Indiana via Bellingham. The road to Indiana and the NCAA Cross Country Championships begins in Bellingham as Seattle Pacific University sends its men’s and women’s teams to the West Regional. Races will cover 6000 meters for the women and 10,000 for the men at Lake Padden Park Saturday morning (Nov. 6). The top three teams and best two individuals from non-qualifying teams will earn trips to the national meet, Nov. 20 in Evansville.

It could happen to us. Although Coach Doris Heritage considered this to be a bit of a rebuilding year for both teams, the men and women have exceeded expectations so far. Maybe it could happen again at regionals. The men are now ranked No. 4 in the West following their surprising win at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships Oct. 23. The women, who narrowly missed getting their second straight title, are also fourth. Chico State is the frontrunner in both divisions, followed by Cal Poly Pomona and UC San Diego among the men and UCSD and Central Washington in the women’s. The SPU men have not sent a team to the NCAA Championships since 1961, but did qualify an individual as recently as 2001. The Falcon women are seeking their ninth trip to nationals and first since 1999. They won the West in ‘96 and were fifth in ‘03.

Top-five prospects. Any individual racer placing among the top five regionally is guaranteed a ticket to the NCAA Championships. That bodes well for Seattle Pacific’s Karen Dickson (So., El Dorado Hills, Ca./Oak Ridge) and Tim LeCount (Jr., Battle Ground, Wa.). Dickson, unbeaten against collegiate competition, won the GNAC title handily and knows the Lake Padden course well, having run there twice this fall, including the Western Washington Invitational Oct. 9. She is bidding to become the program’s first regional champ since Charlotte Jensen in 1990. LeCount was a conference winner as well, but he must run 2000 meters farther at the regional.

A first for the men. LeCount paced the Falcons to their first conference team title at the GNAC meet in McKinleyville, Calif. LeCount won for the fourth time this season but he had never finished higher than eighth at the GNAC. He moved to the front after about 6000 meters and finished 13 seconds in front of Humboldt State’s Brian Kostock in 25 minutes, 58 seconds. No SPU male individual has previously placed higher than fifth and the team’s top finish was fourth in 1999. Seattle Pacific, finishing with a 71-80 advantage over runner-up Alaska Anchorage, also got excellent support from Bjorn Bostrom (So., La Conner, Wa./Bellingham) and Brian Cronrath (Fr., Battle Ground, Wa.). Bostrom, earning all-conference distinction, took seventh place (26:42) and Cronrath was 15th (26:52), despite falling once on the path which was slippery following heavy rain. Also scoring were Paul Mach (Sr., Seattle, Wa./King’s), 23rd in 27:08, and Doug Gibson (So., Yakima, Wa./Riverside Christian), 25th and the conference newcomer award winner in 27:15.

Still unbeaten. Dickson, by a margin of 37 seconds over her nearest rival, became the seventh SPU runner to claim a women’s league title in the last nine years. She led virtually the entire race, continued to pull away and won in 22:28. The Falcons nearly retained their women’s team title, but Central Washington edged them 67-74 by virtue of a higher finish by their fifth scorer. Karin Rohde (Fr., Bellingham, Wa./Mount Baker) was the freshman of the year, placing seventh in 23:57. Becky Knox (Jr., Denver, Co./Denver Christian) joined Rohde and Dickson on the all-conference team, taking eighth in 24:03. Scoring fourth and fifth for the women were Tracy Kuhn (Jr., Port Angeles, Wa.), 27th in 25:15, and Kaitlin Rohde (Fr., Bellingham, Wa./Mount Baker), 32nd in 25:32.

Academic rundown. Mach was among eight harriers named to the academic all-conference teams. Mach, a computer science major with a 3.72 grade point average, was the only four-time selection. LeCount was a repeat selection as was Knox. First-time award winners were Michael Gavareski (So., Bellingham, Wa./Bellingham), James Rosser (So., Seattle, Wa./Highline), Eddie Strickler (So., Richland, Wa.), Dickson and Brandi McCoy (So., Richland, Wa.).

Coaching staff. Coach Doris Heritage (27th 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 January of 2003 she was inducted into the Falcon Legends Hall of Fame Heritage was already a member of the National Distance Running, 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.