LAKEWOOD, Wash. – Newcomer
Esther Paulson won her collegiate debut, leading the Seattle Pacific University women's cross country team to a team victory while
Avery Erickson led the SPU men to fourth at the opening meet of the season.
FROM THE COACH
"I think the story today is our freshmen on both sides," assistant coach
Eric Hansen said. "Daniel and Alex were out 2-3 today, and Esther won the women's race. You don't see a lot of freshmen get a win in their first college race. It was fun to see the freshmen all racing together for the first time with the rest of the team. We wanted to work on packing up and racing as a unit today, and we did pretty well with that. The real test is in two weeks when we go down to Western Oregon. We will see most of the conference down there and move up to our championship race distances, so that will give us a much better idea of where we are at."
TOP FINISHERS
- The SPU women's team placed five runners inside the top nine, accruing 23 points to win the meet.
- Puget Sound finished second with 40 points.
- Esther Paulson made a statement in her collegiate debut, winning the women's 5k race with a time of 18:25.9
- Her average mile time was 5:55.9.
- Alexa Gossett finished third with a time of 18:35.4.
- Anna Prussian clocked a 19:02.5 to take fifth place in the women's race.
- Newcomers Jaylynn Erickson (sixth) and Jocelyn Schnurbusch (ninth) rounded out the scoring for the Falcons.
- The SPU men's team scored 106 points and took fourth place as a team.
- Avery Erickson led the men with a fifth-place finish, running a 15:31.9 in the 5k event.
- Erickson's average mile was 4:59.9.
- Daniel Ojeda was impressive in his first college race for the Falcons, finishing 12th with a time of 15:56.4.
- Fellow newcomer Alex Ramos Yin was solid in his debut, clocking a 17:06.2 for a 36th-place finish.
- Mason Oleson-Boreland (41st) and Silas Demmert (43rd) rounded out the scoring for the SPU men.
UP NEXT
The Falcons compete on Sept. 26 at the Mike Johnson Classic in Monmouth, Ore.
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