The Seattle University men’s cross country team got off to a strong start by winning the Emerald City Open Saturday at Lower Woodland Park.
In their first race of the year, the Redhawks finished with 27 points, compared to 51 for Seattle Pacific and 55 for .
Nathan Heitzinger (, ) led , running in the lead pack the whole race and finishing third among college runners in a time of 27:34.83. Nicholas Alvarado () moved up throughout the race to finish fifth in 28:14.43. He was six seconds faster than teammate Hans Heitzinger (), who was sixth in 28:20.43.
Rounding out the scoring runners for were freshmen Michael Van Nuland (, ) and Doug Rudeen (), who ran close to each other most of the race and finished in tenth and 11th place with times were 28:45.31 and 28:53.31, respectively.
In the women’s race, Katie Hansen () picked off Seattle Pacific runners throughout the race to finish in fourth place in a time of 24:07.90. Her effort led to a second place finish with 53 points. Seattle Pacific won the race with 22 points, while finished third with 60 points.
Rachael Johnson () ran a strong race to finish ninth overall with a time 24:49.06. Just behind her was Rachel Yorkston (), who finished 11th with a time of 24:56.14. She was followed by Rhiannon Cadelinia () who finished in 14th with a time of 25.54.92. Rounding out the scoring runners was Julia Miller () who finished 17th with a time of 26:10.00.
Jessica Pixler of Seattle Pacific won the women’s race for the second consecutive year, finishing over a minute ahead of her nearest competitor in a time of 22:28.14. Blake Medhaug of won the men’s collegiate race with a time of 27:18.59.
’s squad will race again next weekend with some runners traveling to to run in the Pier Park Invitational hosted by the on Friday, Sept. 14 at 4:00 p.m. The other runners will stay in to compete at the Sundodger Invitational hosted by the of at on Saturday, Sept. 15 at 9:00 a.m.