ANCHORAGE (Oct. 13) -- Jamie Witt and Nathanael Castle of Seattle Pacific University each finished among the top six harriers to earn all-conference honors Saturday at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference cross country championships at Kincaid Park.

The Falcons finished fourth among the women's teams and seventh in the men's standings. Humboldt State won its first women's title while Northwest Nazarene was a runaway victor for the men.

"I'm relatively pleased with how things turned out," said SPU Coach Doris Heritage. "Unfortunately, we had a number of people who have been ill lately and the cold weather kind of took its toll on them."

Conditions were dry but temperatures hovered near 30 degrees.

Castle (Jr., Gooding, Id.), who had raced and won on the course two years ago, ran to fifth place in an 8000-meter time of 26:38. Francis Kimeli of Northwest Nazarene won with a 15-second cushion over his nearest challenger in 26 minutes, 12 seconds.

Witt (So., Folsom, Ca.) finished 40 seconds off the pace of Western Washington freshman Ashlee Vincent, who won the 6k race in 23:46. Witt was timed in 24:26.

Vincent's victory ended a run of five consecutive years in which an SPU women won the conference individual crown. Defending champion Rachel Ross (Sr., Kennewick, Wa.) of the Falcons was held out of the meet because of a hamstring strain.

Seattle Pacific will complete the regular season next Saturday at the Northwest College Invitational.

Women's 6K Championships
1-Humboldt State 58; 2-Western Washington 69; 3-Alaska Anchorage 84; 4-Seattle Pacific 118; 5-Central Washington 125; 6-Western Oregon 161; 7-Northwest Nazarene 179; 8-Seattle University 186; 9-Alaska Fairbanks 189; 10-Saint Martins 290.

Women's Individual Results
1-Ashlee Vincent, WWU, 23:46.00; 2-Dolores Bergmann, HSU, 24:05.70; 3-Kelly Fullerton, SU, 24:06.30; 4-Kylee Wells, WOU, 24:12.50; 5-Stephanie Stine, CWU, 24:19.30; 6-Jamie Witt, SPU, 24:26.50; 7-Kati Gosnell, HSU, 24:27.60; 8-Stacey Edwards, UAA, 24:30.50; 9-Kiersten Lippmann, UAA, 24:31.90; 10. Pearl, Lisa, WWU, 24:38.90. Also: 21-Ruth Hawkinson, SPU, 25:09.60; 28-Kirsten Bjork, SPU, 25:40.70; 31-Dana Cantrell, SPU, 25:48.40; 32-Kara Richard, SPU, 25:49.90; 37-Sarah Kraybill, SPU, 26:14.00; 48-Nicole Seana, SPU, 26:39.00.

Mens 8K Championships
1-Northwest Nazarene 32; 2-Western Washington 76; 3-Central Washington 86; 4-Alaska Anchorage 87; 5-Humboldt State 143; 6-Seattle University 181; 7-Seattle Pacific 183; 8-Western Oregon 218; 9-Saint Martins 227; 10-Alaska Fairbanks 270.

Men's Individual Results
1-Francis Kimeli, NNU, 26:12.20; 2-Martin Ranney, WWU, 26:27.80; 3-Aaron Matthias, NNU, 26:31.50; 4-Tom Gaschk, CWU, 26:35.00; 5-Nathanael Castle, SPU, 26:38.30; 6-Zack Boteilho, WWU, 26:44.70; 7-Juraj Trubiroha, NNU, 26:46.20; 8-Louie White, HSU, 26:52.80; 9-Zach Dwello, NNU, 26:54.70; 10-Eric Strabel, UAA, 27:00.30. Also: 38-Neal Fryett, SPU, 28:21.80; 43-Zach Grice, SPU, 28:27.30; 44-Nick Glancy, SPU, 28:32.00; 57-Tim Marston, SPU, 29:16.30; 58-Aaron Libadisos, SPU, 29:16.30; 68-Scott Van Hess, SPU, 30:15.90.