PORTLAND, Ore. – The Seattle Pacific Falcons have some room to move up on the cross country course this fall.
The SPU women have been picked for a sixth-place finish in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, and the men have been picked for eighth in the preseason coaches poll that was announced on Thursday.
Seattle Pacific's women received 44 points in the voting by the 10 conference coaches. The Falcons were sixth in last year's GNAC Championships at Western Oregon's Ash Creek Preserve course.
The men picked up 34 points in the poll. They were eighth in last year's conference meet.
Western Washington, which won both titles last season, not only is the favorite to repeat on both sides, it is the unanimous favorite – on both sides. The Vikings received all 10 women's first-place votes and all 10 men's first-places, totaling 100 points each.
Simon Fraser is the No. 2 choice on both sides, with the women receiving 83 points and the men 89. The Saint Martin's women and the Alaska Anchorage men are picked third.
Eric Hansen
SPU will be under the direction of Eric Hansen, who has joined head coach and program director Karl Lerum's staff as the lead assistant coach and the distance coach. Hansen comes to Seattle from Wayne State, an NCAA Division II school in Detroit. The Warriors women placed ninth in last year's NCAA Division II nationals.
Among the expected women's returners for SPU, junior Annika Esvelt led the team across the finish line in three of last year's six meets, and Matise Mulch, now a sophomore, was the team's top finisher (59th overall) at the NCAA West Regionals. In fact, Mulch was among the Falcons' top three in all six races.
Brennan LeBlanc a senior, proved himself to be a steady, dependable performer for the men in 2022. He led the team at the West Regionals, placing 74th overall. He was No. 2 (behind now-graduated Jon Owen) at GNAC, placing 49th overall.
The Falcons open the season on Saturday, Sept. 2, in the Puget Sound Invitational at Lakewood's Fort Steilacoom Park, south of Tacoma. Both races are 5 kilometers, with the women starting at 11:00 a.m. and the men at 11:30.
That will be the first of four regular-season meets, all of which are within driving distance of Seattle Pacific. Along with Saturday's meet, SPU will race in Tacoma at Pacific Lutheran University on Sept. 16 (PLU Invitational), in Bellingham at Lake Padden Park on Sept. 23 (Bill Roe Western Washington University Classic), and in Seattle at Lower Woodland Park on Oct. 7 (Emerald City Open).
Postseason competition will be much farther afield. The GNAC Championships are in Anchorage on Saturday, Oct. 21. That is the first postseason meet in Alaska since 2001. The NCAA Division II West Regionals are at Western Oregon in Monmouth on Nov. 4. The nationals are Saturday, Nov. 18, in Joplin, Missouri.
2023 GNAC CROSS COUNTRY PRESEASON POLL
WOMEN
Rank Team (first-place votes) Points 2022 GNAC finish
1 Western Washington (10) 100 1st (64 points)
2 Simon Fraser 83 3rd (86 points)
3 Saint Martin's 77 2nd (78 points)
4 Alaska Fairbanks 73 5th (91 points)
5 Western Oregon 67 4th (87 points)
6 Seattle Pacific 44 6th (149 points)
7 Alaska Anchorage 42 7th (163 points)
8 Northwest Nazarene 27 9th (242 points)
9 Montana State Billings 25 8th (224 points)
10 Central Washington 12 10th (261 points)
MEN
Rank Team (first-place votes) Points 2022 GNAC finish
1 Western Washington (10) 100 1st (31 points)
2 Simon Fraser 89 2nd (52 points)
3 Alaska Anchorage 76 3rd (83 points)
4 Western Oregon 73 4th (115 points)
5 Saint Martin's 59 5th (133 points)
T6 Montana State Billings 42 6th (163 points)
T6 Northwest Nazarene 42 9th (239 points)
8 Seattle Pacific 34 8th (228 points)
9 Central Washington 22 7th (182 points)
10 Alaska Fairbanks 14 10th (285 points)
Points awarded on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.
