The Falcons Online -- Seattle Pacific University Athletics

SPU Cross Country Does The Splits Saturday
LeCount Takes GNAC Award; Witt 2nd At Sundodger
October 1, 2003

Complete Weekly Release PDF Version
2003 Men's Results	2003 Women's Results
2003 Men's Roster	2003 Women's Roster

Trail Mix

Heritage has chosen to give the women a shorter race this week since they will step up to a 6k for the first time at the Western Washington Invitational. The men are using Willamette as somewhat of a preview for the conference meet in nearby Monmouth...Over 1300 runners are expected in Salem for a total of four races...The Mount Baker Invitational is a 3-mile race with several divisions from high school up to the open...SPU has finished ahead of the Western women in all four meets this season. Last year the Vikings won the dual, 26-29. The men will not have sufficient numbers for a scored dual...This week's most improved runner was Summer Huntington (Fr., Marysville, Wa./Marysville-Pilchuck), who was fourth on the team and 50th overall in 19:22...Chico State (No. 4) and UC San Diego (No. 16) are the two West Region women's teams ranked ahead of SPU in the national poll.

They went thattaway. For the first time this fall, the Seattle Pacific University cross country teams will not be one happy family this weekend. Rather, they will make like an amoeba and split, with eight men running the Willamette Invitational in Salem, Ore., Saturday (Oct. 4) and the remaining men and women going north to the Mount Baker Invitational in Maple Falls, Wa., and a dual with Western Washington. The Falcons will be back together Oct. 11 for the Western Washington Invitational in Bellingham.

It's nice to be ranked. Coach Doris Heritage has her women's team back in the national rankings at No. 19. For SPU it's the first such ranking since the 2000 season and it's another indication that runners have made moves to regain their position as one of the top programs in NCAA Division II. Heritage is aiming to take her squad to the NCAA Championships , a feat it accomplished on an annual basis from 1994-99. Seattle Pacific should also be among the top contenders for the Great Northwest Athletic Conference crown Oct. 25.

LeCount of Lincoln Park. While the men's team might have a more difficult task in reaching the national meet, Tim LeCount (So., Battle Ground, Wa.) is showing signs that he could qualify as an individual. LeCount is coming off an eighth-place finish at the Sundodger Open-the best-ever placement by an SPU male. LeCount was second among GNAC men and his 8000-meter time of 25 minutes, 11 seconds was 40 seconds faster than his time on the same course a year ago. He was selected as the GNAC runner of the week. So far this fall, LeCount has finished 12th or higher in all four meets. He was eighth in both the conference and West Regional races as a redshirt freshman.

At Witt's end. The SPU women broke into the top 20 by finishing a respectable third (behind two Canadian schools) at the Sundodger. Jamie Witt (Jr., Folsom, Ca.) returned from a bout with the flu to finish second, covering the 5k trail in 17:46. It was her best time this season by 15 seconds and it was her third top-three finish. Josie Lavin (Jr., Bremerton, Wa./Bremerton), who had won the Central Washington Invitational the previous week, was 13th in 18:19.

Sundodger Open at Lincoln Park

Women's Team Scores: 1-Britsh Columbia 55, 2-Simon Fraser 79, 3-Seattle Pacific 146, 4-Lewis-Clark St. 153, 5-Victoria 167, 6-Portland B 171, 7-Western Washington 196, 8-Central Washington 203, 9-Lewis & Clark 236, 10-Seattle University 246, 11-Puget Sound 292, 12-Pacific Lutheran 323, 13-Clackamas CC 336, 14-Saint Martin's 338, 15-Clark 420, 16-Spokane CC 437, 17-Warner Pacific 520, 18-Evergreen 524
Top Women's Individuals: 1-Jenny Rodgers, unat., 17:37; 2-Jamie Witt, SPU, 17:46; 3-Julia Howard, 17:54; 4-Celia Ambery, UBC, 17:59; 5-Amy Higginbotham, UBC, 18:00.
Other SPU Women Scorers: 13-Josie Lavin, 18:19; 42-Karen Dickson, 19:10; 50-Summer Huntington, 19:22; 51-Ruth Harbaugh, 19:23.

Men's Team Scores: 1- Western Washington 64, 2-Simon Fraser 81, 3-Spokane CC 90, 4-Victoria 140, 5-Puget Sound 148, 6-British Columbia 173, 7-Lewis-Clark St. 209, 8-Seattle University 236, 9-Seattle Pacific 275, 10-Clackamas CC 280, 11-Highline CC 299, 12-Central Washington 335, 13-Pacific Lutheran 338
Top Men's Individuals: 1-Richard Mosley, SFU, 24:24; 2-Jerry Ziak, UBC, 24:39; 3-Hayden Prosser, SFU, 24:49; 4-Dan McLean, UPS, 24:54; 5-Patrick Chessar, SPCC, 24:56.
SPU Men Scorers: 8-Tim LeCount, 25:11; 44-Paul Mach, 26:19; 73-Bjorn Bostrom, 27:04; 81-Aaron Libadisos, 27:15; 119-Clint Bjella, 28:00

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.