Complete women's results
Complete men's results
SAN FRANCISCO -- Another four-peat for Jessica Pixler. And another trip to the NCAA cross country nationals for the Seattle Pacific women.
Pixler (Sammamish, Wash./Eastlake HS) went out from the start and ran to her fourth straight Division II West Regional title on Saturday morning at Golden Gate Park. She cruised over the 6-kilometer (3.72-mile) course in a record time of 20 minutes, 8.9 seconds.
The Falcon senior broke her own course standard of 20:36.4, which she set on Oct. 9 in the San Francisco State Invitational pre-regional meet, and gave her a 34-second margin of victory on runner-up Sarah Porter of Western Washington.
Pixler's victory and a solid seventh-place run from fellow senior Jane Larson (Fall City, Wash./Cedar Park Christian HS) led SPU to a national-qualifying third-place finish in the team standings. Great Northwest Athletic Conference stablemate Alaska Anchorage won with 35 points, Chico State was second with 58, the Falcons were next with 75, and Western Washington grabbed the fourth and final team qualifying spot with 121.
All four of those schools are ranked in the top 10 nationally. Chico came at No. 2, Anchorage at No. 5, Seattle Pacific at No. 6, and Western at No. 10.
The D-2 nationals are set for Saturday, Nov. 21, at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville.
“We had some really great performances today. This is where we want to be at this point,” Falcons coach Erika Daligcon said. “We went into this with great, focused attitudes. We've been training for this course for the last few weeks, and it was really encouraging that they were able to utilize parts of that training for this meet.”
SPU senior Chad Meis ran a personal-best time of 32 minutes, 21.2 seconds in the men's 10K race for a 21st-place finish that fell just short of a national qualifying spot.
This was the second year in a row that Pixler had become the first sub 21-minute female runner on a regional course. She did it in 2008 at UC San Diego, breaking the course record in the pre-regionals, then erasing her own mark a few weeks later at regionals.
“I felt really good. I think that's the best I've felt all season,” Pixler said. “I've been training through every race except for this one. That was a really good time for me. I definitely felt like I could have gone even harder, too.”Larson came across the line in 21:28.8 seconds, which was nine seconds faster than she ran in the pre-regionals on Oct. 9.
Sophomore Natty Plunkett (Bellevue, Wash./Newport HS) cracked the top 20, finishing 17th in a personal-best clocking of 21:51.9. That was the first time she had broken the 22-minute mark for the 6K distance.
Seniors Kate Harline (Orem, Utah) and Lisa Anderberg (Mukilteo, Wash./Kamiak HS) also posted PRs. Harline was 22nd in 22:01.9, and Anderberg placed 29th in 22:27.5 to round out the Falcon scoring.
Senior Suzie Strickler (Richland, Wash./Richland HS) ran sixth for the Falcons and 36th overall in 22:51.8; and sophomore Mary Williams (Lake Jackson, Texas) was 89th in 24:02.8.
Daligcon said Saturday's effort was a notable improvement from two weeks ago at the GNAC championships when Seattle Pacific finished second to Anchorage. She was particularly pleased that the Falcons had closed the gap considerably on Chico State. In the Stanford Invitational on Sept. 26, Chico was fifth with 187 points; SPU was 12th with 334.
“We definitely ran better today. We've started to kind of taper off, and it's showing,” she said. “And we went into this with a real sense of focus on what we wanted to accomplish.”
Pixler agreed.
“Our mindset was changed for this race. I think it was a great race for us to get ready for nationals,” she said. “Everyone was really motivated and ready to go.”
LEAVING IT ALL OUT THERE
There was no mistaking the challenge in front of Meis: Finish in either the top five overall, or be one of the top two runners who was not a member of the three qualifying teams.
With that in mind, Meis took it out hard and just kept going.
“Chad ran the race of his life,” Daligcon said. “He looked great and was really controlled the faster pace. He was in position (to get a qualifying spot) up through that last mile, and then he started to feel it. But he had to run that way in order to have a shot, and that's what he did.”
NCAA Women's Cross Country
West Regionals
6K at Golden Gate Park/San Francisco, Calif.
Team scores (top 4 to nationals) -- 1, Alaska Anchorage 35; 2, Chico State 58; 3, Seattle Pacific 75; 4, Western Washington 121; 5, Cal Poly Pomona 197; 6, Northwest Nazarene 200; 7, UC San Diego 217; 8, Cal State Los Angeles 245; 9, Brigham Young-Hawaii 300; 10, Western Oregon 303; 11, Humboldt State 304; 12, Cal State Stanislaus 306; 13, San Francisco State 339; 14, Montana State Billings 352; 15, Hawaii Pacific 396; 16, Alaska Fairbanks 403; 17, Cal State San Bernardino 414; 18, Central Washington 420; 19, Sonoma State 490; 20, Saint Martin's 536; 21, Hawaii Hilo 634; 22, Cal State Dominguez Hills 641; 23, Cal State Monterey Bay 715; 24, Grand Canyon 726; 25, Notre Dame de Namur 753.
Top 10 -- 1, Jessica Pixler (SPU) 20:08.9; 2, Sarah Porter (WWU) 20:42.3; 3, Hallidie Wilt (UAA) 21:11.5; 4, Ruth Keino (UAA) 21:11.8; 5, Miriam Kipng'Eno (UAA) 21:17.9; 6, Tori Tyler (Chico) 21:23.5; 7, Jane Larson (SPU) 21:28.8; 8, Julie Shaw (Chico) 21:29.4; 9, Laura Carr (UAA) 21:30.3; 10, Vivien Wadeck (CSULA) 21:34.2.
Other SPU placers -- 17, Natty Plunkett 21:59.9; 22, Kate Harline 22:01.9; 28, Lisa Anderberg 22:27.5; 36, Suzie Strickler 22:51.8; 89, Mary Williams 24:02.8.
NCAA Men's Cross Country
West Regionals
10K at Golden Gate Park/San Francisco, Calif.
Team scores (top 3 to nationals) -- 1, Chico State 42; 2, Western Washington 74; 3, Alaska Anchorage 96; 4, Western Oregon 105; 5, Cal Poly Pomona 129; 6, Humboldt State 157; 7, Northwest Nazarene 212; 8, Cal State Stanislaus 248; 9, UC San Diego 262; 10, Brigham Young-Hawaii 303; 11, San Francisco State 314; 12, Hawaii Pacific 324; 13, Saint Martin's 340; 14, Central Washington 362; 15, Hawaii Hilo 433; 16, Montana State Billings 464; 17, Grand Canyon 475; 18, Notre Dame de Namur 477; 19, Alaska Fairbanks 552; 20, Cal State Monterey Bay 579. (SPU did not send a complete team.)
Top 10 -- 1, Marko Cheseto (UAA) 30:42.5; 2, Jordan Welling (WWU) 30:59.4; 3, Micah Chelimo (UAA) 31:05.6; 4, Brent Handa (Chico) 31:07.8; 5, Jimmy Elam (Chico) 31:11.4; 6, Beau Gradone-Rogers (Chico) 31:16.4; 7, Anthony Tomsich (WWU) 31:23.7; 8, Chris Reed (WOU) 31:26.1; 9, Michael Wickman (Chico) 31:30.9; 10, Alfred Kangogo (UAA) 31:35.8.
SPU placer -- 21, Chad Meis 32:21.2.
