RESULTS
SPOKANE, Wash. – The Alaska women's cross country team, made up of six rookies, completed the NCAA West Region Championship Saturday morning with a 20th place finish at the Plantes Ferry Sports Complex.
Running in their first regional meet at the collegiate level, the Nanook freshmen compiled 553 points (86-95-116-117-139) to put them in the 20th position out of the 23 competing teams (161 runners) from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, the PacWest Conference and the California Collegiate Athletic Association.
Kali Striker (Midlothian, Va./Biological Sciences) was the top Alaska finisher in 88th place (86th scoring) after she completed the six-kilometer course in 24 minutes, 7.0 seconds. Not far behind her was
Dorothy O'Donnell (Fairbanks, Alaska/Biological Sciences), who crossed the finish line in 24:45.3 to grab 98th places (95th scoring).
Nichole Bathe (Madison, Wisc./Elementary Education) and
Hannah Stevens (Eagle River, Alaska/Civil Engineering) finished the race back-to-back for Alaska's third and fourth scoring times. Bathe was 120th (116th scoring) in 24:54.2 while Stevens took 121st (117th) with a clocked time of 24:57.8.
Rounding out the team's score was
Sarah Lilly (Fairbanks, Alaska/Biological Sciences), who placed 143rd (139th scoring) in 25:49.9.
Laura Dyer (Seward, Alaska/Elementary Education) also competed, taking 159th in 27:16.2.
Alaska Anchorage's
Susan Tanui won the individual title after crossing the line in 21:45.4, three seconds ahead of her teammate and runner-up
Joyce Kipchumba.
UAA won the region crown by a narrow three-point margin, with 76 points compared to Chico State's 79. Simon Fraser (94), Seattle Pacific (137) and Western Washington (157) finished third, fourth and fifth to qualify for the NCAA Division II Championship.
