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       Freshman Cutting earns top-10 finish for SPU women at Sundodger

SEATTLE – Give 'em some room to run, and the men on the Seattle Pacific cross country team will show how fast they can go.

After getting out of an early-race traffic jam, the Falcons, led by sophomore AJ Baker, put their top six runners within 25 seconds of each other and earned a ninth-place team finish on Saturday morning at the Sundodger Invitational at Lincoln Park in West Seattle.

Baker (AuGres, Mich.), placed 46th overall, and was followed closely across the finish line by sophomore Will Harrison (Tucson, Ariz.) in 48th, sophomore Andrew Van Ness (Bellevue, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS) in 59th, junior Daniel Hamilton (Missoula, Mont.) in 60th, senior Jacob Wahlenmaier (Everett, Wash./Cascade HS) in 68th, and junior Nate Sleight (Bellevue, Wash./Bellevue Christian HS) in 69th.

It all added up to 220 points for SPU. That was a jump of two places and an improvement of 23 points from 2009.

“All within 25 seconds – you couldn't ask for it to be any closer than that,” Seattle Pacific interim head coach Letiwe Patton said. “AJ had a very nice race. Overall, it was just a great performance that everyone put out today.”

Baker and his teammates were buried in the pack, not even among the top 60 about 3 kilometers into the 8-kilometer (4.96-mile) race. Harrison, who led the Falcons with a pair of solid runs two weeks ago at the Alaska Nanook Invitational long-course and short-course races in Fairbanks, was even farther back after taking a nasty fall on the slick surface at about the 400-meter mark.

But gradually, they started picking off the competitors in front of them. By the finish line, the Falcons had two in the top 50 – which included a strong resurgence by Harrison to make up major ground after going down – and four in the top 60.

“This felt really good, because last year, this race didn't go so well for me,” Baker said after coming across the line in 26 minutes, 34.58 seconds – an improvement of nearly a minute and a half from his 28:01 time of 2009 that left him in 132nd place. “I was hoping to go about 26:30, so that's pretty exciting.

“I wanted to go out a little more conservatively (at the start),” Baker added. “But in the first 400 when we passed Will on the ground, I said, 'Let's go for it.' And Will had a monster race.”

Patton also was impressed by the way Harrison came back to finish in 26:35.79. Even with the fall, he was still nine seconds better than as a freshman last season on the Lincoln Park layout.

“His goal was to be top 10,” Patton said. “After he fell, that takes so much out of a lot of people. But he just kept going, and for him to be second on our team was great.”

While most of the Seattle Pacific runners will set their sights on the Charles Bowles Invitational on Oct. 2 at Willamette University in Salem, Ore., a group of Falcons will compete next Saturday in Lacey at the Saint Martin's Invitational.


NCAA MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY
Sundodger Invitational
Saturday, September 18, 2010
8 kilometers (4.96 miles) at Lincoln Park/Seattle, Wash.

Open Division team scores – 1, Whitworth 45; 2, British Columbia 55; 3, Lewis & Clark 98; 4, Simon Fraser 140; 5, Saint Martin's 184; 6, Whitman 187; 7, Southern Oregon 187 (Whitman gets 6th on 6th-runner tiebreaker); 8, Everett CC 195; 9, Seattle Pacific 220; 10, Puget Sound 272; 11, Seattle University 308; 12, Eastside Runners 348; 13, Clackamas CC 353; 14, Green River CC 354; 15, Highline CC 380; 16, Mount Hood CC 467; 17, Skagit Valley CC 497.
Top 10 – 1, Kyle Van Santen (StM) 24:47.48; 2, Wyatt Baiton (Unattached) 24:50.61; 3, Trevor Berrian (Whitworth) 25:00.35; 5, Richie LeDonne (L&C) 25:02.16; 6, Kalen Darling (Whitworth) 25:05.66; 7, Samuel Pawluk (Unattached) 25:14.85; 8, Ryan Brockerville (SFU) 25:17.45; 9, Spencer Hunt (StM) 25:17.72; 10, John Roberts (L&C) 25:19.26. SPU placers – 46, AJ Baker 26:34.58; 48, Will Harrison 26:35.79; 59, Andrew Van Ness 26:44.85; 60, Daniel Hamilton 26:47.87; 68, Jacob Wahlenmaier 26:58.88; 69, Nate Sleight 26:59.27; 104, Evan Bradford 27:47.25; 137, Gavin Brand 28:33.25; 140, Jordan Lance 28:39.71; 146, Nicholaus Schonewald 28:45.22; 151, Will Aufhammer 28:53.44; 154, Josiah Sherwood 29:02.71.