Family ties. It’s more of a fun run than a race, but a stopwatch will be at the ready so let’s call it a meet. Saturday morning (Oct. 15) the Seattle Pacific University cross country teams host the alumni at Green Lake for a 2.6-mile jaunt, followed by a potluck back on campus. It’s the perfect type of activity for the weekend prior to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships, set for Oct. 22 at Lake Padden.

Dial long distance. Past harriers will don singlets and shorts and join the SPU men and 13th-ranked women on the start line, near the aqua theater. Coach Doris Heritage has also received interest from alumni outside the Puget Sound area, who will run on their own and phone or email their times afterward.

Western front. Winning for the third time in four outings, Meredith Crane (Jr., Yakima, Wa./Davis) led the Falcons to a convincing team victory at the Western Washington Invitational last week at Lake Padden Park. Crane won the 6000-meter race by a margin of 20 seconds in 21:52, and teammates Mary Moriarty (Fr., Seattle, Wa./Ballard) and Karin Rohde (So., Bellingham, Wa./Mount Baker) took sixth and ninth, respectively. Seattle Pacific, with six runners among the top 18, totaled 20 points for their first win since Sept. 10. Seattle University was next with 62. In the men’s competition, the Falcons were second to host Western Washington, 28-46. Casey Moriarty, Mary’s older brother, won the first 10k event of the season in 31:56. Carlo Lozano (So., Seattle, Wa./Blanchet) of SPU was sixth in 33:10.

Western Washington Invitational results.

• Men's team scores: 1-Western Washington 28, 2-Seattle Pacific 46, 3-Seattle University 66, 4-Central Washington 109
  Men's individuals (10k): 1-Casey Moriarty, SU, 31:56; 2-Josh Babiak, SFSU, 32:27; 3-Will Dobbie, CNW, 32:53; 4-Sam Scotchmer, unat., 32:57; 5-Greg Crowther, SRC, 33:08; 6-Carlo Lozano, SPU, 33:10; 7-Ahrlin Bauman, CNW, 33:22; 8-Logan Senrud, WWU, 33:25; 9-Sam Brancheau, WWU, 33:30; 10-Steve DeKoker, CNW, 33:34.
  Other SPU finishers: 14-Brian Cronrath, 33:47; 25-Bjorn Bostrom, 34:23; 32-Eddie Strickler, 34:40; 33-James Rosser, 34:43; 45-Mike Zetterberg, 35:23; 48-Mike Gavareski, 35:44; 67-Ryan Phillips, 37:16
• Women's team scores: 1- Seattle Pacific 20; 2-Seattle University 62, 3-Western Washington 69, 4-San Francisco State 85; 5-Central Washington 152
  Women's individuals (6k): 1-Meredith Crane, SPU, 21:52; 2-Cari Kuzyk, unat., 22:12; 3-Rachel Brewer, CNW, 22:17; 4-Laura Trevellyan, WWU, 22:32; 5-Linda Hyuck, CNW, 22:37; 6-Mary Moriarty, SPU, 22:51; 7-Jen Tonkin, SRC, 22:52; 8-Gwen Greiner, SRC, 23:01; 9-Karin Rohde, SPU, 23:02; 10-Regine Joyce, CNW, 23:07
  Other SPU finishers: 14-Josie Lavin, 23:13; 17-Kim Beaman, 23:39; 18-Suzie Strickler, 23:39; 25-Becky Knox, 24:06; 27-Megan Wrightman, 24:17; Kaitlin Rohde, 24:23; 37-Brandi McCoy, 25:02; 39-Nikki Jensen, 25:06; 40-Teona Perkins, 25:06; 42-Tracy Kuhn, 25:16; 54-Corina James, 25:51; 55-Heidi Peterson, 25:54; 58-Elana Darnell, 26:13; 70-Sachi Lopez, 26:59

Coaching staff. Coach Doris Heritage (28th year) has guided the SPU women to 10 top-10 national finishes and conference titles in six of the last 10 years. The men won the ‘04 crown. 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. Twenty 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 seven-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 is Lane Seeley, 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.