Results

BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Alaska Nanooks men's and women's cross country running teams showed improvement in their second-straight race at Lake Padden Park, as the women placed seventh and the men placed ninth in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships on Saturday morning. Junior Alex Bergholtz led the women's 6km race, while sophomore Lukash Platil placed first amongst his teammates in the men's 8km race.

"I was really pleased how the team ran today, especially in the wet conditions," head coach Nick Crawford said on Saturday. "The women had an exceptional day today and the men did pretty well.""

In August, the Alaska Nanooks men's team was picked to finish eighth in the GNAC Preseason Coaches Poll, while the women's team was ranked ninth. The Preseason Poll was based off of the Alaska Nanooks men's and women's team's eighth place finishes at the 2016 GNAC Championships.

Bergholtz, who was the highest-finisher amongst all Nanook runners on the day, placed 33rd overall in the 6km race with a time of 23:26.80. In a field of 92 runners, Bergholtz's time was only 2:37 behind first-place overall's Caroline Kurgat (Alaska Anchorage), who posted a time of 20:49.42. In the Kenai, Alaska native's first-ever GNAC Championships debut, it is Bergholtz's new personal-best placing in the conference championships.

Junior Morgan Siebka was the second Nanook to cross the finish line, posting a 6km time of 23:53.23 to place 47th overall. Freshman Anja Maijala placed 51st overall, posting a time of 24:04.08. Redshirt-senior Kim Fitzgerald (24:22.62) and senior Ann-Cathrin Uhl (24:32.98) placed 61st and 63rd overall, respectively, to round out Alaska's top-five.

For the first time in over five years, the Alaska Nanooks women's team posted their highest-ranking finish at the conference championships, placing seventh with 219 points. Alaska Anchorage was named the conference champion with 29 points, followed by Simon Fraser (65), Western Washington (87), Seattle Pacific (93), Central Washington (163) and Western Oregon (190). The Nooks beat out Northwest Nazarene (236), Concordia (240), Saint Martin's (255) and Montana State Billings (301).

"The women did awesome finishing two places ahead of their poll position," Crawford continued. "It was really a team effort with all five of our scoring athletes racing well and by and large, running a little better than two weeks ago. Alex led the team today with a really confident race to finish just outside the top-30. Morgan had a good race again today finishing in under 24 minutes. Anja moved up throughout the race passing a ton of people in the second half to finish 20 seconds faster than two weeks ago, despite worse weather conditions."

For the second-straight year, Platil was the first Nanook to cross the finish line in the 8km race, placing 37th overall with a time of 26:45.63. In a field of 95 harriers, Platil's time was only 1:51 behind first-place overall's David Ribich (Western Oregon), who was the only runner with a sub-25 time (24:54.82).

Platil was followed closely behind by senior Seiji Takagi, who placed second amongst his teammates and 39th overall with a time of 26:49.01. Senior Lyon Kopsack (27:03.91) was the third Alaska teammate to cross the finish line, placing 51st overall in his final GNAC Championship race with a time of 27:03.91. Redshirt-senior Carl Wahlin (27:09.86) and senior Jan Cech (27:28.60) placed 58th and 68th, respectively, to round out Alaska's top-five scorers.

The Alaska Nanooks men's cross country team finished ninth as a team with a combined total of 235 points. Western Oregon upset defending champion Alaska Anchorage, outscoring the Seawolves 51-64. Simon Fraser placed fourth (70), followed by Western Washington (76), Northwest Nazarene (160), Central Washington (161), Montana State Billings (187), Seattle Pacific (224), Alaska (235), Concordia (242) and Saint Martin's (331).

"The men had a decent race today but we would have loved to have gotten one or two teams ahead of us," Crawford concluded. "All of our men raced well but looking at the results, it was a tight race right around where they finished. If our guys had each run just a few seconds faster, we could have moved up a lot of points in the team scoring. It was good to have Luk back as out top-scorer today and Seiji and Lyon both had good days today, as well."

The Alaska Nanooks men's and women's cross country running teams will have a chance to spoil at the NCAA West Regional Championships, hosted by fellow GNAC school Western Oregon on Saturday, Nov. 4 in Monmouth, Oregon.

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.