PORTLAND, Ore. – The Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) has officially announced their 2022 GNAC Cross Country Preseason Poll for both the men and women. 
 
The Alaska men's cross country team rounded out the poll in 10^th-place, earning 15 total points while the Alaska women's cross country team came in third-place, receiving 72 points, including one of the 10 available first-place votes. "The results were not too far from what I submitted in my poll." Said graduate assistant Josh Sanderlin, "We turned a lot of heads las year on the women's side, and I'm excited to continue this trend. Like last year, the men are young and hungry. They've got a lot to prove and they're yearning to show it."
 
Simon Fraser was picked to sweep both the men's and women's championships as both SFU teams earned 86 points and six first-place votes. 
 
On the men's side, Western Washington followed behind closely in second-place. The Vikings earned 84 points and received four first-place votes. SFU and WWU were the only teams on the men's side to earn more than 70 points. Western Oregon came in third with 67 points, followed by Alaska Anchorage in fourth with 65. Central Washington and Montana State Billings took fifth and sixth with 48 and 45 points, respectively. Saint Martin's took seventh with 33 points and Northwest Nazarene and Seattle Pacific finished eighth and ninth with 29 and 23 points. Alaska rounded out the top-10 with 15 points. 
 
On the women's side, Western Washington came in second-place as well, earning 79 points and three first-place vote. The Nanooks claimed third-place with one first-place vote and 72 points. Western Oregon took fourth and was the final women's team to receive more than 50 points as they earned 63. Seattle Pacific and Saint Martin's took fifth and sixth with 49 and 44 points while Alaska Anchorage claimed seventh with 35 points. Northwest Nazarene, Central Washington and Montana State Billings rounded out the poll with 28, 22 and 17 points, respectively.
 
In 2021, the Nanooks men's team finished ninth-place at the GNAC Championships, earning 224 points while the Nanooks women's team finished third-place, their best finish ever at the GNAC Championships behind 92 points. The two teams sent individuals to the NCAA West Regional, however, neither team qualified for a team finish, however, the women's team sent three individuals to the 2021 NCAA Championships at Saint Leo University. Naomi Bailey, Rosie Fordham and Kendall Kramer competed. Fordham posted the best finish in program history, claiming 61^st while Kramer took 72^nd and Bailey took 174^th. 
 
The two teams begin their 2022 campaign on Saturday, Aug. 28 on the UAF campus as they host the Blue/Gold Meet with UAA. The community 5k begins at 10:30 a.m. and the women's race (5k) will start at 11:15 a.m. followed by the men's race (8k). 
 
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks cross country teams, follow @NanooksXC on Instagram or Twitter, or like the Alaska Nanooks XC team page on Facebook.