THE SCHEDULE                 Seattle Pacific at GNAC Championships
                                                Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018
                                                Men's 8K, 10:00 a.m.     Women's 6K, 11:00 a.m.
                                                Ash Creek Preserve / Monmouth, Ore.
                                                Live Webcast        Live results
 
 
          Weekly release, with updated season results (PDF)
        Meet Central (HTML)
        Overall GNAC preview (HTML)
        GNAC notebook (PDF)

SEATTLE – Their regular-season races were solid and, for the most part, successful.
 
But it's no longer the regular season on the cross country course. It's now the championship season.
 
From the No. 1 runner through the No. 7 runner, only solid races will do from now on.
 
For the Seattle Pacific Falcons, that laser-focused mindset begins on Saturday when they and their most familiar opponents gather at Western Oregon University in Monmouth for the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships. The first starting gun at Ash Creek Preserve goes off at 10:00 a.m. for the 8-kilometer men's race. The 6K women's event starts at 11:00.
 
The Falcon women come in not as the favorite (that role belongs to Alaska Anchorage), but certainly as a clear, competitive contender for a top-3 finish. In all likelihood, it will be those two schools plus Simon Fraser and Western Washington – all four of whom are nationally ranked – who are competing for the highest places in the final standings.
 
Seattle Pacific's men, a squad made up entirely of freshmen and sophomores – will be trying to improve upon last year's eighth-place finish.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Live Webcasts from cross country meets are not commonplace, but this weekend's meet will have one. Both races will be streamed via GNAC TV, available by clicking on this link. Veteran broadcaster Bob Akamian, whom Falcon fans might be familiar with through a number of televised and streamed basketball games, will call the action. Live results also will be available. The appropriate links are at the top of this page.
 
HEY, WHADDAYA KNOW? IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE NICE
All indications are that Saturday should be a very pleasant fall morning for racing and for watching. Saturday's forecast calls for temperatures pushing toward (but not quite reaching) 60 degrees. Race time could be in the low to mid 50s, as thermometers will be on the way from Friday night lows in the upper 40s.
 
A bit of rain is possible on Friday, but Saturday is expected to be partly cloudy with sun breaks.
 
DON'T BE FOOLED – IT"S A TOUGH COURSE
For those racing at Ash Creek for the first time, or for those watching for the first time, a first glance at the course might give the impression that it looks easy.
 
Yeah, well … looks can be deceiving.
 
Although the layout is mostly flat, the longer grass can bel challenging (and energy-sapping). And then there are those berms. Looking down the course from the starting line, they'll be on the right-hand side. Both races will navigate them times. By the second or third time over them, one's legs really start to feel it.
 
Furthermore, Ash Creek is very fan friendly. Those who make the trip to Monmouth should be able to see between 60 and 75 percent of the race, as the athletes loop past the starting area multiple times.

Click on this link for a look at full-color course maps (men's on the first page, women's on the second page).
 
Fan parking is available along the streets adjacent to WOU"s McArthur Field, and also in the lot adjacent to the soccer field.
 
SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
--The SPU women were fourth at last year's meet at Lake Padden Park in Bellingham with 93 points. Alaska Anchorage literally ran away with it, tallying a mere 28 points and placing four in the top 10.
-- Leading the way for the Falcons was now-graduated Mary Charleson, who finished second.
--Among this year's returners, sophomore Dania Holmberg was the highest placer, coming across 19^th overall and No. 2 for SPU.
-- Seattle Pacific's men finished eighth with 234 points, beating out Alaska Fairbanks, Concordia-Portland, and Saint Martin's. Western Oregon beat out Anchorage for the title 51-64.
-- Peder Rickbeil, a freshman who did not return this year, was the front runner for the Falcons, placing 32^nd.
-- Current sophomore Elius Graff was the top placer from this year's team, No. 2 for SPU and 41^st overall.
-- The best-ever women's time for an SPU runner at Ash Creek is Anna Patti's 20:55 in the 2014 GNAC Championship.
-- For the men, it's 25:20.39 for Will Harrison at the 2012 GNACs.
-- The Falcon women have won five team titles in the 17-year history of the meet. Included in that are four in a row from 2005-08. The 2008 championship, won at Apple Ridge Run just outside of Yakima, is the most recent.
-- Of SPU's six individual women's titles, four were won consecutively by Jessica Pixler from 2006-09. The other two were won by Josie Lavin in 2003 and Karen Dickson in 2004.
-- Charleson's second-place finish last year has been the highest for the Falcons since Pixler's last crown.
-- The Seattle Pacific men ran to the team title in 2004.
-- Tim LeCount won the individual championship that year when meet took place in McKinleyville, California. Since then, the highest finish has been fourth by Brian Cronrath in 2009 at Apple Ridge.
-- This year is the first of a four-year arrangement in which the GNACs and the West Regionals will alternate between Ash Creek in Monmouth and Amend Park in Billings. Amend will be the site of this year's regionals on Nov. 17. Next season, the conference meet will be there, and Regionals will come to Oregon.
 
 SCOUTING THE WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Falcons will be one of four nationally ranked teams that will toe the Ash Creek starting line come Saturday morning. They come in at No. 13 this week, and will be joined by No. 8 Simon Fraser, No. 10 Alaska Anchorage, and No. 14 Western Washington.
 
Just two weeks ago, those same four teams, plus three others from the GNAC, ran in the WWU Classic. Simon Fraser edged the Seawolves by five points, 71-76, with SPU next at 96 and Western right behind at 101. If removing the Club Northwest runners from the results (CNW won the meet with 55 points), it was even closer: Simon 50, Anchorage 52, Seattle Pacific 65, Western 68.
 
For all practical purposes, then, consider the Clan and Seawolves as co-favorites this week. But if either of them should have an off day, the Falcons and Vikings solid contenders to step up.

 

Freshman Kaylee Mitchell has been SPU's front runner from the season opener on Sept. 15 when she won the Central Washington Invitational. That was just a three-team gathering in Ellensburg, but she has been in the single digits in every meet since – seventh (out of 197 finishers) at the Charles Bowles Invitational, seventh (out of 157) at the Inland Empire Championships, and sixth (out of 111) at Western Washington.

 

If the Falcons can squeeze one more runner into the top 10 – or at least come close to it – that certainly would help their cause. Junior Kate Lilly is definitely capable of doing that. She was No. 2 for the team in the first three meets, and was way up at the front of the overall pack, placing 21^st at the Bowles and 11^th at Inland Empire.

 

Just as capable of being there is junior Katherine Walter. She was the No. 4 runner in Salem, No. 3 in Boise, and No. 2 in Bellingham. At the very least, she and Lilly can push and pull each other into the top 15, if not better. And sophomore Dania Holmberg can be part of that equation, too, as she has been either the No. 3 or No. 4 finisher for SPU all season.
 
But it still takes five to get it done, and that could be any one of the remaining four Falcons: freshman Krystal Kaufman, sophomore Elizabeth Thompson, junior Sedona McNerney, or sophomore Abbie Steinhauer. In fact, all four have scored for SPU in that critical No. 5 spot: Steinhauer at Central, McNerney at Bowles, Thompson at Inland Empire, and Kaufman at Western Washington.
  
Consider Anchorage junior Emmanuelah Chelimo to be the favorite – and a big favorite at that. In the WWU Classic, she completed the 6-kilometer layout at Sudden Valley Golf Course in 21 minutes, 15 seconds. That gave her a two-second margin of victory over former Simon Fraser star Julia Howley. But the closest GNAC runner to Chelimo was current Clan standout Addy Townsend – and she was 44 seconds back at 21:59.
 
If Chelimo is in front, then the battle behind her for the next several spots could go back-and-forth for the entire race. That pack very likely will include Townsend, SPU's Mitchell, Simon's Sophia Kaiser and Olivia Willett, Anchorage's Zennah Jepchumba, and Central Washington's Alexa Shindruk.
 
SCOUTING THE MEN'S CHAMPIONSHIPS
Climbing from 11^th to eighth last year was a good move up for a Falcon team that was a mixture of veterans and newcomers.
 
This year's team is even younger – five sophomores, three freshmen. But those runners are setting their sights even higher.

 

Freshman Colby Otero has set the pace for SPU most of the season. He was the team's front runner in Ellensburg, Salem and Lewiston. His race at the Charles Bowles Invite in Oregon on Sept. 29 was particularly impressive, as he placed 22^nd overall and comfortably ran with the front pack for the entire 8 kilometers.

 

Sophomore Elius Graff has been a solid, steady No. 2 runner all season, and has been among the top third among the overall finishers in the three large meets (Bowles, Inland Empire, and WWU Classic).
 
But in Bellingham two weeks ago, some other Falcons proved that they're ready to start establishing themselves as viable front runners, too.

 

Sophomore Colin Boutin, who ran No. 5 for the team in the first meet and No. 3 in the next two, moved up to No. 1 Western Washington. His time of 33:38 for 10 kilometers was a 63-second improvement from his 2017 time in the WWU Classic.

 

Freshman Brayden Schultz, who had been running well in training but wasn't seeing the payoff for that in races, finally did. He was the second Falcon across the line, just four seconds behind Boutin.
 
If that foursome – Otero, Graff, Boutin, Schutz – can stick close together and work with each other over Saturday's 8K distance as they did in that Bellingham 10K, then the Falcons have a legitimate chance at a higher finish. They'll need a big race from either sophomore Shad Galloway or redshirt sophomore Joseph Perkins to close it out, but both of them are capable of delivering exactly that.
 
A potential three-way battle looms for the men's championship. Simon Fraser is ranked No. 8, Alaska Anchorage is No. 11, and defending champion Western Oregon is No. 25 nationally.
 
Individually, Anchorage's Felix Kemboi is the top returning finisher from 2017, having placed third. He won the WWU meet on Oct. 20. But Western Oregon's Dustin Nading figures to be in the title chase. Simon Fraser's Sean Miller (fifth last year) and WWU's Jadon Olson also could be factors.
 
SPEAKING OF THE FALCONS
(On the races)
"My coach's gut is telling me that these teams are prepared. Our men are ready to go. I think they know what they're up against and what they're capable of. Our ladies are aspiring for big things this weekend. We don't know what that means as far as what we're going to place, but they're going into it with the mindset that there are no limits of what they're capable of as a team."

 

(On the key part of the women's race)
"It's almost always the middle of the race. The first 2K usually takes care of itself pretty well. Our ladies have done a good job of positioning themselves in the first 2K. They showed at the last meet (in Bellingham) that they're good finishers. To be honest, that's the first time we've truly seen that. That's the first 6K we've had all year, and that last K, you don't know what's going to happen. … So the key for us is if we can get from 2K to 5K and really just be better there than we've been all year, then I think that's where we get the uptick in results."
 
(On the key part of the men's race)
"Like the ladies, it's the middle of the race. But because it's a longer distance (8K), sometimes the start is really important – not so much form where they put themselves position-wise, but from where they put themselves from a physical standpoint, and knowing that 2K, 3K into the race, they still have the energy and the momentum and the legs to finish well."
 
FAST FRESHMEN IN AWARD CHASE
The first freshman across the finish line in each race on Saturday will be proclaimed as the conference's Freshman of the Year – and the Falcons have a couple of very viable candidates.
 
Kaylee Mitchell has been among the GNAC's best runners all year. She won the Central Washington race, was the second conference runner (behind Central Washington senior Alexa Shindruk) at the Charles Bowles, the first GNAC placer at the Inland Empire meet in Idaho, and the third GNAC placer at Western Washington.
 
In fact, that WWU meet might very well have been a preview of who might wind up winning that award for the women. Mitchell and Simon Fraser's Sophia Kaiser were essentially dead even at the finish. Mitchell out-leaned her for the higher place, but both were clocked at 22:01 for the 6 kilometers.
 
On the men's side, Colby Otero could have a shot at it. He'll likely have to chase down some other speedy first-year guys, though. That group includes Central's Turlan Morlan (he won the CWU meet and was the first GNAC freshman at Bellingham), Anchorage's Faisal Ibrahim, Western Washington's Jesse Wiley, and Western Oregon's Hunter Hutton.
 
Based on how he well he ran at Bellingham, Brayden Schultz might potentially be a darkhorse contender for the award.
 
FLEXIBLE AT 5
Through the four regular season meets, the Falcons have been fairly consistent with their front four, although the order of that has changed a bit from race to race.
 
But outside of that, it seems as if everyone else is getting into the act at No. 5.
 
On the eight-member women's roster, all four runners outside of the top four have taken their turn at scoring. It was Abbie Steinhauer at Central Washington, Sedona McNerney at Charles Bowles, Elizabeth Thompson at Inland Empire, and Krystal Kaufman at Western Washington
 
For the nine-runner men's team, three have stepped up into that crucial spot: Colin Boutin at Central (he has been in the front four ever since), Shad Galloway at the Bowles, and Joseph Perkins at both Inland Empire and Western Washington.
 
ONE OF THE BEST 5 – EVER
A recent article in Britain's "Athletics Weekly" lists legendary former Seattle Pacific coach Doris Heritage as one of the five best women's cross country runners of all time.

 

No surprise there. Heritage won five straight international cross country titles from 1967-71, In addition, she was a two-time Olympian on the track, and at one point owned every world and American record for women at distances ranging from the 440 to the mile.
 
Also making the top five were Grete Waitz of Norway, Lynn Jennings of the United States, Gete Wami of Ethiopia, and Tirunesh Dibaba, also of Ethiopia.
 
POLLING PLACE
In the final regular-season polls that were released last week by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, the SPU women are No. 13 in the national top 25. They had been co-No. 12 with Dallas Baptist prior to that, and the Texas school is now in sole possession of that 12^th spot.
 
Along with the four other GNAC teams (No. 8 Simon Fraser, No. 10 Alaska Anchorage, and No. 14 Western Washington), the West Region has two other teams in the top 25: co-No. 6 Chico State, and No. 11 Azusa Pacific. Staying in the No. 1 spot was Adams State of Colorado.
 
In the West Region rankings, the Falcons stayed at No. 5 behind Chico, Simon, Anchorage, and Azusa.
 
AROUND THE WEST
The GNAC isn't the only conference meet on the schedule this week. The California Collegiate Athletic Association will race on Saturday in San Bernardino. Chico State will be the favorite for both the men and women. Stanislaus State also is highly regarded on the women's side, as is Cal Poly Pomona for the men.
 
The Pacific West Conference meet takes place on Friday in Fresno. Azusa Pacific is the team to beat on the women's side, with Point Loma Nazarene not to be overlooked. The men's race could be more up for grabs, with Academy of Art and Biola considered as top contenders.
 
UP NEXT
The NCAA Division II West Regionals will take place at Amend Park in Billings, Montana, on Saturday, Nov. 17. The men will race 10 kilometers at 9:00 a.m. Pacific time, and the women's 6K race will go off at 10:15.
 
Berths to the national meet will be on the line. The top three women's and top three men's teams will be automatic qualifiers. Since the West is such a strong region, teams that finish fourth, fifth, and even sixth will be among the leading contenders for the 10 available at-large berths.

In addition, the top two placers and anyone in the overall top five who are not members of a qualifying team will be invited to nationals as individual competitors.A total of eight at-large berths also will be available.