THE SCHEDULE
Saturday, Sept. 14               Seattle Pacific at Green River Invitational
                                             Fort Steilacoom Park / Steilacoom, Wash.
                                             Women's 4K, 11:00 a.m.    Men's 6K, 11:45 a.m.
                                             No live Webcast     Live results


SEATTLE – A September Saturday in Steilacoom.
 
Sounds as if it's time for the start of another cross country season for the Seattle Pacific Falcons.
 
For the third consecutive year, SPU will head south for the first meet on the fall calendar. It has a different name, now known as the Green River Invitational, but the gathering place will still be Fort Steilacoom Park come Saturday morning.
 
The 4-kilometer women's race starts at 11:00 a.m., followed by the 6K men's event at 11:45.
 
Previously, this season-opening "rust buster" was known as the Puget Sound Invitational, sponsored by UPS. Last year, the Falcon women were second among the five teams, and the men were fifth out of eight.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
The meet will not have a Webcast, but live results will be available. The appropriate link is at the top of this story.
 
JUST ABOUT RIGHT FOR RACING
Last year's meet in Steilacoom was definitely on the warm side, with the thermometer hitting about 75 degrees under clear skies.
 
That won't be the case this time. Saturday's forecast calls for mostly cloudy with possible sun breaks and temperatures in the low to mid 60s at race time. There's even the possibility of a spot shower or two.
 
FINDING FORT STEILACOOM
Heading south on Interstate 5 from Seattle, take Exit 129 (South 72nd / South 84th). Turn right (west) onto S. 74th street and continue for 2.7 miles. That becomes Custer Road, and remain on that for another 1.2 miles to 88th Street Southwest. Turn right and continue for 0.3 miles, and that becomes Steilacoom Boulevard. Continue for 1.9 miles. The park (9601 Steilacoom Blvd. SW, Lakewood, Wash. 98498) will be on your left. It'll be busy, but the park does have a decent-sized parking lot.

Click on this link for complete directions.
 
SCOUTING THE GREEN RIVER INVITATIONAL
This is a low-key season-opener, and the distances (4K for the women, 6K for the men) are abbreviated from the customary 6K / 8K, But it could have the feel of a mini-GNAC meet, as five of the conference's 10 schools – SPU, Central Washington, Saint Martin's, Simon Fraser, and Western Washington – are scheduled to compete.
 
The one veteran Falcon who hasn't run this course before is the one who has a chance to win the race. That would be senior Annika Esvelt, who is coming off a solid 2023-24 year across all three running seasons: third at GNAC and 20th at West Regionals in cross country, GNAC indoor track champion in the 3000 and 10th at NCAA in the 5000, and double All-American at NCAA outdoor track with second in the 10,000 and seventh in the 5000.
 
A key for SPU will be how the chase pack performs – and it's a pack with plenty of experience.
 
Among the returners are Matise Mulch (fifth in the GNAC outdoor 10,000), Maya Ewing (eighth in the GNAC indoor 5K, sixth in the outdoor steeplechase and ninth in the 5K) and Anna Prussian (first Falcon finisher at last year's Steilacoom meet, 36th at GNAC, missed track with an injury).
 
Making her Falcon debut on Saturday will be Madelyn Buckley, a senior who was a two-time Division III All-Region runner at Whitworth.
 
Last year, Western Washington had the first 14 finishers in this meet, so the Falcons will be looking to move themselves farther up into the mix with the blue-clad Vikings.
 
Of the six SPU men who ran at Fort Steilacoom last September, five are back and looking to climb up the finish list.
 
Leading the group of returners is junior Isaac Venable, who placed 19th and was the No. 2 Seattle Pacific runner across the line behind 10th-place Brennan LeBlanc (who will be back for track, but has completed his cross country eligibility). Venable was a steady performer for the Falcons, scoring either No. 2 or No. 3 for the team all season.
 
When Venable wasn't in the No. 2 spot, Silas Demmert was. Now a sophomore, he made his college debut in this meet by finishing No. 5 for the team and 43^rd overall, but steadily stepped up in every race after that.
 
Other scorers in the 2023 at Steilacoom were Jonathan Lieb (now a sophomore) and Nathaniel Gale (now a junior.)
 
In the GNAC preseason coaches poll, the men were picked for an eighth-place finish, with Saint Martin's at No. 7 and Central Washington at No. 6. Saturday's meet will offer the Falcons a chance to see how close they are to both of those teams.
 




SCOUTING THE 2024 FALCONS
Everyone who ran for the Falcon women last fall is back for another go, with the aim of reaching the NCAA Division II nationals on Nov. 23 in Sacramento.
 
 

At the front of the pack – and potentially at the front of the conference pack – is senior Annika Esvelt. She ran third at last year's GNAC meet in Anchorage, trailing only the 1-2 Alaska Fairbanks combo of Kendall Kramer and Rosie Fordham (both of whom are on the roster again for the Nanooks).
 
Esvelt went on to place 20th at West Regionals, then went to the NCAAs for both indoor track (10th in the 5000) and outdoor track (second in the 10K, seventh in the 5K).

 

Expected to lead the chase group behind Esvelt are juniors Matise Mulch and Maya Ewing. Mulch was 28th and Ewing 51st at GNAC. Both then scored at GNAC outdoors, with Mulch fifth in the 10,000 and Ewing sixth in the steeplechase.
 
 

Also returning from SPU's conference scoring group are sophomore Anna Prussian (36th overall) and junior Katelyn Flolo (54th), along with senior Nicki Yorges (56th).
 
 

The Falcons are bringing six newcomers aboard. One potential big-impact addition is grad student Madelyn Buckley. She ran in three straight NCAA Division III West Regional meets and one national meet for Whitworth. Last fall, she finished a personal-best 24th at Regionals also was fifth at the Northwest Conference Championships.
 
At last year's Pacific Lutheran Invitational in Tacoma, a meet that also included SPU, Buckley was 25th overall in 23 minutes, 58.5 seconds for 6 kilometers, right on the heels of Prussian (23rd in 23:55.9) and Ewing (24th in 23:58.0). That would have made her the No. 5 Falcon scorer. Buckley later posted outdoor track personal bests in the 5000 (18:00.43) and 10,000 (38:29.68). Both of those times would have scored at GNAC (third in the 5K, sixth in the 10K).
 
Among the freshmen, Ella Milanovich (Wilsonville, Ore.) was 22nd at last year's Oregon Class 5A (large school) state meet. Nicole Pierce ran to back-to-back top-5 finishes at the Class 5A (large school) New Mexico state meet (fifth in 2022, third in 2023).
 
 

Silas Demmert and Isaac Venable give Seattle Pacific a solid pair of front runners on the men's side. Demmert, a sophomore, was the team's No. 2 scorer (behind Brennan LeBlanc, who has completed his cross country eligibility but still has track eligibility remaining) for the final for meets of the year. He was 38th at GNAC and 84th at West Regionals.
 
Venable is a junior who scored either No. 2 (two meets) or No. 3 (four meets). He was 47th at GNAC and 102nd at Regionals.

 

Junior Nathaniel Gale and sophomore Jonathan Lieb are the other returning GNAC scorers. Lieb was No. 4 (62nd overall), and subsequently was the No. 4 team finisher at Regionals (132nd), as well. Gale was No. 5 at GNAC (71st overall). Senior Gabe Endresen was not a scorer at GNAC, but did score at Regionals as the No. 5 Falcon across the finish line (142nd).
 
The only freshman coming aboard is Nathan Korth from Bonney Lake (southeast of Tacoma). He is a two-time Washington Class 3A (medium-large school) state qualifier.
 




DISTANCE COACH ERIC HANSEN SAYS ...
(On the early workouts)
"It's good to see the work everyone has put in throughout the summer. We had our first couple workouts as a team, and you can tell everyone has put in some good mileage this summer. We've had some good groups rolling together, which has been fun to see.
 
(On the women's team)
"Our big goal is to get the team to Sacramento in November. Annika (Esvelt) looks as fit now as she was during outdoors, which is a pretty good sign. We have a pretty nice pack rolling behind her. We have freshmen who have looked great throughout camp so far. I don't know what the order (of the pack) is going to be, and that's fun for me. As a team, that says a lot abut the depth that I think we're going to have this year."
 
(On the men's team)
"Our guys have put in some great work over the summer, even going all the way back to track season. I'm happy that they're going to see some the rewards for their hard work start to pay off. Some of our guys coming back are at a level of fitness that they haven't seen before, so that's exciting. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing them get out there. I think they might surprise themselves a little bit, and hopefully surprise some other people."
 
MOSTLY NEARBY RACES …
Saturday will be the first of four regular-season meets for the Falcons, and three of them will be within easy driving distance.
 
In addition to Steilacoom, Seattle Pacific will be racing in Ferndale, just south of the U.S.-Canada border, on Sept. 28 at the Bill Roe Western Washington Classic. It will be the first time for the Falcons at Hovander Homestead Park.
 
The finale will be Emerald City Open on Saturday, Oct. 12 just a few minutes away from campus at Lower Woodland Park.
 
The GNAC Championships also will be a driveable trip. Those races will take place at Sudden Valley Golf Course, just east of Bellingham, on Saturday, Oct. 26.
 
… EXCEPT FOR A VERY BIG ONE IN ILLINOIS
The one meet not mentioned above is much more than a drive across town. Matter of fact, it's halfway across the country.
 
For the first time in program history, the Falcon women are running in the Lewis Invitational, set for Oct. 12 in Romeoville, Ill.
 
The Lewis meet is regarded as one of the best D2 meets in the country and one of the most crucial meets for teams with aspirations of qualifying for nationals.
 
Last year, of the 34 teams that made it to the NCAAs, 21 raced at Lewis. Of those, 16 went on to become automatic qualifiers by placing among the top three at their respective regional meets. For the 10 available at-large spots, five of the teams that were selected raced at Lewis.
 
"Especially on the women's side this year, it's going to be as deep as it has ever been," SPU assistant coach / distance coach Eric Hansen said of the West Region. "Most teams that think they have a shot (at making nationals) are probably going to be at this meet."
 
This year's NCAA West Regionals are in Billings, Montana, and the nationals are in Sacramento.

POLLING PLACE
The Seattle Pacific women were picked for a seventh-place finish, and the men were picked for eighth in the GNAC preseason coaches poll. The women received 42 points in the voting, and the men picked up 31 points.
 
Defending champion Western Washington is the favorite on both sides. The women were a near-unanimous No. 1 with nine of the 10 first-place votes and 99 points. The other first-place vote went to Alaska Fairbanks, which totaled 81 points.
 
WWU's men were a unanimous pick with all 10 first-place votes and 100 points. Simon Fraser was next with 83.
 
AROUND THE GNAC
So far, just four of the GNACs 10 teams have seen action, but all 10 will have a race under their shoes by the end of this weekend.
 
Along with the five schools set for Steilacoom, Western Oregon will host the Ash Creek Collegiate, and Northwest Nazarene will be at the WSU Cougar Classic in Colfax.
 
On Aug. 31, the Alaska Fairbanks women edged Alaska Anchorage in the annual Seawolf Throwdown dual, 26-29. Nanooks stars Kendall Kramer and Rosie Fordham, who went 1-2 in last year's GNACs, went 1-2 again on the same 6-kilometer course at Anchorage's Kincaid Park. Kramer clocked 20:42.3, Fordham went 20:55.1. (Kramer was 20:46.2, Fordham 20:55.5 at GNAC.)  Fairbanks also won the men's dual, 27-30. UAA's John Peckham was the individual winner in 25:54.5 for 8K
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons are off from competition next week, then head north to Ferndale on Sept. 28 for the Bill Roe Western Washington Classic at Hovander Homestead Park. The men go first with their 8-kilometer race at 10:00 a.m., followed by the women's 6K at 11:00 a.m.


SPU SOCIAL 

• Twitter - @SPUSports & @SPUXCTF
• Instagram - @SPUSports & @spuxctf
• Facebook - /SPUSports

Seattle's only NCAA Division II Scholarship Program | #GoFalcons