THE SCHEDULE
Saturday, Nov. 23               Seattle Pacific at NCAA Division II Championships
                                      Men's 10K, 10:00 a.m.        Women's 6K, 11:15 a.m.
                                      Arcade Creek Cross Country Course / Sacramento, Calif.
                                      Live Webcast        Live results
                                             Meet Central

 
SEATTLE – For the past three years, Annika Esvelt has run distance races of every length at every competitive level …
 
… except for one race at one competitive level.
 
Come Saturday morning, the Seattle Pacific senior star will fill in that hole on her lengthy list of collegiate accomplishments.
 
Esvelt will step to the startling at Arcade Creek Cross Country Course in Sacramento for the NCAA Division II Championships. The starting gun for the 6-kilometer race goes off at 11:15 a.m.
 
Since coming onto the scene as a redshirt freshman in 2021, Esvelt has won conference championships for indoor and outdoor track. She has made multiple national meets for both the winter and spring seasons, and has earned All-American status on banked indoor ovals and flat outdoor ones.
 
She has been All-Conference and All-Region during both track seasons and during the fall cross country season.
 
But Esvelt has never gotten to run a national championship race on the trails. This weekend, she finally will.
 
KEEPING TRACK OF THE ACTION
Saturday's meet will have a free live Webcast on ncaa.com and free live results. The appropriate links for both can be found at the top of this story.
 
CALIFORNIA SUN? NOT THIS TIME
It has been a wet week in Sacramento and is going to continue that way at least through Friday when the forecast calls for periods of rain, sometimes heavy. The skies are expected to be dry on Saturday, but the course likely will be soggy all over and possibly sloppy in spots. Saturday's temperatures are expected to be in the low 60s with at least partial sunbreaks.
  MOSTLY FLAT, BUT MAYBE NOT SO FAST
Under ideal dry conditions, competitors would have some potentially speedy times. Arcade Creek is actually a golf course that occasionally has served as a host for big-time cross country meets.
 
It is primarily flat, and in drier weather is hard, making it seem almost like running on a track. But this week's rain will have softened up the course, so times might not be as fast.
 
There are a few rolling hills. They aren't steep by any means, but the legs certainly will notice them.

Click on this link for a view of the course map.
 
SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- Seattle Pacific's last NCAA Championships runners were part of the women's team that qualified in 2019. That meet also was at Arcade Creek.
-- The top Falcons finisher that day was junior Dania Holmberg. She placed 21st in 20 minutes, 48.8 seconds.
-- Even with just six runners on the starting line, SPU placed 12th.
-- Earlier that season, the Falcons also ran at Arcade Creek in the Capital Cross Challenge, a pre-nationals meet. Kaylee Mitchell won in 20:30.2.
--This is the eighth time the D2 nationals will be in California.
 

-- The Falcons have four individual national crowns. Along with Jessica Pixler's three straight (2007-08-09), Joan Corbin won the AIAW Division II championship in 1979.
-- In addition to the four titles, SPU runners have had six other national top-10 finishes. The only one to make it more than once was Laurie Shansby (third in the 1980 and 1981 AIAWs.
-- SPU has had 17 cross country All-Americans. The most recent one was Dania Holmberg, who was 21st in 2019 in Sacramento. The top 40 at nationals are accorded All-American status by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
 
SCOUTING THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
As she makes her way around the Arcade Creek layout on Saturday, Annika Esvelt will see lots of familiar faces from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and from the West Region. Among them will be the Alaska Fairbanks duo of Kendall Kramer and Rosie Fordham. Kramer won the GNAC meet (Esvelt was third) and Fordham was first across the finish line at West Regional (Esvelt was sixth).
 
Also there from the West will be the Molina twins from Chico State. Della (fourth at Regionals) and Iresh (fifth). Jessika Kampman of Azusa Pacific, who joined Esvelt as one of the two automatic individual qualifiers from the West, also will be on the starting line. Western Washington, led by Ashley Reeck, qualified as a team. Rachel Watkins of Simon Fraser was invited as an at-large individual qualifier.
 
But the front of the pack will have a different look. Of last year's top 10 finishers in Joplin, MIssouri, five graduated. The 2023 champion, Lindsay Cunningham of Winona State, transferred to Wisconsin for her senior year. Fifth-place Khot Juac of Sioux Falls, placed fifth at this year's Lewis Crossover (Esvelt was 13thin that meet), but did not run after that, and Sioux Falls did not qualify as a team.
 
Sophomore Sarah Koomson of West Texas A&M was sixth. She did not finish at the South Central Regionals on Nov. 9, but West Texas did qualify as a team. Allison Beasley of Western Colorado, who was ninth, is redshirting.
 
Anna Fauske of UC Colorado Springs was ninth last year and certainly will be a contender. She was second at the South Central Regionals, just four seconds behind champion Tristian Spence, a sophomore from Adams State. Both had sub 22s (21:18.6 and 21:20.7, respectively). In fact, the top six at that meet had sub 22s. Helen Braybrook of Colorado State Pueblo, whom Falcons fans might remember as Vanessa Aniteye's biggest challenger when Aniteye won the NCAA indoor 800 meters in 2023, was seventh at South Central in 22:01.
 

ANNIKA ESVELT FACTS & FIGURES
Year – Senior.
Hometown – Spokane, Wash. (West Valley-Spokane HS).
Major – Applied Human Biology / Exercise Science.
How she made the NCAAs – Set the early pace at West Regionals in Billings on Nov. 9, then came through with a sixth-place finish behind the 1-2 UAF combo of Rosie Fordham and Kendall Kramer, third-place Jessica Kampman of Azusa Pacific, and the 4-5 combo of Della and Iresh Molina of Chico State. Fordham, Kramer, and the Molina twins qualified with their teams, leaving Kampman and Esvelt as the automatic individual qualifiers.
Previous national appearances – Outdoor track: 2 (2nd 10,000; 7th 5000 in 2024; 4th 10,000; 10th 5000 in 2022).  Indoor track: 2 (10th 5000 in 2024; 8th 5000 in 2022).
What else she has done – Placed 3rd at the GNAC Championships on Oct. 26 in Bellingham with a time of 21:02.3, her fastest-ever time at a GNAC meet. … Placed 6th at West Regionals in 20:47.72, her second sub-21 and her fastest-ever college 6K time.
Storylines – Esvelt was a true freshman in 2020, but that season got shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic, thereby giving her another year of eligibility. She originally was planning to move on after the 2023-24 academic year, but ultimately decided to come back since she had a year of eligibility left in all three running seasons (cross, indoor track and outdoor track). … Had her best-ever national finish last spring when she placed second in the 10,000 meters at NCAA outdoors, running stride for stride with Florence Uwajeneza of West Texas A&M until Uwajeneza pulled away on the final lap.
 

DISTANCE COACH ERIC HANSEN SAYS …
(On making it this far)
"With Annika at a championship, anything is possible. Getting over this hump of getting past regionals I think was a bigger thing for her now that she has been able to put that behind her."
 
(On strategy for Saturday)
"She's free to race the way she wants to. We're definitely making some adjustments as far as race strategy goes. She has already shown she can run with the best in the country and she is one of the best in the country. But we also know that at nationals, it all comes down to who's got it on that day and who executes well."
 
ANNIKA SAYS …
(On the race)
"I am super, super excited. I just want to have my best race ever because it will be my last one (for cross country) and I want to make the most of it."
 
(On her mindset heading into Saturday)
"I'm definitely in the best position that I've probably been in to have my best race ever. I'm confident and excited. I'm interested to run in such a large field (approximately 260 competitors). I don't think I've ever run with that many people, so I'm definitely excited."
 
(On racing on a wet course)
"It has the possibility of being maybe a little muddy or rainy. I feel like I'm perfectly prepared for those conditions. I think I would prefer dry, but I don't mind muddy. I'm pretty used to it."
 
UP NEXT
This will do it for the cross country season. The Falcons will start the indoor track campaign on Saturday, Dec. 14, at the Spokane Invitational. Competition will be in The Podium. Field events begin at 9:00 a.m. and track events start at 10:00 a.m.