Cross Country Fares Well at GNAC Championships
Women finish fifth and men take sixth at GNAC Championships
Both cross country teams took big steps forward with strong runs at the GNAC Championships Saturday morning in . The women’s team took fifth place with 131 points, while then men finished sixth with 163 points.
The team finishes were big improvements over last season when the men finished seventh and the women took ninth. The sixth place finish by the men's team tied their best GNAC finish ever.
The women were led by junior Katie Hansen (Portland, Ore.)who finished fifth overall by running a 6k time of 22:07. It was just the fourth ever top five finish by a female at the GNAC Championships.
Also running well for was Rachel Yorkston (Bellingham, Wash.) who finished 18th with a time of 23:04. Just behind her was Julia Miller (Normandy Park, Wash.) who finished 33rd in 23:50.
ran without one of its top runners, Rachel Johnson, but got good efforts from Greta Stickney (Poulsbo, Wash.) and Rhiannon Cadelinia (San Francisco, Calif.) to round out the scoring. Stickney finished 38th in 24:02, while Cadelinia took 40th in 24:07.
The Seattle Pacific women won the meet with 24 points, besting who finished second with 99 points. Jessica Pixler of SPU took the individual title with a time 20:53, which was almost a minute faster than her closest competitor, her teammate Jane Larson who took second in 21:45.
On the men’s side was once again led by Nathan Heitzinger (Phoenix, Ariz.) who placed 11th with a time of 25:59. The finish was a big improvement for Heitzinger who finished 37th at the GNAC Championships in 2005 and did not race last season due to injury.
Finishing second on the team was Nicholas Alvarado (San Francisco, Calif.) who took 25th with a time of 26:41. Just behind him was Nick Cannata-Bowman (San Francisco, Calif.) who finished 37th in 27:00. The other scoring runners for were Michael Van Nuland (Newcastle, Wash.) who took 48th in 27:20 and Hans Heitzinger (Phoenix, Ariz.) who finished in 49th in 27:23.
Other Seattle men's finishers were Max Cole (Fort Collins, Colo.) who finished 57th in 27:50, Adam Kollgaard (Kent, Wash.) who finished 60th in 27:53, Doug Rudeen (Boise, Idaho) who finished 68th in 28:21, Graham Miller (Spokane, Wash.) who finished 73rd in 28:43, and Chris Henry (West Seattle, Wash.) who finished 75th in 29:29
The men’s race was won by Western Washington who finished with 35 points to distance themselves from second place who finished second with 67 points. The individual champion was John Riak of ’s who covered the 8k course in 24:56.
Seattle University now has two weeks off from racing before heading back to Idaho to race in Boise at the NCAA West Regionals on November 3.