LAKEWOOD, Wash. – For her Seattle Pacific teammates, it was a typically nice Pacific Northwest September Saturday for a cross country race.
 
But for Anna Prussian, it seemed like racing in a heat wave.
 
The Falcons freshman from Sitka, Alaska turned the 75-degree morning into an impressive college debut, leading the team with a 17th-place finish at the season-opening Puget Sound Invitational at Fort Steilacoom Park.
 
With veterans Matise Mulch, Katelyn Flolo, Maya Ewing, and Nicki Yorges following her across the line, Seattle Pacific finished second among the five teams with 59 points. Western Washington ran away with it, as the first 14 runners into the chute were adorned in Vikings blue, giving them a perfect score of 15.
 
"It's way hotter than I'm used to racing in, so it definitely was an adjustment," said Prussian, who completed the mostly-flat 5-kilometer layout in 19 minutes, 29 seconds. "The first half, I felt really solid and just being with a huge group of people. Then it definitely hurt a lot more in the second haff."
 
Prussian added that it was matter of adjusting to the conditions as the race moved along.
 
"I tried focusing on the girl in front of me and just like staring her, and then taking deep breaths and talking myself through it to kind of deal with the heat," she said.
 
Definitely different than Sitka.
 




"It's probably pouring down rain and 45," she said with a laugh. (Turns out it wasn't quite that bad in her hometown on Saturday. According to one of the numerous online weather sites, it was 58 under cloudy skies.)
 
Prussian made her mark starring for Sitka High School. She was a three-time runner-up in the Alaska state Division II meet before finally winning the championship last fall. She also won a pair of regional titles during her four years.
 
SPU was one of the schools she looked at during a recruitment tour of Washington and Oregon.
 
"Seattle Pacific just kind of felt the best. The team was great, it's a great team environment – and it's pretty close to Sitka, but still out of state."
 
While Prussian was making her debut as a Falcon runner, Eric Hansen was doing likewise as SPU's assistant coach and distance coach.
 
 

"Anna had a great showing for her first college race, leading the team and mixing it up with some good runners, and she held her own really well," he said. "The team overall looked good. I think we had some good pockets of people running together throughout the race. Matise (Mulch) was able to move up real well in the second half, which was great to see. I'm looking forward to building out from today, for sure."
 
SOLID START FOR LeBLANC, BIG DAY FOR VENABLE
Brennan LeBlanc played it smart and patient – and it paid off at the finish line.
 
Running in the mid-40s through the first mile on the 5K course, he steadily picked off runners in front of him, moving into the top 20 by the halfway point, then surging past two more down the stretch to finish 11^th in the men's race.
 
LeBlanc stopped the watch in 15 minutes, 32 seconds. That was 20 seconds faster than his time on this same layout last Sept. 3.
 
"The goal was to go out pretty easy and stay consistent," LeBlanc said, "and after the 3K really kick it in. So that's what I did, and it felt pretty good throughout the race. We came in and did what we were supposed to do today. I felt I had way too much in the tank (at the finish line), but that was kind of the goal today."
 




SPU was fifth among the eight teams with 109 points. Western Washington won easily with 30, putting all five of its scorers into the top 10.
 
Falcons sophomore Isaac Venable came through with what was easily the best race of his career. The sophomore steadily improved his position and finished 24th in 15:52. That was 62 seconds better than last year, when he placed No. 7 for the Falcons.
 
"We got out pretty conservative the first mile, a lot of people in front of me, but I kept moving up throughout the race," Venable said. "I didn't even know I was running that fast. I felt like I was getting a low 16. But sub-16 for only the second time ever was pretty good." (Venable's previous sub-16 for a 5K race was on the track with a 15:47.07 at the Portland Twilight on May 6.)
 
A pair of freshman, Jonathan Lieb and Silas Demmert were among the five scorers for Seattle Pacific, with Lieb placing No. 3 for the team and Demmert (also from Sitka) No. 5. Sophomore Gabe Endresen was in between them.
 
"The guys looked good. I'm really happy to get a more concrete idea of our starting point for the season," Hansen said. "For the most part, we cued in kind of the way we wanted to, going out on the conservative side and working up. We definitely saw some good things there. A few of our guys ran well together and were able to work together and were able to move up throughout."

UP NEXT
The Falcons will race again on Saturday, Sept. 16, at the PLU Invitational. Competition at PLU Meadows adjacent to the Pacific Lutheran campus begins at 11:00 a.m. with the women's 6K, followed by the men's 8K at 11:45.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY
Puget Sound Invitational
Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023
5 kilometers at Fort Steilacoom Park / Lakewood, Wash.
 
Team scores – 1, Western Washington 15; 2, Seattle Pacific 59; 3, Central Washington 79; 4, Puget Sound 96; 5, Northwest 118.
 
Top 5 – 1, Ashley Roeck (WWU) 17:41; 2, Sophie Wright (WWU) 18:07; 3, Mia Crocker (WWU) 18:14; 4, Emma Smith (WWU) 18:26; 5, Meaera Nystrom (WWU) 18:27.
 
SPU – 16, Anna Prussian 19:29; 18, Matise Mulch 19:41; 19, Katelyn Flolo 19:59; 20, Maya Ewing 20:21; 33, Nicki Yorges 21:22.
 
 
NCAA MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY
Puget Sound Invitational
Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023
5 kilometers at Fort Steilacoom Park / Lakewood, Wash.
 
Team scores – 1, Western Washington 30; 2, Northwest 81; 3, Puget Sound 94; 4, Central Washington 102; 5, Seattle Pacific 109; 6, Pacific Lutheran 122; 7, Green River College 173; 8, Evergreen State 206.
 
Top 5 – 1, Johann Correa (CWU) 15:00; 2, Samuel Lingwall (WWU) 15:00; 3, Micah Murphy (NW) 15:01; 4, Ben Kerr (UPS) 15;06; 5, Ryan Clough (WWU) 15:06
 
SPU – 10, Brennan LeBlanc 15:32; 19, Isaac Venable 15:52; 24, Jonathan Lieb 16:15; 26, Nathaniel Gale 16:19; 32, Silas Demmert 16:21; 68, Gabe Endresen 18:30.
 
NOTE: Finish places in the results listed above may not correspond to the finish places listed in the story because club and other individual runners were removed from the results sheet, thereby moving several runners up to higher finishing spots on the sheet as compared to where they actually finished in the race.