PORTLAND, Ore. – The Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) has officially announced its 2023 GNAC Cross Country Preseason Poll for both men and women.
The Alaska men's cross country team rounded out the poll in 10th-place, earning 14 total points while the Alaska women's cross country team came in fourth place, receiving 73 points.
Western Washington was picked to sweep both the men's and women's championships as both WWU teams earned 100 points and all ten first-place votes.
On the men's side, Simon Fraser followed behind closely in second place. The Red Leafs earned 89 points. UAA and WOU were the only other teams on the men's side to earn more than 70 points. UAA came in third with 76 points, followed by Western Oregon in fourth with 73. Saint Martin's took fifth with 59 points. Montana State Billings and Northwest Nazarene tied for sixth with 42 points, respectively. Seattle Pacific finished in eighth with 34 points. Central Washington took ninth with 22 points, and Alaska rounded out the top-10 with 14 points.
On the women's side, Simon Fraser also came in second place, earning 83 points. Saint Martin's claimed third place with 77 points. The Nanooks took fourth and were the final women's team to receive more than 70 points, earning 73. Western Oregon and Seattle Pacific took fifth and sixth with 67 and 44 points, while Alaska Anchorage claimed seventh with 42 points. Northwest Nazarene, Montana State Billings and Central Washington rounded out the poll with 27, 25 and 12 points, respectively.
In 2022, the Nanooks men's team finished 10th-place at the GNAC Championships, earning 285 points while the Nanooks women's team finished in fifth-place, behind 91 points. The two teams sent individuals to the NCAA West Regional, and the women's team finished in seventh place in the region with 221 points. The women's team also sent three individuals to the 2022 NCAA Championships in Seattle, Wash. as Naomi Bailey, Rosie Fordham and Kendall Kramer competed. Kramer posted the best finish in Nanooks history with an eighth-place finish and All-American finish. Fordham followed with a 43rd-place finish and Bailey rounded out the finishes with a 90th-place finish.
The two teams begin their 2023 campaign on Saturday, Aug. 26 at UAA, as they host the Seawolf Throwdown.
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.
