THE SCHEDULE                 Seattle Pacific at Central Washington Invitational
                                                Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022
                                                Women's 4K, 11:00 a.m.   Men's 6K, 11:40 a.m.
                                                Apple Ridge Run / Yakima, Wash.
                                                No live Webcast or live results
 

SEATTLE – That was a solid start for the Seattle Pacific cross country teams last Saturday in Steilacoom.
 
Now, they'll get to see if they can keep it going against some heightened competition this Saturday in Yakima.
 
SPU reaches the midpoint of its three-meets-in-three-weekends slate to open the 2022 season when it heads across the Cascades for the Central Washington Invitational. Racing at Apple Ridge Run begins at 11:00 a.m. with the 4-kilometer women's race, followed by the men's 6K at 11:40 a.m.
 
In last weekend's Puget Sound Invitational at Fort Steilacoom Park, Libby Michael led the Falcon women to a 1-2-3-4-5 finish and a perfect score of 15 in the five-team meet.
 
The men, with Drew Thompson and Brennan LeBlanc going 3-4 overall, took second place among the four teams, battling all the way with Pacific Lutheran before the Lutes used a late surge to pull away.
 
KEEPING TRACK OF THE ACTION
The meet will not have a live Webcast, and live results will not be available. Results will be posted as quickly as possible after the race at www.tfrrs.org and at www.spufalcons.com.
 
FINDING YOUR WAY TO THE ACTION
Apple Ridge Run is located just off of Wherry Road in Naches Heights above Yakima. Click on this link for specific driving directions.
 
COULD BE A WARM ONE
After nearly perfect racing conditions at Steilacoom – overcast, temperatures in the 60s – the Falcons and fellow competitors will have somewhat warmer conditions on Saturday. In fact, it'll be hot.
 
The forecast calls for clear skies and temperatures nearing 80 at race time on their way to 85. There's no rain in sight, but that area of Eastern Washington can get occasionally breezy.
 
 
SCOUTING THE CENTRAL WASHINGTON INVITATIONAL
Nearly every Falcon was on the course last weekend, with all six women and all 11 men who ran in Steilacoom slated to be on the starting line again this week.
 
While senior Libby Michael led the way for SPU's women, a pair of freshman came through with solid performances in their college debuts. Matise Mulch was second overall, 12 seconds behind Michael, and Katelyn Flolo was third. Mulch is starting her college career off a high school district championship and a third-place finish in the Washington Class 1A (small school) state meet last fall
 
Sophomore Nicki Yorges was right on Flolo's heels in fourth place into the finish chute. Senior Vanessa Aniteye, the fastest Falcon woman in history for the 400-meter dash on an outdoor track, ran her first-ever cross country race and was SPU's No. 5 finisher, completing the perfect score of 15.
 
The race was a kilometer short of the standard 6K distance, but it was still notable that Seattle Pacific's five scorers were separated by just 44 seconds at the finish line.
 
The SPU men ran aggressively at Steilacoom and can be expected to do the same this week. A pair of veterans, two freshman, and a sophomore newcomer made up the scoring pack, and finished within 39 seconds of each other on the short 5K course.
 
One of those freshmen is Drew Thompson, who actually is a sophomore and ran track last spring, but is in his first cross country season. He was solidly in third place at the finish, with sophomore veteran Brennan LeBlanc just five seconds behind in fourth.
 
A true freshman, Tom Thake, was 11th. His time of 16 minutes, 8 seconds, beat his 5K personal best of 16:15.6, which he set at last year's Nike Hole in the Wall Invitational high school meet. Veteran Jon Owen was 15th among the 46 competitors, and sophomore Kade Franco, who raced last year for Orange Coast College in California, was 19th.
 
Saturday's meet will offer the Falcons their first chance this season to get a look at some of their GNAC counterparts. Along with host Central Washington, Western Washington also is scheduled to race.

COACH CHRIS REED SAYS …
 

(On last week's performance)
"It was as good start. We like the way the team competed, we like the energy that we saw on Saturday and in practice, and we want to continue that.
 
(On the confidence level)
"There were definitely some people who were confident going into that first race, and they've only continued that, and that has been great to see. For a few, it was a beacon of light for them – things weren't going so perfectly in practice, but then they had a nice race. So now we're starting to see people put themselves in position that they weren't sure they could do, and it opened their eyes that maybe they're farther ahead than they thought they were.
 
A COURSE WITH A RACING PEDIGREE
Although none of the current SPU athletes have ever raced at Apple Ridge, many of their predecessors did. The Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships took place there from 2008-11 before moving on to other sites.

 

One Falcon does have a history at Apple Ridge, and a successful one at that. Associate head coach / distance coach Chris Reed ran in three GNAC meets there while competing for Western Oregon. He placed 12th as a sophomore in 2008, seventh as a junior and third as a senior. Reed's time improved significantly each year on the 8-kilometer layout: 25:56 to 25:26 to 24:29.

"I have really great memories there, both as a student-athlete, and I got to coach a few teams there, as well," Reed said. "My best conference finish was on that course, and I remember a lot of things about that day and memories of how that race played out."
 
The course, set in a still-functioning apple orchard, is essentially a 2K loop for both men and women with a slight variance from the first to the second mile for the men. It is all grass with a nice blend of flat and hills – from a cross country standpoint, a practically perfect combination of different elements.
 
"One thing I like about that course is it's very much a cross country course," Reed said. "We're looking forward to the enjoying the challenges that the course provides, and the competition will be fun to go up against, as well."
 
It also is fan-friendly, with over half of the race viewable. Fans are requested to stay in the vicinity of the course and away from the private orchards that surround it.

15 NOT COMMON – BUT NOT UNHEARD OF, EITHER
It's not every day – or every month, year, or even decade – that a team goes out and posts a perfect team score of 15 points
 
But when Seattle Pacific did it at last Saturday's Puget Sound Invitational, it was the ninth time in school history that a women's team had gone 1-2-3-4-5 in a meet.
 
The first time was Sept. 12, 1984 at the Alaska Anchorage Invitational against UAA and UAF. Just three days later, on Sept. 15, the Falcons did it again at the Alaska Fairbanks Invitational.
 
The most recent perfecto was Oct. 23, 1999 in a dual meet against Western Washington at Camp Casey. SPU won that one, 15-47.
 
Other meets with a final score of 15:
Oct. 9, 1985          Alaska Anchorage dual (SPU 15, UAA 28)
Oct. 4, 1995          Seattle University dual (SPU 15, SU 46)
Oct. 8, 1997          Seattle Cup (SPU 15, Northwest College 56)
Oct. 11, 1997        Casey Invitational (SPU 15, WWU 48, Seattle U 72)
Oct. 6, 1998          Seattle Cup (SPU 15, Northwest 68, Seattle U 87)
 
MICHAEL HONORED BY GNAC
Libby Michael, a Seattle Pacific senior who won last Saturday's Puget Sound Invitational in what was her first official competition on the trails of autumn, was honored as the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Female Athlete of the Week on Sept. 6.
 
Michael, who hails from Nine Mile Falls in Eastern Washington, gradually pulled away during the final portion of the 5-kilometer race at Fort Steilacoom Park and crossed the finish line in 18 minutes, 57 seconds. She led a 1-2-3-4-5 SPU finish for a perfect score of 15 in the four-team meet.,
 
Between injuries and pandemic shutdowns, Michael had run just one cross country event in her first three years as a Falcon, that being the Central Washington Winter Invitational in February 2021, which was an unofficial gathering. Saturday was her first time of running in a meet that counted.
 
AROUND THE GNAC
Click on this link for a look at news, notes, and results from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons wrap up their busy season-opening stretch next Saturday at the PLU Invitational. Racing on the PLU Cross Country Course begins at 9:00 a.m. with the first of four high school races. The college women start their 6-kilometer race at 11:10, followed by the men's 8K at 11:45. For SPU runners, it will be their first race this season at those standard distances.