Easy now. For some it’s one last weekend to rest and for other members of the Seattle Pacific University cross country teams Saturday (Oct. 29) will one last chance to pound the trails. The Falcons will send several athletes to the seventh annual Bellevue Community College Invitational in Issaquah while most of the top scorers bypass the meet and taper themselves for the NCAA West Regional, Nov. 5 in Chino, Ca. The BCC courses at Lake Sammamish State Park are 5000 meters for women and 8k for men.

Light activity. With coach Doris Heritage limited to seven participants in the postseason meets, this week’s meet will feature mostly those runners who will not be making the trip south to California. It’s unlikely that the SPU men will field a full team and the only other Great Northwest Athletic Conference team participating is Saint Martin’s.

Lookin’ good. Seattle Pacific validated its promise as a contender for an NCAA Championships berth by winning the women’s GNAC team title last week at Lake Padden. Paced by Meredith Crane’s (Jr., Yakima, Wa./Davis) runner-up finish, the 16th-ranked finished 17 points ahead of Alaska Anchorage for their eighth conference crown overall and second in three years. The Falcons remain unbeaten against NCAA opposition. In its bid to repeat as men’s champion, SPU was fourth, but only nine points out of second place.

Crane flies. Despite being weakened by illness, Crane battled Pavla Havlova of Alaska Fairbanks for top honors. Havlova crossed the line in 22 minutes, 15 seconds. Crane was timed in 22:32–40 seconds off her pace at the Western Washington Invitational on the same course two weeks beforehand. With four of the top 12 finishers, Seattle Pacific totaled 54 points. Mary Moriarty (Fr., Seattle, Wa./Ballard), also recovering from a malady, ran seventh (23:11) to earn GNAC freshman of the year and join Crane on the all-conference team. Josie Lavin (Sr., Bremerton, Wa./Bremerton) and Karin Rohde (So., Bellingham, Wa./Mount Baker) took 11th and 12th, respectively, in 23:26 and 23:31. Susie Strickler (Fr., Richland, Wa.) was the team’s fifth scorer, taking 22nd in 23:57.

Just missed. Just as Lavin and Rohde just missed making the cut for all-conference, the same was true for Carlo Lozano (So., Seattle, Wa./Blanchet), who was 11th among the men in 26:42. As expected, Casey Moriarty of Seattle University won convincingly in 25:16 over 8k. Anchorage freshman David Kiplagat was second in 25:57, but with four of his UAA teammates among the top 13, the Seawolves (39) were winners by 49 points over host Western Washington (88). Humboldt State edged SPU for third place, 91-97. For the Falcons, Brian Cronrath (So., Battle Ground, Wa.) was 14th in 26:48 and Bjorn Bostrom (Jr., La Conner, Wa./Bellingahm) 17th in 26:55. The other scorers were James Rosser (Jr., Seattle, Wa./Highline), 26th in 27:16, and Doug Gibson (Jr., Yakima, Wa./Riverside Christian), 29th in 27:22.

It’s academic. A league-high nine harriers were named to the GNAC all-academic team this week. Rosser, Eddie Strickler (Jr., Richland, Wa.) and Michael Gavreski (Jr., Bellingham, Wa./Bellingham) represented the men while the women were Karin Rohde, Kaitlin Rohde (So., Bellingham, Wa./Mount Baker), Tracy Kuhn (Sr., Port Angeles, Wa.), Becky Knox (Sr., Denver, Co.), Brandi McCoy (Sr., Richland, Wa./Richland) and Megan Wrightman (So., Bend, Or.). Gavareski, Strickler, Rosser, Knox and McCoy were all repeat selections from a year ago.

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.