PORTLAND, Ore. – The Great Northwest Athletic Conference announced its Cross Country Preseason Coaches Poll on Monday, with the Seattle Pacific University women's team selected to finish fifth in the standings while the men were chosen eighth.
The SPU women earned 61 points in the poll. They trail Alaska Fairbanks by eight points for fourth. Western Washington received all 10 first-place votes in the poll.
The Falcons are coming off a successful 2024 season. The team tied for third at last season's GNAC Championships. Returning for the SPU women are experienced athletes in
Maya Ewing,
Katelyn Flolo, and
Matise Mulch. Ewing had a strong 2024 campaign, accruing All-GNAC honors, USTFCCCA All-West Region honors, and USTFCCCA All-Academic honors a season ago. Flolo returns as a two-time GNAC All-Academic award winner. Mulch does well in the classroom as well, with two GNAC All-Academic team appearances and two USTFCCCA national All-Academic team selections.
"We graduated a couple of our key scorers this year," assistant coach
Eric Hansen said. "While it isn't easy to replace someone like
Annika Esvelt, Maya [Ewing] has really come into her own as a runner over the past year and is very capable of filling that role for us. The rest of our returning squad has grown a lot over the past year as well, and I believe we can be much stronger at our 2-5 spots than we were a year ago when we tied for third at the GNAC Championships."
The SPU men earned 32 points in the poll, good enough for eighth place. They trailed the Nanooks by seven points for seventh. Like the women, the Western Washington men were chosen to win the conference with eight first-place votes. Northwest Nazarene earned two first-place votes and trails the Vikings by six points in the poll.
Isaac Venable and
Nathaniel Gale return to the men's team, which has the most experienced members. Both Venable and Gale are two-time GNAC All-Academic team selections. The men's team features plenty of newcomers, as
Avery Erickson,
Mason Borland,
Darian Penn,
Sam Wieland, and
Alex Venable will compete for the Falcons for the first time in 2025.
"We have a young, unproven team on the men's side," Hansen said. "We are excited about the class that we are bringing in this year and believe they have some great potential, but they will have to earn the respect from the rest of the conference with their racing."
The Falcons run their first race on Sept. 13. Green River College hosts the Green River Invitational at Fort Steilacoom Park. It's the second season in a row that the Falcons will open the year at this event. SPU makes the trip to Monmouth, Ore., for the Mike Johnson Classic on Sept. 27. The race is run at the Ash Creek Preserve and is hosted by GNAC member Western Oregon.
The Falcons close out their regular season in Seattle, where they'll compete at the Emerald City Open at Lower Woodland Park. Races are scheduled for Oct. 11.
SPU heads east for the GNAC Championships this year. Montana State University Billings will host the 2025 GNAC Championships. The Falcons take on the Amend Park course to find out where they rank amongst the GNAC's best.
Those who qualify for the NCAA West Regionals will run a familiar course from an earlier part of the season. The event on Nov. 8 takes place in Monmouth, Ore., on the Ash Creek Preserve course. The NCAA National Championships take place on Nov. 22 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The best of the best race on the Wayne E Danehl National Cross Country Course to decide the 2025 National Champions.
"The goal for any season is always to finish higher than you were projected to," Hansen said. "What it will ultimately come down to is the quality of work they put in this summer and will continue to put in over these next two months. And of course, showing up on race day."
SPU SOCIAL
Seattle's only NCAA Division II Scholarship Program | #GoFalcons
