THE SCHEDULE                 Seattle Pacific at Capital Cross Challenge
                                                Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019
                                                Women's Invitational 6K, 10:40 a.m.     Men not competing
                                                Arcade Creek Golf Course / Sacramento, Calif..
                                                Splits / Results
                                                No live Webcast 

 
        Weekly release (PDF)

SEATTLE – On the calendar, it's a regular-season cross country meet.
 
In the bigger picture, it's a regular-season meet loaded with postseason intrigue.
 
It's happening on Saturday morning in Sacramento when the Seattle Pacific women and almost every top-caliber team in the West Region will gather on the starting line for the Capital Cross Challenge.
 
The 6-kilometer Women's Invitational race – which will include, among others, Alaska Anchorage, Simon Fraser, and Chico State – is set for 10:40 a.m. It will be run on Arcade Creek Golf Course at Haggin Oaks – the very same course that will host the NCAA Division II nationals in November.
 
The No. 8-ranked Falcons are coming in off a solid start to their season at last Saturday's PLU Invitational in Tacoma, as Kaylee Mitchell and Kate Lilly went 1-2, and Seattle Pacific won the team title by 40 points ahead of second-place Whitman.
 
KEEPING TRACK OF THE ACTION
The meet is slated to have live splits as the race progresses, and final results immediately afterward. The Women's Invitational results can be found by clicking on this link.
 
At the top of that same page are links to results from the other races in the meet, from college to junior high.
 
MIGHT BE A WET ONE
After a record-tying 100-degree day on Wednesday, conditions are expected to change rapidly by Saturday morning.
 
The forecast calls for clouds and a 50 percent chance of rain or drizzle. Temperatures, however, will be pleasant for running, with the thermometer in the low to mid 60s. The clouds eventually will give way to sun.

COULD BE A SPEEDY ONE
The layout around Arcade Creek is mostly flat. Like many golf courses that are used for cross country, it has a few rolling-type hills interspersed throughout, but there are no significant uphills or downhills.
 
Those in attendance should be able to see a good chunk of the race. After a reasonable length of straight stretch out of the starting area, runners in the 6K race begin the first of two U-shaped loops: first around the outside of the U, then turning to their left to trace the inside of the U, curving around to their left again to back to the outside, then a repeat of the inside. Coming out of the inside loop for the second time, runners head to the finish line.
 
Click on this link for a video look at the course.
 
MITCHELL REAPS THE REWARD
On the heels of her season-opening victory in the PLU Invitational, sophomore Kaylee Mitchell was named the Great Northwest Athletic Conference's Female Athlete of the Week for women's cross country this past Monday.

It was the second straight opening-day win for the native of Salem, Oregon. Last year in Ellensburg, she made her college debut by winning the Central Washington Invitational – and was Athlete of the Week for that effort, too.
 
This is her second Athlete of the Week award. The first one came after her Central Washington win last September.
 




SCOUTING THE CAPITAL CROSS CHALLENGE
Of the 10 teams in this week's USTFCCCA West Region rankings, nine are scheduled to be on the starting line. (And, seven of those nine are nationally ranked.) The only exception is West No. 4 and national No. 15 Western Washington. The Vikings are running a top-caliber meet themselves, the Roy Griak Invitational in St. Paul, Minnesota.
 
 

Seattle Pacific's front three of sophomore Kaylee Mitchell, senior Kate Lilly, and junior Dania Holmberg is regarded as one of the best to be found anywhere. They certainly lived up to that at the PLU Invite. Even with Mitchell as far out in front as she was, the three of them finished within 60 seconds of each other.
 
The Nos. 4-7 runners, led by redshirt freshman Kelsey Washenberger in ninth place overall, were packed within 45 seconds. Part of their focus this week will be to narrow the gap on the front-running trio.
 
Alaska Anchorage has had just one meet so far, that being a season-opening dual against Alaska Fairbanks on Aug. 31, which the Seawolves won easily. Among their returners is defending GNAC and NCAA West Region champion Emmah Chelimo, a senior. Right alongside her in Fairbanks was junior teammate Nancy Jeptoo, who was fifth at GNAC last fall.
 
Simon Fraser has a pair of third-place finishes so far, one at the Central Washington Invite in Ellensburg, the other in the Sundowner meet on Western Oregon's Ash Creek Preserve course. Olivia Willett, a junior, led the Clan in both races. At Ash Creek, a full 6K championship course that alternates between hosting GNAC and West Regionals, Simon Fraser had three in the top 10, separated by just 20 seconds. Its entire five-runner scoring group was within 56 seconds (22:54 to 23:50) and 21 places (6^th to 27^th).
 
Chico State has one meet under its shoes, placing third at the UC Davis-hosted Stump Invitational on Sept. 13 – the only D2 school in the seven-team field. (The other six were D1's.) Of the five Wildcats scorers, four were in the top 25, led by junior Talia Swangler, in 11^th.
 
Along with the seven nationally ranked West teams, Colorado Mines, ranked No. 5 nationally, also is heading to Sacramento. Its only meet has been the UC Colorado Springs Rust Buster. Mines, of the powerful Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, had all five scorers in the top 9 for the 5-kilometer race, bunched within 46 seconds, and won by 34 points. Sophomore Zoe Baker and grad student Chloe Cook went 1-2.
 
COACH CHRIS REED SAYS …
(On entering a meet of this caliber)
"We felt it was really important for this group, obviously for the location, it being on the NCAA course, but more than anything, preparing for the level of competition we want to prepare for. We want to know what to do in big-meet situations on big stages. This is a group, based on the experience of last year on the cross country course and the track, they've been on big stages, and we've had a lot of these ladies do well on the big stage. It will be exciting to test ourselves against some of these nationally ranked teams."

 

(On the team's mindset)
"They're excited, more than anything. Obviously, there'll be some nerves with a big field like this. It's a lot of people. Many of these ladies haven't raced in a field this big since certain high school meets. They're excited for the competition and the challenge."
 
(On results vs. running)
"You want the results to be good. But the results are not going to be good unless you focus on how you run. We want to be competitive, we want to be confident, we want to run fast, and we want to run for each other. If we focus on those things, the outcome will be as good as it's going to be. We'll definitely be interested in the outcome once all is said and done, but that's not going to be our focus going into the meet."
 
SOLID START FOR WASHENBERGER
As a true freshman last year, Kelsey Washenberger's focus was solely on track – and that certainly yielded some positive, productive results. She scored in the mile, the 3000, and was on the second-place distance medley relay at GNAC indoors. Then, she took up the steeplechase outdoors, and ran to a sixth-place GNAC finish in that event, along with ninth in the 5000.
 
 

As those winter and spring seasons progressed, it became evident that cross country would be on her schedule this fall.
 
Last Saturday, Washenberger was back on the competitive trails for the first time in almost two years, finishing No. 4 for the Falcons and ninth overall at PLU.
 
Her last cross country race had been the NXR Northwest Regional Championships on Nov. 11, 2017, in which she placed 35^th.
 
"It was really fun just to get back out there because cross country is definitely my favorite season," Washenberger said. "It was just an awesome opportunity to get the legs going at that distance."
 
THE FIRST WAS THEIR FASTEST … SO FAR
Although cross country country courses vary from meet to meet, each of them offering its own challenges as to how fast one can run, .the top three Falcon women all recorded their best-ever 6-kilometer cross country times last week at Pacific Lutheran.
 
Kaylee Mitchell finished the course in 21 minutes, 4.40 seconds. Her previous best for a 6K had been 21:35.20 around Western Oregon's Ash Creek Preserve at last year's GNAC Championshps.
 
Kate Lilly clocked 21:32.00, bettering her old PR of 21:34.11 at Amend Park in Billings for the 2018 NCAA West Regionals. And, Dania Holmberg came through the PLU finish line in 22:04.80. That beat the 22:10.40 she ran at Ash Creek in last year's GNACs.
 
POINTING TOWARD POSTSEASON
Even though Saturday's race will have a definite championship atmosphere to it, those meets don't actually start until next month.
 
The first step is the Great Northwest Athletic Conference meet at Amend Park in Billings, Montana, on Saturday, Oct. 26. This will be the first time that city will host the GNAC race.
 
The NCAA West Regionals return to Ash Creek Preserve at Western Oregon University in Monmouth on Saturday, Nov. 9. The season concludes with the Division II nationals on Saturday, Nov. 23 in Sacramento, right back at Arcade Creek.
 
As was the case last year, the top three women's and men's team finishers at West Regionals automatically qualify for the national meet. That applies to all eight regions of the country. After those 24 qualifiers are determined, 10 more teams will be selected on an at-large basis. While no region is guaranteed any more than the three automatic qualifiers, the West last year sent three at-large women's teams and two at-large men's teams.
 
POLLING PLACE
The SPU women held steady at No. 8 in this week's U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association national rankings. This is the second straight week they've been in that position after ranking No. 9 on the preseason list. Chico State (No. 6), Alaska Anchorage (No. 7) and Western Washington (No. 15) also kept their spots. Adams State, Grand Valley State, and Western Colorado stayed at 1-2-3.
 
Chico, Anchorage, SPU, and Western Washington all remained 1-2-3-4 in the West Region rankings.
 
The Falcons stayed in the No. 6 spot in this week's rankings on TheStrideReport.com. Adams State is No. 1, and Chico is No. 3. Chico and SPU are 4-5 in the FloTrack.org rankings, with Alaska Anchorage No. 8.
 
AROUND THE GNAC
Click on this link for news, notes, and results from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. This week's top item features the SPU men's and women's team title sweep at the PLU Invite last Saturday.
 
UP NEXT
The SPU men return to action next Saturday, Oct. 5, in the John Payne / Curtis Invitational at Chambers Bay Regional Park in Tacoma. It is an all-day meet featuring high school and college races. The college men's open is set for 3:30 p.m. The Falcon women will have that day off.