MONMOUTH, Oregon – The Alaska Nanooks men's and women's cross country running team's season has officially come to an end. Seven representatives from the NCAA's northern-most college raced today, Nov. 9 in Monmouth, Ore. at the NCAA West Regional, competing against schools up and down the entire West Coast.
The women's team, represented by two athletes, raced first. Alexandria Bergholtz was the first finisher, running a time of 21:55.7, placing her at 44th in the field of 186 racers. The second and final racer from Alaska is
Anja Maijala, who finished 139th with a time of 23:26.4. With only two racers, the Nanooks did not have enough racers to qualify in the team category.
The Alaska men's team sent five runners to the NCAA West Regional race, finishing 22nd out of 28 teams.
Jacob Walsh finished as the top runner for the men's team running a 31:36.9 time in the men's 10km race. This time was good enough for Walsh to finish 62nd overall and break the Alaska Nanooks record for fastest time in a 10km race. Behind Walsh was
Jack Matherly, a sophomore, who ran a time of 32:02.0, placed 84th overall out of 185 total racers and claimed the 3rd fastest time in Nanooks history for a time in a 10km race.
Lukash Platil ran a 32:23.0, ending the season with a 105th place finish at the West Regional.
The final two racers to finish at the Regional race were
Zephan Ozturgut and
Mike Ophoff. Ozturgut finished 159th overall and Ophoff finished 165, running race times of 33:41.2 and 33:54.5.
The cross country team's season is officially over as the runner will now transition into the Nordic Ski portion of their schedule, beginning in early December with their annual meet against the University of Alaksa Anchorage in Anchorage.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks cross country running and skiing teams, follow @AlaskaNanooksXC on Twitter, or like the Alaska Nanooks Cross Country team pages on Facebook.
