Complete individual results (PDF)
Complete team results (PDF)
SPOKANE – Heidi Laabs-Johnson as in the flow from start to finish. Natty Plunkett got off to the fast start she wanted and still had plenty in the tank to keep picking off runners in front of her.
All in all, even though it turned out to be the last race of their college cross country careers, the two Seattle Pacific seniors went home with a good feeling about it.
Laabs-Johnson ran to a 12th-place finish, and Plunkett was 23rd on Saturday morning, leading the Falcons to sixth place as a team at the NCAA Division II West Regional cross country championships at Plantes Ferry Sports Complex.
SPU, which came in ranked No. 8 in the region, finished sixth in the team standings with 212 points. That was a jump of six places and an improvement of 99 points from last year's 12th-place total of 311 in Bellingham. Furthermore, it left the Falcons in front of UC San Diego (eighth with 224) and Cal State Los Angeles (10th with 262), both of whom were ranked in front of them coming into Saturday's meet.
The next four Falcons across the line were bunched tightly together. Freshman Robyn Zeidler(Plymouth, Minn.), sophomore McKayla Fricker(Canby, Ore.), sophomore Alli Cutting (Sequim, Wash./Sequim HS) and freshman Jasmine Johnson (Federal Way, Wash./Federal Way HS) went 52-60-70-71 with just 40 seconds between them.
“We were hoping to nab that No. 4 spot (to nationals), but they definitely moved up from their rankings, so we're pleased with that,” Seattle Pacific head coach Erika Daligcon said. (The top four earned return tickets to Spokane for the D-2 nationals on Nov. 19.) “We talked about it last night, just to make sure we were mindful and giving everything throughout the race, and that's what they did today.”
Alaska Anchorage easiliy defended its title with just 27 points. Western Washington (third with 148) and Alaska Fairbanks (fourth with 164) will give the Great Northwest Athletic Conference three teams at nationals.
Laabs-Johnson (Salt Lake City) finished the 6 kilometers on a clear, crisp November morning in 22 minutes even. That was 23 seconds faster than she ran on this same course at the Erik Anderson/Runner's Soul pre-regional meet on Sept. 24.
“My legs were a little cold the first 300 or 400 meters,” Laabs-Johnson said (temperatures were in the low 30s at race time). “I like this course just because all the ups and downs were really nice. It's kind of a rolling course, and that kind of keeps flowing.”
Laabs-Johnson, who completed her first and only season of cross country with SPU after switching over from soccer, was in the mid-40s of the 165-runner pack about 1,200 meters into the race. By the mile mark, she was up to 32nd, was in the top 25 some 1,500 meters later, then was among the top 12 with a kilometer to go.
“I wanted to be to hit that 1K mark (left in the race) and just have a good finish. My kick wasn't as strong as I would have liked,” Laabs-Johnson added. “I wasn't able to pick it up until the last hundred meters. But all in all, I was happy with it.”
Plunkett (Bellevue, Wash./Newport HS) came across in 22:17 on Saturday. Her only disappointment was that she wasn't able to meet or beat her time of 21:55 that she posted in the Erik Anderson/Runner's Soul pre-regional meet on this same course in late September.
Even so, Plunkett said, “I was satisfied with how I started, and I was able to move up during the middle. Toward the end, I was able to recognize people who were around me, and I knew I needed to be closing on them. I did pick it up in the last 1K, but my finish was not very fast.
“(But) I still feel satisfied with it,” Plunkett said.
Laabs-Johnson and Plunkett both earned all-regional honors for their top-25 finishes. Two weeks ago at the GNAC Championships, both earned all-conference recognition – Plunkett for the third time of her career – for their top-10 finishes in that race. Laabs-Johnson was the GNAC's Newcomer of the Year that day.
NCAA WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY
Division II West Regionals
Saturday, November 5, 2011
6 kilometers at Plantes Ferry Sports Complex / Spokane, Wash.
Team scores (top 4 to nationals) – 1, Alaska Anchorage 27; 2, Chico State 66; 3, Western Washington 148; 4, Alaska Fairbanks 164; 5, Cal Poly Pomona 171; 6, Seattle Pacific 212; 7, San Francisco State 216; 8, UC San Diego 224; 9, Cal State Stanislaus 239; 10, Cal State Los Angeles 262; 11, Humboldt State 305; 12, Brigham Young-Hawaii 312; 13, Northwest Nazarene 339; 14, Western Oregon 417; 15, Cal State San Bernardino 423; 16, Sonoma State 511; 17, Montana State Billings 517; 18, Cal State Monterey Bay 517; 19, Grand Canyon 532; 20, Cal State East Bay 540; 21, Central Washington 551; 22, Cal State Dominguez Hills 561; 23, Hawaii Pacific 569; 24, Saint Martin's 578.
Top 5 – 1, Ruth Keino (UAA) 20:51; 2, Bridget Berg (Hum) 21:18; 3, Miriam Kip'Ngeno (UAA) 21:25; 4, Ivy O'Guinn (UAA) 21:28; 5, Alia Gray (Chico) 21:32.
SPU placers – 12, Heidi Laabs-Johnson 22:00; 23, Natty Plunkett 22:17; 52, Robyn Zeidler 23:05; 60, McKayla Fricker 23:17; 71, Alli Cutting 23:38; 75, Jasmine Johnson 23:45; 123, Josie Becker 24:45.
