Complete women's and men's results (PDF)
FAIRBANKS, Alaska – At 800 meters on the track, it's awfully tough to beat McKayla Fricker.
On Thursday night, it was just as tough to beat her on a 6,000-meter cross country course.
The Seattle Pacific senior moved in front a little more than a mile into the race, and teamed with sophomore Anna Patti for a 1-2 finish, leading the Falcons to the team title in the Alaska Cross Country Invitational long-course event.
Fricker, part of the squad that made it to the NCAA Division II Championships last fall, finished the 6K course in 22 minutes, 58.3 seconds, and Patti, also a nationals competitor, was next across the finish line in 23:13.3 as SPU tallied the evening's low total of 29 points. That easily beat runner-up Montana State Billings (40) and host Alaska Fairbanks (55).
In the men's race, Falcons junior Turner Wiley, fully healthy after missing all of the 2012 regular season with an injury, established himself as the team's front runner with a sixth-place finish behind a pack of five Billings runners. That gave the Yellowjackets a perfect score of 15, with Fairbanks second (56) and Seattle Pacific third (66).
Running with the lead group through the first mile, Fricker (Canby, Ore.) found an opportunity to make her move, then gradually pulled away from everyone to win by 15 seconds. Patti (Renton, Wash. / Lindbergh HS) followed and eventually beat third-place Renae Hepfner to the line by five-plus seconds.
Fricker became the second Falcon to win the long-course event. Natty Plunkett was first to the finish in 2011 in 22:59.5. She also won the short-course event two days later.
The 4K short-course race of this year's event is set for Saturday, with the men at 11 a.m. PDT, and the women at 11:30 a.m.
"We were behind some of the girls, but they were all in reachable distance," said Fricker, who recorded her first collegiate cross country victory. "About 400 meters after the first mile, I started breaking off and getting up into my own pace. It was a good race, I had a lot of fun and felt good. There was a good mix of hills, and I was able to push through and have a good, solid finish."
Fricker ran in this race as a sophomore, placing 10th in 24:41.3. She did not race here last year. Patti's second-place finish was easily the best of her college career. Her previous best was 20th in the Saint Martin's Invitational last September.
Freshman Sarah Macdonald (Tucson, Ariz.) made her college debut, and was No. 3 for the Falcons, fifth overall, in 23:49.9. Sophomore Lynelle Decker (Vancouver, Wash. / Mountain View HS) and junior Jasmine Johnson (Federal Way, Wash. / Federal Way HS) finished 10th and 11th, respectively.
Wiley (Issaquah, Wash. / Issaquah HS) was making his first run in Fairbanks, and finished his 8-kilometer race in 26:54.9. Robert Peterson of Billings was the winner in 26:12.8, and the Yellowjackets had all five scorers bunched within 25 seconds.
SPU had a pack of three – junior Trevor Taylor (Port Angeles, Wash. / Port Angeles HS), sophomore Adam Avischious (Colorado Springs, Colo.), and junior Alex Horton (Kent, Wash. / Kentridge HS) – within 10 seconds of each other in 13th, 14th, and 15th.
NCAA WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY
Alaska Cross Country Invitational
Thursday, September 5, 2013
6 kilometers at West Ridge Ski Trails / Fairbanks, Alaska
Team scores – 1, Seattle Pacific 29; 2, Montana State Billings 40; 3, Alaska Fairbanks 55.
Winner – 1, McKayla Fricker (SPU) 22:58.3. Other SPU placers – 2, Anna Patti 23:13.3; 5, Sarah Macdonald 23:49.9; 10, Lynelle Decker 24:31.9; 11, Jasmine Johnson 24:39.3.
NCAA MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY
Alaska Cross Country Invitational
Thursday, September 5, 2013
8 kilometers at West Ridge Ski Trails / Fairbanks, Alaska
Team scores – 1, Montana State Billings 15; 2, Alaska Fairbanks 56; 3, Seattle Pacific 66.
Winner – 1, Robert Peterson (MSUB) 26:12.8. SPU placers – 6, Turner Wiley 26:54.9; 13, Trevor Taylor 27:34.1; 14, Adam Avischious 27:36.3; 15, Alex Horton 27:44.2; 18, Ryan Alcantara 29:29.8.
