A race in Lacey. With one race in the bag, the Seattle Pacific University cross country teams will venture down to the Sound Sound for Saturday's Saint Martin's Open in Lacey. There the Falcons will toe the start line with four other Great Northwest Athletic Conference teams plus other harriers from the local clubs and colleges. Next week SPU heads east for the Central Washington Invitational.

Ours to defend. The Saint Martin's Open is relatively new to the racing landscape, having started in 2000. For the second week in a row, the race distances will be 5000 meters for women and 8k for men. Seattle Pacific won the women's team title in Lacey last year, edging Western Washington by nine points, 39-48, and the men's team enjoyed their best finish, taking second to Seattle University. Joining the field this time around will be Central Washington, Seattle U., Western and host Saint Martin's.

Encouraging signs. Coach Doris Heritage was generally pleased with her teams' first outings last week at the Emerald City Invitational. Her top people held their own, the youngsters showed promise and the women's team is significantly improved over a year earlier. Jamie Witt (Jr., Folsom, Ca.), the top scorer in 2001 who missed last season with a back injury, was the Falcons' frontrunner. She stayed with the top runners, taking third place in the non-Division I flight. Witt's time of 18 minutes, 54 seconds was not only the best by anybody from SPU over that course in three years, but it was also near the time she ran as a freshman (18:42) in 2000. Likewise, Josie Lavin (Jr., Bremerton, Wa./Bremerton), who was 10th overall, came in 63 seconds faster than a year ago. Karen Dickson (Fr., El Dorado Hills, Ca./Oak Ridge) was the team's No. 3 scorer, placing 21st in 20:31. The Nos. 4-5 runners proved to be the difference between second and third place overall. Ruth Harbaugh (So., Gig Harbor, Wa.) was 24th in 20:37 and Kirsten Bjork (Sr., Olympia, Wa./Black Hills) was 29th in 20:47.

New standard-bearer. As expected, Tim LeCount (So., Battle Ground, Wa.) was the standard-bearer for the men's squad. LeCount, whose track season was ended prematurely by illness last spring, clocked a time which was superior by 34 seconds to that of a year earlier. He finished 12th in 27:30. As a freshman he got stronger with each week, eventually placing eighth in the regional. Paul Mach (Sr., Seattle, Wa./King's) followed suit, improving his course time by 38 seconds to 28:09, good for 17th. In his collegiate debut, Bjorn Bostrom (Fr., LaConner, Wa./Bellingham) was 27th in 28:56. Rounding out the top five were Aaron Libadisos (Jr., Kailua-Kona, Hi./Kealakehe), 33rd in 29:16, and Eddie Strickler (Fr., Richland, Wa.), 43rd in 30:08.

Emerald City Invitational results.
Women's Team Scores: 1-Northwest College 26, 2-Seattle Pacific 65, 3-Western Washington 73, 4-Seattle University 77, 5-Puget Sound 133, 6-Saint Martin's 173, 7-Evergreen 210.
Women's Winner: Danyel Longmire, Northwest College, 18:27.
SPU finishers: 3-Witt, 18:54; 10-Lavin, 19:24; 21-Dickson, 20:31; 24-Harbaugh, 20:37; 29-Bjork, 20:47; 35-Jensen, 21:02; 37-Huntington, 21:12; 44-Groth, 21:51; 47-Preboski, 22:01; 51-McCoy, 22:13; 52-Marsh, 22:15; 67-Marshall, 23:03; 76-Duringer, 23:43; 85-Vermeer, 25:49.
Men's Team Scores: 1-Western Washington 20, 2-Puget Sound 59, 3-Seattle University 70, 4-Seattle Pacific 91, 5-Saint Martin's 108.
Men's Winner: Phil Olsen, Northwest College, 25:57.
SPU finishers: 12-LeCount, 27:30; 17-Mach, 28:08; 27-Bostrom, 29:01; 33-Libadisos, 29:16; 43-Strickler, 30:08; 46-Gavareski, 30:23; 50-Rosser, 30:54; 52-O'Conner, 31:28; 54-Bjella, 31:38; 60-Marston, 32:21; 65-Phillips, 33:21.

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 again this season will be Erika (Botha) Daligcon and Lane Seeley. Daligcon ran for the Falcons from 1995-96. Seeley is a physics professor at Seattle Pacific.

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.