Mother of all meets. It's not the oldest meet around but it's arguably the best and biggest in the Northwest. The Seattle Pacific University cross country teams and hundreds of other harriers will converge on the 12th annual Sundodger Invitational in West Seattle's Lincoln Park Saturday morning (Sept. 27). The Falcons will compete in the open division along with the other non-Division I colleges and clubs in races of 5000 meters for the women and 8k for the men.

End of the (short) road. As early as it seems, the Sundodger meet will mark the unofficial midway point to the fall season and the last of the shorter, 5k courses for the women. With the conference and regional races extended to 6000 meters, Coach Doris Heritage is giving the women a break from competition on the first weekend in October. Four other Great Northwest Athletic Conference teams-Central Washington, Western Washington, Saint Martin's and Seattle University-will join the Falcons this time out. The start line figures to have as many as 250 runners representing teams from the Div. II, III and NAIA ranks. SPU competes in the women's open at 9 a.m. and the men's open is 9:30.

Depth charge. The SPU women are coming off another encouraging meet, one in which their depth began to materialize. Josie Lavin (Jr., Bremerton, Wa./Bremerton) led wire-to-wire to win the Central Washington Invitational last week. Lavin pulled away from Whitworth's Leslie Nelson in the final stages and was clocked in 19 minutes, 22 seconds-9 seconds ahead of Nelson-for her first collegiate trail win. She shared GNAC female runner of the week honors and her time was 1:21 superior to a year earlier when Lavin took fifth in Ellensburg. Without an ailing Jamie Witt (Jr., Folsom, Ca.), the Falcons still took second overall behind Willamette, 39-65. They got an extra lift from Karen Dickson (Fr., El Dorado Hills, Ca.), who was 12th in 20:30, and particularly Abby Groth (So., Roseburg, Or.), who was 14th in 20:31. Groth, who had not been among the team's five scorers at the first two meets, ran 62 seconds ahead of her pace a year earlier.

Tim's best ever. For the third time in as many meets, Tim LeCount (So., Battle Ground, Wa.) ran No. 1 for the Falcons and his placement of third was his best ever. LeCount covered the 4-mile trail in 21:22 despite running much of the race entirely alone. Former Central Washington harrier Eric Tollefson defended his title in 20:20. Paul Mach (Sr., Seattle, Wa./King's) was the team's No. 2 scorer, placing 15th in 22:05. Willamette also breezed to first in the men's division, with 32 points. Seattle Pacific was fourth with 91.

Central Washington Invitational results.
Women's Team Scores: 1-Willamette 39, 2-Seattle Pacific 65, 3-Whitworth 70, 4-Central Washington 82, 5-Whitman 140, 6-Western Washington 141. Winner: Josie Lavin, Seattle Pacific, 19:22.
SPU Women's Finishers: 1-Lavin, 19:22; 12-Dickson, 20:30; 14-Groth, 20:31; 17-Bjork, 20:43; 21-Harbaugh, 20:55; 26-Tayet, 21:05; 27-Huntington, 21:11; 36-Proboski, 21:32; 41-Knox, 21:46; 42-Jensen, 21:49; 46-Marsh, 21:58; 48-McCoy, 21:59; 64-Marshall, 22:43; 67-Duringer, 22:54; 84-Vermeer, 25:30.
Men's Team Scores: 1-Willamette 32, 2-Whitworth 70, 3-Central Washington 88, 4-Seattle Pacific 91, 5-Whitman 112, 6-Western Washington 130. Winner: Eric Tollefson, unattached, 20:20.
SPU Men's Finishers: 3-LeCount, 21:22; 15-Mach, 22:05; 24-Bostrom, 22:39; 36-Gavareski, 23:17; 46-O'Conner, 23:38; 50-Bjella, 23:50; 52-Rosser, 23:56; 58-Marston, 24:22; 60-Strickler, 24:28; 64-Philips, 24:51

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.