both the indoor and outdoor GNAC titles at that distance in 2012. She went on to finish fifth in the NCAA indoor 800, earning All-American honors.
 
MOVING ON
Letiwe Patton, who served as SPU's interim head coach in 2010 while Erika Daligcon was on maternity leave, then resumed her assistant coaching role last fall, is now the assistant coach at San Jose State, an NCAA Division I school. Patton joined the Spartans' staff in July.
 
Jacob Wahlenmaier, who ran the past two years for SPU while finishing his degree in political science, is now an assistant coach at Lindbergh High School in nearby Renton. The Eagles won last year's Class 2A Washington state boys championship.
 
SCOUTING THE 2012 FALCONS
The Seattle Pacific men surprised more than a few observers last November when they went from an unranked position to a seventh-place finish in the NCAA Division II West Regionals in Spokane. From that group, four of their scoring runners – including their top three – are back for another go.
 
After a season in which six different runners led the pack, senior Seth Pierson has the potential to be the guy who's up there consistently this fall. Pierson was SPU's front man by a long way (41 seconds) on that regional morning in Spokane, finishing 26^th overall – just one place shy of a spot on the All-Regional team. He kept that momentum going into track, winning the GNAC indoor mile in a come-from-behind effort, and posting an NCAA provisional qualifying time in the outdoor 1,500 meters.
 
Senior AJ Baker also has shown he has what it takes to be in the lead, having done so twice for SPU in 2011, including at the GNAC Championships, where he placed 15th overall. Also returning from the regional scoring pack are sophomore Turner Wiley (Issaquah, Wash./Issaquah HS), who ran No. 2 for SPU that day, and senior Will Harrison (Tucson, Ariz.). Another key returner is senior Jordan Wolfe. He won the Apple Ridge Run Invitational, and also was the pacesetter for SPU at the Charles Bowles Invitational in Salem, Ore.
 
Colin Wilkins (Shoreline, Wash./Shorewood HS), a freshman, has the potential to be part of the scoring pack. He ran well enough during preseason training to earn a spot on the Alaska trip.
 
The Falcon women have five of last year's regional top seven back in the fold – everyone except their now-graduated top two of Heidi Laabs-Johnson (12^th overall) and Natty Plunkett (23^rd).
 
That opens the door the front for a new leader, and there's no shortage of capable candidates to assume that mantle. Start with sophomore Robyn Zeidler, who finally was able to shake off a lingering injury and emerge as a solid No. 3 runner during the final month and a half, including at GNACs (22^nd overall) and regionals (52^nd overall).
 
McKayla Fricker, now a junior, was always among SPU's scorers, usually at No. 4 or No. 5. Alli Cutting, also a junior, noticeably stepped up the pace by season's end, and Jasmine Johnson made solid contributions from start to finish as a freshman in 2011.
 
Lynelle Decker (Vancouver, Wash/Mountain View HS) and Katie Morris (Spokane, Wash./Shadle Park HS), both freshmen, already are making their presence felt during practice. Senior newcomer Katie Thralls took huge strides in just six weeks of track last spring and is out for her first cross country season.
 
COACH ERIKA DALIGCON
As she starts her fifth year in charge of the Seattle Pacific program, Erika Daligcon has established herself as one of the top coaches at the conference, regional and national levels. Daligcon  took over in 2008, and helped the Falcons earn back-to-back fourth-place trophies at the NCAA Division II women's championships.

She served as an assistant coach alongside the legendary Doris Heritage from 2002-07, then moved up into the head coaching spot when Heritage retired. Her 2008 women's squad won the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship, the fourth consecutive such title for the Falcons.

Daligcon competed in distance running in both track and cross country for Seattle Pacific from 1995-97, including a scoring role for the Falcons on their 1995 cross country team which won a conference title and took 14th at the NCAA Championships. She graduated from SPU in 1998 and later taught English and performed mission work in western Japan. Erika is married to assistant men's soccer coach Nate Daligcon.

UP NEXT
The best-known meet in the Northwest will include the Falcons when they run at the 20^th annual Sundodger Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 15, in West Seattle's Lincoln Park. The women's 6,000-meter open race is at 9 a.m., and the men's open 8K goes at 9:40 a.m. Other races, including high school and college competition, continue throughout the day.