Two of a kind. Seattle Pacific University will send a pair of male cross country runners south to Fresno with the objective of extending the junket to the Midwest. Nathanael Castle (Sr., Gooding, Id.) and Tim LeCount (Fr., Battle Ground, Wa.) will represent the Falcons at Saturday's (Nov. 9) West Regional, the race which serves as the qualifier for the NCAA Division II Championships, to be held Nov. 23 in Ashland, Ohio.

It depends on the end. It's not easy to qualify for the NCAA Championships, especially as an individual, such as Castle and LeCount. The top three teams earn berths, along with the top two individuals (or more, if all are among the top five finishers) from non-qualifying teams. Representatives of more than 25 schools throughout the West are expected to toe the start line in Fresno for a 10,000-meter race through Woodward Park. The path, mostly a dirt or grass surface, is described as a series of rolling hills with a few step climbs.

Historical prospective. A year ago, Castle became the Falcons' first male NCAA qualifier, taking eighth in the regional. If anything, he has been stronger this season, finishing among the top seven of four races, including fifth at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships Oct. 26. LeCount earned a trip to the regional by running his best race of the fall at the conference meet, taking eighth, 12 seconds behind Castle. This marks the first time since 1991 that Coach Doris Heritage has not taken any members of her women's team to the regional.

A look at the competition. Hawaii Pacific's Christian Madsen is the defending men's regional champ, but will face stiff opposition from Mark Batres, the CCAA champion from Cal Poly Pomona, and GNAC winner Paul Kezes of Western Washington. The top three teams from the most recent regional rankings are Chico State, UC Davis, Alaska Anchorage and Humboldt State. The top three women's teams are Chico, UC Davis and Humboldt. Seattle Pacific was ranked eighth. Results of Saturday's races will be available via the web after 2 p.m. at www.csustan.edu/athletics/xcregionals.

It's academic. Castle was among seven men named to the academic all-GNAC team announced this week. He was joined by Paul Mach (Jr., Seattle, Wa./King's), Tim Marston (Jr., Pullman, Wa./Logos), Clint Bjella (So., Everett, Wa./Everett), Aaron Libadisos (So., Kailua-Kona, Hi./Kealakehe), Ryan Nash (Sr., Spokane, Wa./Mead) and Scott Van Hess (Sr., Salem, Or./McKay). Four women made the team: Seana, Ruth Hawkinson (Sr., Roy, Wa./Yelm), Kirsten Bjork (Jr., Olympia, Wa./Black Hills) and Sarah Kraybill (Sr., Seattle, Wa./Ballard). It was Hawkinson, Van Hess and Castle's third year on the squad and the second selection for Seana, Nash, Kraybill, Bjork and Mach.

GNAC recap. Castle and LeCount gave SPU its best-ever men's 1-2 punch in a conference meet. By taking fifth, Castle equaled his and the Falcons' best finish by a male. LeCount earned GNAC freshman of the year and Nicole Seana (Jr., Carnation, Wa./Kamiakin), taking ninth among the women, continued her comeback with her first all-conference honor since 1999. Western Washington swept the top individual honors. Kezes coasted to victory in the men's race and Ashlee Vincent repeated as women's champion. Kezes was timed in 24 minutes, 20 seconds for 8,000 meters and finished 20 seconds ahead of runner-up Pete Clusener of Humboldt State. Vincent cruised to first in 21:44 over the 6k trail--an 11-second margin over second-place Katie Gosnell of Humboldt State. The Lumberjacks, with 49 points claimed the women's team title for the second year in a row. Central Washington (78) was second and SPU (124) took fifth place over Alaska Anchorage by virtue of a tiebreaker. Alaska Anchorage edged Humboldt 70-72 for the men's crown. The Falcons (163) were seventh.

GNAC Championship results.

Coaching staff. Coach Doris Heritage (25th year) has guided the SPU women to 10 top-10 national finishes and conference titles in six of the last nine years. In 1996 the Falcons won the West Region and her teams finished as high as second in the AIAW (1979, '80) and third in the NCAA (1983, '86) championships. Nineteen harriers have been All-America, including two national champions. The world's premier distance runner of the Sixties, she won five consecutive world cross country titles from 1967-71, and was a member of the 1968 and '72 U.S. Olympic teams. Heritage has coached the U.S. world cross country championship team, served as an assistant at many international meets, including the 1988 Olympics, and is a six-time women's conference coach of the year at SPU. In July of 2002 she was inducted into the National Distance Running Hall of Fame. Heritage was already a member of the U.S. Track & Field and U.S. Track Coaches halls of fame. Assisting Heritage as coaches this season will be Erika (Botha) Daligcon and Lane Seeley. Daligcon ran for the Falcons from 1995-96 and wed former soccer All-America Nate Daligcon earlier this year. Seeley is a physics professor at Seattle Pacific and previously was an assistant to the Blanchet High School program.

Missing links. For the latest and best information on Seattle Pacific University athletics, stay where you're at -- on The Falcons Online. For updated standings and statistics, see the Great Northwest Athletic Conference web site.