THE SCHEDULE                 Seattle Pacific at Bill Roe Western Washington Classic
                                                Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024
                                                Men's 8K, 10:00 a.m.     Women's 6K, 11:0 a.m.
                                                Hovander Homestead Park / Ferndale, Wash.
                                                No live Webcast        Live results
 

SEATTLE – The leading teams will be there – a few of them with national and regional rankings. Some of the leading runners will be there. A certain championship vibe might even be there.
 
For anyone with Great Northwest Athletic Conference cross country on their sports radar, Hovander Homestead Park is the place to be come Saturday morning.
 
The Seattle Pacific Falcons will be one of those teams heading north to Ferndale for the Bill Roe Western Washington Classic. Racing begins at 10:00 a.m. with the men's 8-kilometer event, followed by the women's 6K at 11:00.
 
Of the GNAC's 10 cross country programs, six are scheduled to compete. On the women's side, that includes the top five teams from last year's conference meet, two of which –Western Washington and Alaska Fairbanks – are on this week's national ranking list. On the men's side, it includes the top three conference finishers from 2023, with current No. 10-ranked WWU men among them.
 
Individually, the top four women at GNAC, SPU's Annika Esvelt among them, are expected to be on the Hovander starting line.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
The meet will not have a live Webcast, but live results will be available. The appropriate link is at the top of this story.
 
A NICE DAY TO BE RACING
Looks as if it's going to be a perfectly fine fall morning. Saturday's forecast calls for mostly cloudy skies with some sun poking through for a while. Highs will be in the upper 50s, pushing toward 60. Wind is not expected to be a factor. There is a slight chance of showers, but likely not until the afternoon when racing is complete.
 
HEADING TO HOVANDER HOMESTEAD
To reach the park in Ferndale, head north on I-5 to Exit 262 Main Street / City Center. That exit curves around to your right and brings you to Main Street. Turn right on Main and go approximately six-tenths of a mile to Hovander Drive. Turn left onto Hovander and go a short distance to Nielsen Avenue, then turn right onto Nielsen for seven-tenths of a mile. You will come to Lea Road. Turn right to reach the park entrance. For those using GPS, the address is 5299 Nielsen Avenue in Ferndale, 98248. Click on this link for Mapquest directions as if leaving from SPU.
 
Admission to the meet is free.
 
The course is primarily flat, and is a mixture of grass and trails. It is essentially one large loop around the park, which the women will run three times and the men will run four. The men's turnaround point to head down the back side of the course is just a bit farther out than the women's turnaround point.
 
It is considered a fan-friendly course.
 
SCOUTING THE BILL ROE WWU CLASSIC
On the women's side, this was already going to be a high-caliber meet with the top five GNAC teams from last year all entered. But it also is going to include perennial West Region power Chico State. Trinity Western is coming down from Langley, B.C.
 
After going just 4 kilometers in the Green River Invite two weeks ago, this will be the first full-distance 6K event for the Falcon women.
 
 

The individual race will be one that's definitely worth watching. Alaska Fairbanks seniors Kendall Kramer and Rosie Fordham, SPU' senior Annika Esvelt, and Western Washington junior Ashley Reeck went 1-2-3-4 at the GNAC Championships in Anchorage last October. There was some separation between them at the end as Kramer pulled away to win in 20:46, with Fordham at 20:55, Esvelt at 21:04, and Reeck at 21:16.
 
 

Esvelt and Reeck were on the same Fort Steilacoom Park course at the Green River meet on Sept. 14. Esvelt was second across the finish line in that race in 13:08.6; Reeck was 10th in 13:38.6. SPU junior Maya Ewing and a pair of other WWU runners were between them, as Sophie Wright was seventh in 13:34,5, Ewing eighth in 13:36.1, and Ila Davis ninth in 13:37.2. Davis was seventh at GNAC last year.
 
Chico State was dominant in its opening meet with the top two finishers and all five scorers among the top eight at the Kim Duyst Invitational in Turlock, California. Twin sisters Della and Iresh Molina, both juniors, crossed the finish line together in 20 minutes, 38.1 seconds for 6 kilometers. It then was 74 seconds back to the Wildcats chase pack.
 
Trinity Western is led by Constance Nankivell, who last week won the Pacific Lutheran Invitational for the second year in a row. Her time of 20:28.4 was almost 34 seconds faster than the 21:02.1 that she posted in 2023. On that day, she was the only runner ahead of Esvelt, who was racing again for the first time in several months and clocked 21:41.3.
 
The meet will have a new team champion, as the University of Victoria, which had three of the top six finishers and won by 25 points last year, is not entered this time.
 
 

For the men, SPU will be looking for another solid performance from sophomore Silas Demmert and junior Nathaniel Gale. Demmert had a strong second half in the 6K Green River race and wound up at the front of the Seattle Pacific pack, 51st overall. Gale was right there, just three places and three second behind at the end. The rest of the Falcons will be running to close the gap on Demmert and Gale in the first 8K of the season.

Western Washington's Kevin McDermott and Central Washington's Johan Correa could do battle. They finished 1-2 at GNAC last year, separated by four seconds. McDermott did not race at Green River, but Correa did. After the University of Portland took the top five places for a perfect score of 15, Correa was the first non-Pilot across the line, taking sixth.

Even without McDermott in action, Western packed up nicely as its five scorers were within seven places (12th through 19th) and 16 seconds of each other.
 
COACH HANSEN SAYS …
(On Saturday's meet)
"We're definitely excited for this weekend getting back up to our championships distances (8K and 6K) on both sides and getting to see most of the conference on both sides. Chico State obviously is one of the best teams in our region consistently on both sides. We're looking forward to the competitor and getting a good conference preview and letting everyone race a little bit more freely than we did last time."
 
 

(On practice the past two weeks)
"The team has been putting in some good work. Our workouts have been looking good. We're starting to transition out of the really high volume and starting to focus more on intensity. Everyone is progressing the way we want them to at this point."
 
(On what he's looking for this week)
"We want to see a little bit better pack running than we had in Week 1. People were kind of running around each other in the first meet rather than running with each other. We want to work on running as a team more in this one. The way we train, I think we get better at the longer-distance races rather than the under-distance race (4K and 6K) that we had at Fort Steilacoom. We're just looking to see everyone show a little bit more of what they have a little more freely this week."
 
RANK 'EM
For the second week in a row, the Seattle Pacific women are among the West Region's top 10 teams as compiled by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. The Falcons are No. 9. They were No. 8 the previous week after not being ranked in the preseason.
 
That makes them one of five regionally ranked teams competing in Ferndale. Western Washington is No. 1, Chico State No. 2, Alaska Fairbanks No. 4, and Simon Fraser No. 10. WWU and Chico are 11-12 nationally, with Fairbanks at No. 20.
 

GNAC HONOR GOES TO ESVELT
After racing to a second-place finish at the season-opening Green River Invitational, Annika Esvelt was named the GNAC Female Runner of the Week on Sept. 16.
 
It was Esvelt's fourth Runner of the Week award for cross country. A total of four others won that many in their careers, There is one five-time winner, two six-time winners, and one – former SPU star Jessica Pixler – who won it 12 times.
 
"It was really fun – the perfect day for cross country," Esvelt said. "I wish I could have pulled off a win, but that's OK – it was still fun, and I'm really proud of my time. I was super-sore, but once you get out there, you forget about all of that.:
 
PACKING UP
One of the things coach Eric Hansen was looking for at the Green River meet, particularly on the women's side, was how well the Falcons could run as a group behind Annika Esvelt.
 
Maya Ewing was easily at the front of that chase pack with her eighth-place time of 13:36. The next five SPU runners were all within a minute of her, from grad student newcomer Madelyn Buckley 22nd in 13:57 at the No. 3 team scoring spot to freshman Alexa Gossett 40th in 14:28 at the No. 5 spot. Junior Matise Mulch was in between them, 32nd in 14:12.
 
Sophomore Anna Prussian, racing for the first time since last fall (she missed the indoor and outdoor track seasons with an injury) was within sight of that top 5, placing No. 6 for the team and 42nd overall in 14:32.
 
AROUND THE GNAC AND THE WEST
Last week was rather quiet in the GNAC, with just two schools competing. Central Washington's Ramon Rodriguez and Johan Correa went 1-2 at the Pacific Lutheran Invitational, finishing just one second apart for 8 kilometers (24:26.3 – 24:27.3).The Wildcats finished second to George Fox.
 
While most of the GNAC will be in Ferndale this week, Western Oregon and Northwest Nazarene will be in Monmouth at the Mike Johnson Classic.
 
In the California Collegiate Athletic Association, a handful of the teams will race at the Cougar Challenge in San Marcos. Along with Chico State (No. 7 men, No. 12 women) Cal Poly Pomona has both of its teams in the national rankings (No. 20 men, No. 29 women). Stanislaus State is No. 23 on the women's side. While Chico is in Ferndale on Saturday, Pomona and Stanislaus are off this weekend.
 
The Pacific West Conference also has a quiet week, with three teams racing in San Marcos. Both Biola teams are on the national list with the men at No. 15 and the women at No. 16. Azusa Pacific's men are No. 29.
 
UP NEXT
The SPU women have their sights set on making it to the NCAA Division II nationals. They'll have a chance to make their case on Saturday, Oct. 12, when they run at the Lewis Crossover in Romeoville, Ill. The 6-kilometer race begins at 7:45 a.m. Pacific time. It is widely regarded as the premier regular-season Division II meet, as many teams with national aspirations make it a point to compete there.
 
Last year, of the 34 teams that made the NCAA field, 21 raced at Lewis. Of the 10 at-large bids awarded as part of that 34-team field, five raced at Lewis, effectively bolstering their resume'.
 
The SPU men, along with the women who do not make the trip to Illinois, will head across town to Lower Woodland Park for the Emerald City Open. The 8K men's race is a 10:30 a.m., with the women's 6K set for 11:15.
 
Lewis and Emerald City will be the regular-season finales.


SPU SOCIAL 

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

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