THE SCHEDULE                     Seattle Pacific at Chambers Creek College Open
                                        Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021
                                        Women's 5K, 9:30 a.m.     Men's 8K, 10:00 a.m.
                                        Chambers Creek Regional Park  / University Place, Wash.
                                        No live Webcast     Live results
 

SEATTLE – It's not every weekend that one gets to race at a national-championship cross country venue.
 
But the Seattle Pacific Falcons will get to race at just such a place this weekend …
 
… and it's pretty close to home, too.
 
SPU and nearly a dozen other teams will gather on Saturday at Chambers Creek Regional Park south of Tacoma for the first Chambers Creek College Open.
 
The women's 5-kilometer race begins at 9:30 a.m., followed by the men's 8K at 10:00 a.m.
 
It is part of a day-long celebration of cross country. A community open 5K will precede the college races at 8:45 a.m. Following the college competition, the annual John Payne / Curtis Invitational will take place. That will have 11 races for high school teams and two for elementary / middle school athletes.

IT JUST GETS BIGGER FROM HERE
Saturday's meet is an icebreaker of sorts for next year's NCAA Division II Fall Sports Festival, which will be hosted by Seattle Pacific and the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. All of the fall championships will take place in and around the area: volleyball in Brougham Pavilion, men's and women's soccer at Interbay Stadium, women's field hockey at Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila . . .
 
. . . and cross country at Chambers Creek.
 
Those national championship races are scheduled for Friday, Dec. 2, 2022. The distances will be longer for that one – 6K for the women, 10K for the men. The competitive fields also will be much larger, with 34 teams for both men and women, plus individual qualifiers.
 
A pre-nationals meet, which is customary at any site that hosts the NCAAs, will take place at Chambers Creek during the early fall of 2022, although a firm date has not yet been finalized.
 
Chambers Creek already has hosted the Pacific-12 Conference Championships this past March, and will be the venue for the Northwest Athletic Conference community college meet on Nov. 13.

KEEPING TRACK OF THE ACTION
Live results will be available from Saturday's meet. The appropriate link is at the top of this story. In addition, they will be posted online as soon as possible after the race at www.tfrrs.org and www.athletic.net.
 
NICE DAY FOR RACING
The rain storms from earlier this week figure to be long gone by Saturday, and pleasant fall conditions are expected. The forecast calls for partly sunny skies, with temperatures in the low to mid 50s at race time on their way into the low 60s, with very little wind.
 




FINDING YOUR WAY TO THE RACING
Chambers Creek Regional Park is directly adjacent to Chambers Bay Golf Course, located in University Place, approximately 45 miles southwest of Seattle Pacific. About 35 miles of that trip is a straight shot south down Interstate 5 before veering off toward University Place.
 
Click on this link for Mapquest driving directions as if leaving from SPU. For those seeking directions but leaving from another location, the address of the park for filling in the 'Where are you going?' window is 6320 Grandview Drive W., University Place, Wash.
  
PARKING AT THE PARK
Ample parking is available at Chambers Creek. However, given the large nature of the John Payne / Curtis Invitational that will come afterward, it is expected to fill up quickly as the high school teams and their fans start to arrive.
 
LOOPING THE TWO LOOPS
Although golf courses are popular cross country venues, none of the racing at Chambers Creek takes place on the actual Chambers Bay course (site of the 2015 U.S. Open), which is located above the park. The racing route does go around the driving range and other portions of the park.
 
Essentially, the course is two loops that are linked together. The 5-kilometer women's race will feature two complete circuits around those loops.

The 8K men's event will cut the first loop short the first time around, then make two complete circuits of both loops, go around the first loop once more, then make a right turn toward the finish line.
 
The layout is very fan-friendly – that is to say, there are no woods that the runners duck into for any stretch of time. Fans who like to jog (or walk fast) to different points on the course will have ample opportunities to do so.
 
For the competitors, the start is wide-open, and there are no monster hills – just enough rollers here and there to remind them that they really are on a legitimate cross country course.

COACH CHRIS REED SAYS …
 

(On training for the past two weeks)
"The biggest key for the women's side as a whole is continuing to try to work on getting healthier, and we're definitely heading in the right direction. It's really nice to see Annika (Esvelt) and Ellie (Rising) continue to train really well coming off that really good race (at PLU). It has been a nice couple weeks for the men. Colin Boutin is providing some real good leadership, and Brennan LeBlanc, although he's new to our team, has provided a lot of leadership, as well. The men are definitely heading in the direction we want them to head.
 
(On racing at Chambers Creek)
"I think people are pretty excited about it. It will feel like a road meet this week because we haven't been out there. But hopefully as time goes on, they will become more and more familiar with it and embrace it as kind of a home course. This is one of those courses that once you get out there, you'll sense the magic a little bit."

SCOUTING THE CHAMBERS CREEK COLLEGE OPEN
Seattle Pacific is one of three GNAC teams that will be at the meet on Saturday, joined by Saint Martin's and Alaska Anchorage.
 
The Falcons, who opened the season with meets on three consecutive weekends, will be back on the starting line after a two-week break from racing.
 
 

SPU's men were in action all three of those weekends and have shown steady improvement each time. Senior Colin Boutin has led the way in all three. The PLU Invitational on Sept. 18 was the first 8K of the season, and Boutin posted a team-leading time of 26 minutes, 15 seconds.
 
Junior Jon Owen had been among the Falcon front runners all season, scoring at No. 2 in the first two meets and No. 3 at PLU. Sophomore Brennan LeBlanc, a native of nearby Duvall who ran his freshman season at Sierra Nevada College in 2019 then transferred to SPU, ran his first race in a Falcons uniform at PLU and was No. 2 for the team, 17th overall. His time of 26:22.60 was an 8K personal best by 26 seconds.
 
For freshmen Ben Sheirbon and Gabe Endresen, the PLU meet was their first 8K, so they'll now have a baseline at which to take aim on Saturday: 27:41.80 for Sheirbon, 28:17.80 for Endresen.
 
Sophomore Annika Esvelt comes into the women's race looking to continue her early success. She was first across the finish line at Pacific Lutheran, running in or on the lead for the entire 6 kilometers – her first 6K. Esvelt was 15 seconds ahead of her nearest challenger at the finish line, clocking 22:15.70.
 
Ellie Rising, another sophomore, has been a solid No. 2 in both Falcon meets so far. (They did not race in the first one.) Rising was in the chase pack at PLU, placing third overall in 22:45.20. Kelsey Washenberger held down the No. 3 slot for SPU at both Ash Creek and Pacific Lutheran.
 
FIRST PLACE, FIRST AWARD FOR ESVELT
 

On the heels of winning the PLU Invitational for her first college victory, Annika Esvelt was named the GNAC Female Runner of the Week on Sept. 20.
 
The meet at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma was just the second of Esvelt's cross country career for SPU.
 
"She asserted herself pretty early on," associate head coach / distance coach Chris Reed said. "She was always in the lead or on the lead and ran with a lot of confidence. When she made a move, she made it with conviction and made it with enough authority that no one was able to catch her. It was great to see."
 
POLLING PLACE
The Falcon women are No. 9 in this week's West Region Rankings as ranked by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. Simon Fraser has moved up to the No. 1 spot, replacing Stanislaus State of California, which dropped to No. 3. Perennial West power Chico State is up to No. 2. The other GNAC team on the regional list is Western Washington at No. 8.
 
SPU is not ranked in the national poll. Simon has moved into the top 10, sitting at No. 9 this week, the only GNAC team among the top 30. Grand Valley State of Michigan remains No. 1, with Stanislaus at No. 11 and Chico at No. 13.
 
UP NEXT
Regular-season racing winds up next Saturday, Oct. 9, at the WWU Bill Roe Cross Country Classic in Bellingham. The meet at Sudden Valley Golf Course, east of Bellingham, begins at 10:00 a.m. with the women's 6K. The men's 10K will follow at 11;00 a.m. Formerly known as the WWU Classic, the meet is now named for Roe, a long-time cross country and track official, meet organizer, and coach, who passed away in February 2020.