THE SCHEDULE: Friday, Oct. 9: San Francisco State Invitational
Golden Gate Park/San Francisco, Calif.
Women (6K) 4:00 p.m. Men (8K) 4:45 p.m.
San Francisco State Invitational on the Web
Saturday, Oct. 10: Western Washington Invitational
Lake Padden Park/Bellingham, Wash.
Women (6K) 10:30 a.m. Men (10K) 11:15 a.m.
Western Washington Invitational on the Web
Weekly release, with stats (PDF)
SEATTLE – So who's the cross country runner to beat in the West Region?
For the past three years, it has been Seattle Pacific's Jessica Pixler. And the way this fall has gone so far, there's every reason to believe she'll make it four years.
Pixler will get a preview of this year's regional course, and the rest of the region will get a look at her, speedy senior teammate Jane Larson, and SPU men's team front runners Chad Meis and Jordan Lance when the four of them compete in the San Francisco State Invite at Golden Gate Park on Friday.
The meet affords runners an opportunity to get a feel for the course that will be used again on Nov. 7 for the NCAA Division II West Region championships. Pixler (Sammamish, Wash./Eastlake HS) and Larson (Fall City, Wash./Cedar Park Christian HS) will run in the 6-kilometer women's race at 4 p.m. SPU senior Meis (Renton, Wash./Seattle Christian HS) and junior Lance (Mill Creek, Wash./Jackson HS) will go in the 8K men's race at 4:45.
While that Falcon foursome will be getting one final race under their shoes prior to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championships (set for Oct. 24 in Yakima), the rest of the SPU runners will be doing likewise on Saturday at the Western Washington Invitational at Bellingham's Lake Padden Park. The women will run their 6K race at 10:30 a.m., followed by the men's 10K at 11:15 a.m.
SPU's varsity men, led by the sub 25-minute performance of Meis, ran to a 13th-place finish at the Charles Bowles Invitational last Saturday in Salem, Ore. The varsity women had the weekend off from competition.
SPEAKING OF THE FALCONS
While the San Francisco race isn't one to be taken lightly, coach Erika Daligcon is emphasizing to her runners that this isn't the biggest test they'll face in the city by the bay.
That test will come four weeks down the road.
“This is purely an opportunity to preview the course. Bottom line, we're training through this meet,” Daligcon said. “Everyone is working really hard this week and next week.“If they feel good on Friday afternoon, they can race it,” she added. “But I want them to get a sense of how this course feels for the trip that really counts.”
Daligcon continues to like what she has seen in practice -- not only from her maroon runners, but from the blue skies, as well.
“We're taking advantage of this unseasonably nice weather,” Daligcon said. “We're getting to do some of our favorite tough workouts.”
SCOUTING THE SF STATE INVITE
If this meet is anything like last year's regional preview -- or even anything like last month's Stanford Invitational -- then expect Pixler to be setting the pace.
At the Triton Cross Country Classic in La Jolla, Calif., last fall on the same course that eventually hosted regionals, Pixler smashed the course record by 38 seconds. She then knocked 15 seconds off of her own record in the regional race the following month, and followed up by winning her second straight NCAA Division II championship.
In the Stanford meet on Sept. 26, Pixler wound up in second place, just one second behind winner Tara Erdmann, who was competing unattached. But she beat every other college runner in the field, starting with a 14-second margin on third-place Kathy Kroeger of Stanford.
Larson ran just as solid a race in last year's regional preview, finishing fifth and setting the stage for what eventually would become an All-American 12th-place finish at nationals.
They'll both have plenty of competition, as Chico State and Alaska Anchorage, the top two teams in the women's West rankings, will be in San Francisco this week.
Neither Meis nor Lance competed in last year's pre-regionals, although Meis eventually earned a chance to run at regionals.
SCOUTING THE WESTERN WASHINGTON INVITATIONAL
When the SPU men head to Yakima for the conference meet in two weeks, they'll need a top-four finish to gain a trip to regionals. With nationally ranked Alaska Anchorage and Western Washington virtually assured the top two spots, and with Northwest Nazarene having finished several places ahead of the Falcons in two meets so far this fall, that essentially leaves one spot available.
Seattle Pacific likely will be battling two teams for it: Saint Martin's and Western Oregon. The Saints will be one of the teams at Lake Padden on Saturday.
The Falcon pack, which has been tight all season and was led last week at the Bowles Invite by sophomore Nate Sleight (Bellevue, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS), will see how close it can run to Saint Martin's, knowing that Meis and Lance will be back to give their chances a further boost at GNACs.
Saturday's women's race will mark the season debut of sophomore Natty Plunkett (Bellevue, Wash./Newport HS), who has not competed so far because of an injury. She became a solid No. 3 runner for the Falcons last fall and earned GNAC Freshman of the Year honors by finishing seventh in the conference meet, the first frosh across the line.
FALCON RECAP
Chad Meis came across the finish line at last Saturday's Charles Bowles Invite feeling that he had run a solid race. And the stopwatch agreed.
Meis finished the 8K course through Bush's Pasture Park in 24 minutes, 54.89 seconds, crossing the line 22nd among the 194 runners from NCAA Divisions I, II and III in the race. It was the first time in his Falcon career that he had broken 25 minutes.
But that wasn't all: Meis sliced more than a full minute off last year's time of 26:03.42. And it easily beat the time of 25:11.74 that now-graduated Brian Cronrath posted last fall.
SPU finished 13th with 374 points.
Closer to home, two groups of Falcons ran at the Emerald City Invitational in Seattle's Lower Woodland Park. Freshman Krysta Carrick (Tokyo, Japan) placed 18th overall and led SPU to a third-place finish in the women's race. Another freshman, Gavin Brand (Suwanee, Ga.) set the pace for the four-man Seattle Pacific men's team, taking 22nd overall.
MOST RECENT SPU TOP 7 – WOMEN
Oct. 3 at Emerald City Invitational
Lower Woodland Park/Seattle, Wash. (6K)
Seattle Pacific 3rd/4 teams, 85 points
Runner SPU place Overall Time
Krysta Carrick 1 18 25:56
Laura Moser 2 23 26:47
Lauren Wood 3 26 27:01
Kayla Wilkins 4 27 27:18
Margaret Hanscom 5 28 27:32
Kassandra Boulton 6 31 28:23
Madel Torres 7 32 29:32
MOST RECENT SPU TOP 7 – MEN
Oct. 3 at Charles Bowles Invitational
8K at Bush's Pasture Park/Salem, Ore.
SPU 13th/19 teams, 374 points
Runner SPU place Overall Time
Chad Meis 1 22 24:54.89
Nate Sleight 2 89 26:10.43
Andrew Van Ness 3 101 26:23.84
Will Harrison 4 110 26:27.30
Jordan Lance 5 115 26:32.44
Caleb Parker 6 118 26:36.20
Andrew Hamilton 7 136 26:59.45
POLLING PLACE
Everything held steady in this week's U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association women's polls.Seattle Pacific's women are still No. 4 in the West Region behind Chico State, Alaska Anchorage and Western Washington. The Falcons also hung on to the No. 12 spot in the national poll.
West Region rival Chico State moved into the No. 1 spot nationally after having been No. 3 the previous week. Adams State of Colorado fell from the top rung to No. 4.Alaska Anchorage held at No. 5 in the national poll, and Western Washington climbed a notch from No. 8 to No. 7.
The Falcons have been as high as No. 1 in the West and No. 3 nationally this season.
ON THE HONOR ROLL
-- Jessica Pixler was named the GNAC Athlete of the Week for women's cross country for two consecutive weeks during September. Pixler, who won it on Sept. 21 for her third-place performance in the Sundodger Invitational, picked up another one on Sept. 28 after running second at the Stanford Invite.Pixler now has 26 GNAC Athlete of the Week honors for her career. Of those, 12 have been for cross country. The other 14 have been for indoor and outdoor track combined.
-- The Falcons earned numerous accolades on the course and in the classroom last fall. Pixler won her third straight GNAC and West Region championships, then ran to her second consecutive national crown. The NCAA title earned All-American status for Pixler, and teammate Jane Larson also was named an All-American by virtue of her 12th-place finish at nationals.Pixler also was named the GNAC, West Region and USTFCCCA Division II Athlete of the year, and was the D-II cross country nominee for the prestigious Honda Award for the second year in a row.
-- Natty Plunkett earned the GNAC Freshman of the Year award for her seventh-place finish in the conference meet.
-- The Falcons were just as stellar in the classroom as they were on the trails. Pixler, Larson, Plunkett, Lisa Anderberg, Kate Harline, Katie Hart, Mary Williams and Chad Meis all earned Academic All-American honors. Pixler was named the USTFCCCA Division II Cross Country Academic Athlete of the Year for the second consecutive year.
-- The women and men were named All-Academic teams by the USTFCCCA. In fact, the Seattle Pacific women had the highest team grade-point average -- 3.737 -- in all of Division II.
UP NEXT
The Falcons have next week off from racing, then will head to Apple Ridge Run outside of Yakima for the GNAC Championships on Saturday, Oct. 24. Racing begins at 10 a.m. The SPU women will be going for their fifth consecutive GNAC crown. The men will be eyeing a top-four finish, which guarantees them a trip to regionals, which are set for Nov. 7 in San Francisco.
AROUND THE GNAC
Click on this link for a look at results, schedules and notes from the GNAC.
