BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Alaska Nanooks men's and women's cross country running teams continue trekking through the 2016 season by traveling to Bellingham, Washington to participate in the 43rd annual Western Washington University Cross Country Classic on Saturday, Oct. 8 at East Lake Padden Park in Bellingham.
"The team has been looking great in our last couple of weeks of training and is starting to get really comfortable running at a quicker pace," head coach Nick Crawford said on Friday. "We have a few athletes that are back from injury and a couple of first year athletes traveling with us for the very first time. I'm excited to see how they do in their first race against most of our Great Northwest Athletic Conference competition."
Last Time Out
Last weekend, the Nanooks travelled to Salem, Oregon where they ran in the Charles Bowles Invitational hosted by Willamette University. The day was highlighted by a top-five overall finish by senior Dorothy O'Donnell on the women's side and another strong showing by rookie Lukash Platil, who led the Alaska men's team once again.
In total, eight of the 12 runners representing Alaska broke their personal-best records as Nanooks, More specifically, three out of five harriers from the men's cross country team and five of six on the women's team.
Field of Teams
The Nanooks are one of six GNAC team's participating in the meet, which features 18 full teams. Conference rivals also running on Saturday include Central Washington, Concordia, Saint Martin's Seattle Pacific, Simon Fraser and in-state rival Alaska Anchorage.
In addition to the competition, the course will be a preview for the Alaska Nanooks men's and women's cross country teams since the GNAC Championships will be held at the exact same course Oct. 22.
History of the WWU Classic
On the men's side, the UAA Seawolves are currently the two-time defending winners of the WWU Classic, capturing the 10k team race in both 2014 and 2015. The Seawolves posted a score of 37 last season in a field of 14 teams and 177 harriers. Alaska Anchorage's Henry Charseto was the overall winning with a time of 31:01.
On the women's end, Trinity Western of British Columbia also returns this year being the two-time defending champions, winning in 2014 and 2015. Last year, Trinity Western recorded only 48 points of 13 teams in a field of 144 runners. Sarah Ingallis is the three-time overall champion for the WWU Classic, breaking two course records in the past three years, including last season's 8k time of 20:48.
Travel Team
This weekend's runners will include seniors Kali Striker, Sarah Lilly and Dorothy O'Donnell, redshirt-junior Kim Fitzgerald, junior Grace Weller and freshman Brooke Gottmeier on the women's side, while seniors Mitch Burgess, Dylan Nixon-Helms and Keegan Rankin, redshirt-junior Carl Wahlin, junior Lyon Kopsack and rookie Jacob Walsh will represent the Alaska Nanooks men's cross country team.
Coaches Corner – Women's Team
"Dorothy is coming off of a really breakthrough race finishing fifth at the Willamette Invitational last week and we expect she will lead the team again this week. Kali and Sarah have both set personal-best times in their last two races, so we hope they'll continue to see those gains in their fitness. Freshman Brooke Gottmeier hasn't competed since track season for West Valley following a fracture injury this summer but has been looking outstanding in workouts recently." –Crawford on this weekend's women's team.
Coaches Corner – Men's Team
"Alex and Luk, who have been our top-two guys on the men's side all year, are at home training through this race so the men's team will be a little wide open as to who will be our front-runners. I expect we'll see our men's team finish close together in a tight pack, which really shows our depth this year. We have about ten guys who could contribute to our top-five scoring positions depending on the day." – Crawford on his men's team.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks men's and women's cross country running teams, follow @AlaskaNanooksXC on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks XC team page on Facebook.
