FAIRBANKS - The Nanooks cross country teams are in the Bay Area for the San Francisco State Invite on Friday, Oct. 6. They'll be one of three GNAC teams competing at SFS as Simon Fraser and Western Oregon also made the trip south.

Women's Race
2:30 p.m. | San Francisco, Calif.
Golden Gate Park's Speedway Meadow

Men's Race
3:15 p.m. | San Francisco, Calif.
Golden Gate Park's Speedway Meadow

Live Timing

Last Time Out
Two weeks ago, the Nanooks men's and women's teams competed at the Bill Roe Classic. The men's team finished 11th with 282 total points while the women's squad cracked the top-five with a fifth-place finish and 117 points. In the men's race, the Nanooks were led by Finn Morley, who posted a 50th-place finish and a time of 26:40.7 in the 8k race. He was followed closely by Ben Dohlby, who finished 54th with a time of 26:45.9. In the women's race, the Nanooks had a pair of top-five finishes to lead the way. Rosie Fordham took third-overall with a time of 21:40.2 in the 6k race while Kendall Kramer followed in fourth-place with a finishing time of 21:44.8. 

#NookNotes

• The Nanooks head to San Francisco for the first time since the 2009 NCAA West Regionals. It's also their first trip to California since 2015 when they attended the Stanford Invitational. 
• Freshman, Kona Atkins, set a new 8k personal-best at the WWU Bill Roe Classic this season, running a 28:28.9, besting his previous best by over 30 seconds. 
• Finn Morley also set a new 8k personal-best, besting his previous by 12 seconds.
• Jace Peters shaved off 15 seconds on his 8k personal-best, posting a 27:41.5 at the Bill Roe Classic.
• Sarah Baum broke her former 6k personal-best by over a minute. Her former best was a 25:56.6 at the 2021 Bill Roe Classic. This year, she ran a 24:37.4 in the 6k.
• Tabitha Williams took 44th at the Bill Roe Classic and set a new PR in the 6k with a 23:35.9, her former best was a 24:10.0, ran at the Nanook Frontier Clash earlier this season.

Weather Report
The Nanooks escaped the first snow in Fairbanks this fall. This Friday, San Francisco is expecting mid to high-80's with 45% humidity. Race conditions are expected to be hot and dry.

The Course
Located in iconic Golden Gate Park, Speedway Meadow provides the backdrop for the SF State Invitational, held annually in the fall. Speedway Meadow stretches back from the parking lot along the east side of 41st Avenue/Chain of Lakes Boulevard, between MLK and JFK Drives.

What's to Come
This will be the final regular-season meet for the Alaska Nanooks cross country teams. They will race this Friday before not seeing action again until Saturday, Oct. 21 at the 2023 GNAC Cross Country Championships, hosted by Alaska Anchorage at Kincaid Park. Following the Conference Championships, the Nanooks will head to Monmouth, Ore. on Nov. 4 for the 2023 NCAA DII West Regional, hosted by Western Oregon. The 2023 NCAA Championships will be held on Saturday, Nov. 18 in Joplin, Mo. 

Favoring Future Sites
The Nanooks have a slight advantage of running in Anchorage. They are comfortable with the course after racing there each of the last three years. 

Regional Rankings
The Nanooks women's cross country team currently sits in the #8-seed for the West Region. They opened the year at #7 in the preseason poll before climbing to #6 in weeks one and two before dropping to #8 in weeks three and four. Three other GNAC teams currently sit in the West Region Top-10 as Western Washington checks in at #4, Saint Martin's sits at #7 and Simon Fraser follows Alaska at #9. 

On the men's side, WWU is #3, Alaska Anchorage is #5, SFU is #8 and Western Oregon is #10.

National Rankings
Two teams from the GNAC are currently in the USTFCCCA National Rankings on the men's side. Western Washington currently sits at #11 and Alaska Anchorage cracked the top-30, coming in at #30 in the week four rankings. On the women's side, Western Washington sits at #27, the lone-GNAC team in the USTFCCCA National Rankings. 

Season Winners
Of the five GNAC women's race winners, two have been Nanooks. Rosie Fordham won the Seawolf Throwdown on Aug. 26 while Kendall Kramer earned the win at the Nanook Forest Clash on Sept. 9. Fordham's win earned her the GNAC Women's Cross Country Runner of the Week nod on Aug. 28, the only conference award for Alaska this season. 

Alaska has seven top-five finishes this year, all coming on the women's side. Past the pair of wins by Fordham and Kramer, Naomi Bailey has a second and third-place finish on the season while Fordham added a third-place finish at the Bill Roe Classic and Kramer has placed in the top-five in every race she's participated in with a second-place finish and a fourth-place finish at the Bill Roe Classic. 

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