LACEY, Wash. (Sept. 15) -- In her fall debut Rachel Ross, finishing second overall, paced the Seattle Pacific University women's cross country team to a win at the Saint Martin's Invitational Saturday morning.

The Falcons, fortified by the return of Ross and two other top scores from a year ago, edged Western Washington 36-44 while the men, topped by Nathanael Castle's runner-up finish, took third.

Ross (Sr., Kennewick, Wa.), the meet winner in 2000, needed a late kick to overtake Western's Ashlee Vincent for second place. Ross was timed in 19 minutes, 5 seconds while Vincente finished in 19:07. Club Northwest's Karen Steen was the winner in 18:36 over the 5000-meter course on the college campus.

Dana Cantrell (Sr., Bellingham, Wa./Sehome), the top SPU scorer a week ago, was eighth in 19:46. Jamie Witt (So., Folsom, Ca.) and Ruth Hawkinson (Jr., Roy, Wa./Yelm), both racing for the first time, were ninth and 10th, prespectively, in 19:50 and 19:51.

Castle (Jr., Gooding, Id.) found himself running virtually alone the entire 8k men's race. eri Tollefson was the victor in 25:12 with Castle next at 26:32. Nick Glancy (Sr., Redmond, Wa./Redmond) was 10th in 27:33.

Seattle University was first among teams with 52 points. Saint Martin's (68) was second, followed by SPU (75) and Pacific Lutheran (76).

Seattle Pacific and most of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference teams will meet in the Sundodger Open next Saturday at Seattle's Lincoln Park.

Women's Team Scores
1-Seattle Pacific 36; 2-Western Washington 44; 3-Seattle University 91; 4-Pacific Lutheran 98; Sinat Martin's 132.

Individual Results
1-Karen Steen, CNW, 18:36; 2-Rachel Ross, SPU, 19:05; 3-Ashlee Vincent, WWU, 19:07. Also: 8-Dana Cantrell, SPU, 19:46; 9-Jamie Witt, SPU, 19:50; 10-Ruth Hawkinson, SPU, 19:51; 16-Kara Richard, SPU, 20:25; 20-Josie Lavin, SPU, 20:31.

Men's Team Scores
1-Seattle University 52; 2-Saint Martin's 66; 3-Seattle Pacific 75; 4-Pacific Lutheran 76; 5-Western Washington 99; 6-Highline CC 131; 7-Evergreen 195; 8-Everett CC 220

Individual Results
1-Eric Tollefson, unat., 25:12; 2-Nathanael Castle, SPU, 26:32. Also: 10-Nick Glancy, SPU, 27:33. Also: 19-Neal Fryett, SPU, 28:14; 23-Zach Grice, SPU, 28:22; 26-Aaron Libadisos, SPU, 28:36; 29-Tim Marston, SPU, 28:41; 30-Scott Van Hess, SPU, 28:47; 39-Paul Mach, SPU, 29:59.