SEATTLE – The biggest cross country meets of the season are still in front of them. On Saturday morning,
Anna Prussian and her Seattle Pacific teammates showed that they are primed for them.
Competing on what will be the toughest course they'll race on all year, Prussian,
Esther Paulson and
Alexa Gossett went 2-3-4, leading the Falcons to a first-place team finish in the Emerald City Open at very hilly Lower Woodland Park.
Their performance helped SPU top the team standings with 29 points.
In the 8K men's race, Avery Erickson led the way for the Falcons, placing sixth overall. Seattle Pacific finished third teamwise with 99 points. Western Washington won with 20.
FROM DISTANCE COACH ERIC HANSEN
"I think we got a good idea two weeks ago at Western Oregon of what we needed to work on as far as execution of a race, and today we really about focusing on those parts of our race – and they did a pretty good job of that," Hansen said of the women's team. "A lot of our freshmen had a hard time navigating the middle part at Western Oregon. The way this course (three 2-kilometer loops) is set up, the second 2K needed to be our hardest, and people got after it a little bit.
"They moved up really well throughout the race. We are really close to putting a good race together."
Likewise, the SPU men were focusing on some specific things, and Hansen saw some improvements despite having a less-than-fully-healthy squad.
"Sam (Wieland) and Mason (Oleson-Borland) were dealing with some nagging injuries and they finally got to race for the first time," he said of his sophomores. "They've been putting in the work and doing a lot of cross training trying to get healthy. Given the circumstances, they ran as well as we could have hoped."
He also liked what he saw from junior Avery Erickson (who finished sixth overall) and freshman Daniel Ojeda (11
th).
"Avery is very close to putting it all together on race day," Hansen said. "Daniel looked better today than he did at Western Oregon. This was his second 8K, and he got stronger as the race went on – at this course, that's a great thing. You can't ask for much more than that, especially from a freshman."
Overall, Hansen believes the Falcons are pointing in the right direction as they prepare for their regular-season finale in two weeks in Spokane and the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships on Nov. 7.
"Overall, this was a decent day. Today was about executing and working on the parts of our race that need attention, and we did that," he said.
Avery Erickson finished 6th.
HOW IT WENT
--As per Hansen's meet plan, junior
Alexa Gossett set the pace for SPU on first 2K loop. "We wanted her to be a little more comfortable being up front," Hansen said. Prussian and Paulson following in close pursuit.
--Prussian moved into the lead early on the second loop. She maintained it until about one kilometer remained.
--Claire DeVoe, competing unattached, surged ahead and stayed there all the way through the finish line, stopping the watch in 22 minutes, 35.78 seconds.
--Then came the 2-3-4 finish of Prussian, Paulson, and Gossett. Prussian came across in 22:59.35, Paulson clocked 23:26.23, and Gossett was right behind in 23:27.07.
--Freshman
Jaylynn Erickson cracked the top 10, placing seventh in 24;02.34. Rounding out SPU's scoring was freshman
Jocelyn Schnurbusch, placing 14th in 24:53.85.
--Freshmen
Olivia Beaudin and junior
Nicole Pierce both were among the top 20: Beaudin 16th in 24:55.95; Pierce 18th in 25:26.31.
--Though never in the lead, Erickson was among the front runners for a good chunk of the men's 8K race. He wound up a time of 26:46.81.
--Ojeda was the only other Falcon among the top 20, securing 11th in 27:16.94.
--Completing the scoring were freshman Alejandro Ramos Yin (29th in 28:59.75), senior Silas Demmert (35th in 29:52.59) and sophomore Oleson-Borland (38th in 30:14.38).
FROM JUNIOR ANNA PRUSSIAN
"It was good. I went out and kind of hung with my teammates for the first lap and was feeling pretty good," said the native of Sitka, Alaska. "On the rest of it, I decided to take off a little bit. It's a hard course, but I really like the hills."
Prussian is liking the way the team has been developing, even with so many newcomers on the roster.
"We're running really well. It's definitely a very different team (with five freshmen), but as a whole, we're doing well,
BEYOND THE RESULTS SHEET
--The women's team title was Seattle Pacific's second in three meets. They won the season-opening Puget Sound Invitational on Sept. 14 at Fort Steilacoom Park.
--It was just by 65 hundredths of a second, but Prussian broke 23 minutes for the first time on the Lower Woodland. Her previous best was 23:04.6 last fall. In her first Lower Woodland race as a freshman in 2023, she clocked 24:59.9.
--Among the competitors in the men's race on Saturday was former SPU standout
Issac Venable. Now racing for Club Northwest, he took second place in 26:16.01. That was way faster than his previous best of 26:50.1, set last October with the Falcons. He finished 11th in that meet.
UP NEXT
The Falcons will wrap up the regular season on Friday, Oct. 23, when they head to Spokane for the
Tyson Invite. That meet will take place at The Course in Spokane Valley, a brand-new layout that runs along the Spokane River. The women's 6K is at 3:00 p.m., followed by the men's 8K at 3:45.
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