A year better. With the great majority of scorers due back, the Seattle Pacific University men’s and women’s cross country teams should return even stronger in 2004. The Falcons’ top scorers will lead the list of returnees next fall and most, if not all, of the athletes will be running around ovals in the upcoming track & field campaigns. Indoor meets begin Jan. 17 and outdoor competition commences Mar. 6.

Over and out. The autumn season concluded a bit earlier than hoped when none of the harriers were able to advance beyond the NCAA West Regional Nov. 8. The women’s team finished fifth and no runners–male or female–finished among the top five at Chino’s Prado Park. Needing to place among the top three women’s teams, SPU (209 points) took fifth behind favored Chico State (38), UC San Diego (124), Cal State Stanislaus (176) and Alaska Anchorage (177). The Falcons had entered the race ranked 23rd among women’s teams and had beaten Anchorage at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships two weeks earlier.

Individually speaking. Jamie Witt (Jr., Folsom, Ca.) paced Seattle Pacific, finishing a regional career-best 12th. Her time of 22 minutes, 51.8 seconds was 69 seconds off her best 6000-meter race of the season. Chelsea Smith of BYU Hawaii won in 20:54.4. Josie Lavin (Jr., Bremerton, Wa.), who had won the GNAC title, took 21st in 23:19.3. Coach Doris Heritage, who along with the rest of the team was rousted from her hotel room late Friday night because of a fire in a nearby sauna, said her runners were flat.

“If we had run as well as we did at conference, we would be going to nationals,” said Heritage “The evacuation was not an excuse but it didn't help.”

Tim LeCount (So., Battle Ground, Wa.), the Falcons' lone male entry, finished 17th in 32:02.5. It was his best 10,000-meter time of the year. Hawaii Pacific’s William Ngetich finished first in 31:40.5.

“Tim ran hard but wasn't feeling well,” Heritage said. “Our gals will come back from this next year. It's sad but there's plenty of hope.”

Bidding adieu. A couple of key runners are due for graduation. Paul Mach (Sr., Seattle, Wa./King’s), the No. 2 scorer for the past couple seasons, is the sole senior on the men’s side. Mach is the three-time defending conference champion in the 400 hurdles. Kirsten Bjork (Sr., Olympia, Wa./Capital), a member of the regional contingent in three of her four seasons, completed her cross country eligibility.

NCAA West Regional results.
Women's team scores: 1-Chico State 38, 2-UC San Diego 124, 3-Cal State Stanislaus 176, 4-Alaska Anchorage 177, 5-Seattle Pacific 209, 6-Central Washington 219, 7-Western Washington 242, 8-Cal State Dominguez Hills 275, 9-Hawaii Pacific 278, 10-Seattle U. 292, 11-Sonoma State 321, 12-Cal Poly Pomona 326, 13-Western Oregon 358, 14-Cal State San Bernardino 403, 15-Hawaii Hilo 405, 16-Humboldt State 412, 17-Cal State Bakersfield 431, 18-BYU Hawaii 441, 19-Cal State L.A. 478, 20-Northwest Nazarene 510, 21-Saint Martin's 525, 22-Chaminade 546, 23-Montana State-Billings 549, 24-San Francisco State 609.
Women's individuals (6K): 1-Chelsea Smith, BYU Hawaii, 20:54.3; 2-Nina Christensen, Hawaii Pacific, 21:49.9; 3-Sarah Bouchard, Cal State L.A., 22:00.8; 4-Missy Lendl, Chico State, 22:16.9; 5-Laura Trevellyan, Western Washington, 22:22.0; 6-Tina Firouz, UC San Diego, 22:25.5; 7-Margaret Pridgen, Chico State, 22:30.9; 8-Kelly Ortlieb, Chico State, 22:34.0; 9-Sarah Montez, Chico State, 22:48.8; 10- Katie Lee, Chico State, 22:50.1.
SPU finishers: 12-Jamie Witt, 22:51.8; 21-Josie Lavin, 23:19.3; 55-Karen Dickson, 24:21.4; 60-Abby Groth, 24:32.6; 61-Summer Huntington, 24:33.3; 65-Kirsten Bjork, 24;35.0; 81-Ruth Harbaugh, 24:58.0
Men's team scores: 1-Chico State 28, 2-UC San Diego 79, 3-Cal Poly Pomona 91, 4-Western Washington 105, 5-Alaska Anchorage 147, 6-Humboldt State 182, 7-Western Oregon 214, 7-Hawaii Pacific 214, 9. Brigham Young-Hawaii 262, 9-Saint Martin's 262, 11-Seattle U. 269, 12-Central Washington 283, 13-Northwest Nazarene 302, 14-Hawaii Hilo 376, 15-Chaminade 425, 16-San Francisco State 453, 17-Montana State-Billings 513.
Men's individuals (10K): 1-William Ngetich, Hawaii Pacific, 31:40.5; 2-Tyler Graff, Chico State, 31:48.8; 3-Daniel Rojas, Cal Poly Pomona, 31:56.6; 4-Mark Batres, Cal Poly Pomona, 32:07.1; 5-Patrick Boivin, Chico State, 32:17.6; 6-Charlie Serrano, Chico State, 32:35.4; 7-Joel Martinez, Chico State, 32:37.1; 8-Christopher Layman, Chico State, 32:37.5; 9-Robert Eap, UC San Diego, 32:38.2; 10-Douglas Hamilton, Humboldt State, 32:42.6.
SPU finishers: 17-Tim LeCount, 33:02.5.

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.