One year and four months into Seattle University’s tenure in the Western Athletic Conference, the athletics department will host its first conference championship event this weekend, as the WAC Cross Country Championships will take place Saturday morning, Nov. 2, at the Jefferson Park Golf Course.
“It’s huge for us to be able to host this event on this awesome course, which has previously hosted Pac-10 Championships, Club Nationals, and last year’s West Regionals,” Seattle U head cross country coach Trisha Steidl said. “To be able to bring everyone over here to host this event, and to be the first team to host a WAC championship contest, is important to us. We want it to be great for the other schools, our campus community, and other supporters. Rain or shine, it will be an incredible meet, and it is a spectator-friendly course.”
The conference office released the pre-championship coaches’ polls earlier this week, and Seattle U was picked to finish second in the men’s competition and third in the women’s event. Steidl believes that both teams are ready to go and will be competitive as long as they run like they are capable of.
“Both teams are looking solid. For the guys, this is basically a completely different group than the one that ran at last year’s conference meet. They are looking really good, and we are in a good place. I think they can do something great if they are tough and run to their abilities,” said Steidl. “The women’s side has been a continual progression towards this exact point in the season, as they have excelled meet-after-meet-after-meet. The seven women running Saturday will be representative of the entire squad, and if they put everything together, I think we will hang with Utah Valley and Idaho.”
The men’s eight-kilometer race will begin at 9 a.m., with Seattle University represented by seniors Ryan Dennison (Pacifica, Calif.) and Graham Kinzel-Grubbs (Portland, Ore.), junior Miles Hille (Woodinville, Wash.), sophomores Gus Arroyo (Portland, Ore.), Caleb Herrera (Tucson, Ariz.), and Nathan McLaughlin (Puyallup, Wash.), and freshman Tyler Flannery (Auburn, Wash.). Dennison and Kinzel-Grubbs competed in both last year’s WAC Championships as well as in the NCAA West Regional meet that was held on the same course that will be used Saturday.
The women’s five-kilometer race is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. and will include seniors Lauren Hammerle (Seattle, Wash.) and Hannah Mittelstaedt (Maple Valley, Wash.), juniors Sophie Curatilo (Honolulu, Hawaii) and Madison Davis (Camano Island, Wash.), sophomores Taylor de Laveaga (Gilbert, Ariz.) and Elena Smith (Seattle, Wash.), and freshman Lila Rice (Redmond, Wash.). Four of the seven runners competed on this course at last year’s NCAA West Regionals, and the others saw a similar type of running surface at the Bill Dellinger Invitational in early October.
“Any meet you go to, you run on the course the day before, but it is not the same as racing on it. The team is familiar with this type of course, a fairly flat, grassy course, but we will do our work on it Friday so they can feel the course before Saturday’s races,” Steidl said.
Admission to the conference championship meet is free, and the Seattle U cross country team is hoping all of its supporters can make it to Jefferson Park Golf Course Saturday morning to cheer the runners on.