Seattle Pacific University’s men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships on Saturday, Oct. 26, at the Sudden Valley Golf & Country Club in Bellingham, Washington.
The men’s team finished eighth overall with 248 points. Leading SPU men was Silas Demmert, who finished in 42nd place at 26:10.8.
Seattle Pacific’s women’s team tied the University of Alaska Anchorage for third place with 80 points. The tiebreaker compared the scores of each team’s top finishers. Alaska Anchorage held the tiebreaker over Seattle Pacific, winning them third place and putting SPU fourth.
Fifth-year Annika Esvelt and junior Maya Ewing made the All-GNAC Team with their third- and fourth-place performances. Esvelt finished at 21:02.3, and Ewing finished at 21:43.3.
Placing in the top three for women’s, Esvelt felt proud of the team and what they accomplished for the season.
“The team did awesome, and I’ve been really happy that I’ve been healthy, and my team has been healthy,” Esvelt said. “Some breakout races made a huge difference. Our goal was definitely to get one of those one through four spots, and being able to tie for third, and being only six spots off of second, was huge for us.”
Eric Hansen, the assistant coach for cross country, said the team performed the best they had all season.
“We had a pretty good race plan that we felt good about going into it, and everyone executed it really well,” Hansen said. “We knew Annika was going to be in the top three. Fourth through 12th was anyone’s race, and Maya ran a perfect race to get that fourth spot.”
Seattle Pacific women race in the National Collegiate Athletics Association West Regionals on Saturday, Nov. 9, at Amend Park in Billings, Montana. The women’s 6k leaves the starting line at 10:15 a.m. The top three team finishers in both races will receive automatic qualifying berths at the NCAA Championships.
Looking forward, Esvelt is locking in to beat a longtime rival and finish her final West Regionals race on a high note.
“I’m focusing on a girl named Rosie from Alaska Fairbanks that I’m always just off of in races. My goal is pretty much to stick to her as much as I can because I know she could pull me along to a really good finish,” Esvelt said. “When I’m visualizing the upcoming race, I’m visualizing a lot of sticking with people like my life depends on it.”
The men’s team may not have broken the top spots, but the NCAA West Regionals are open to all who wish to participate. The coaches have yet to determine who from the men’s team will compete.
With the fall season complete, SPU prepares for the indoor track and field season in winter.
“We’re racing in Spokane the second week of December for our first indoor meet,” Hansen said. “Some guys are going to start transitioning to track stuff, [but] we are going to have a few individuals on the men’s side keep the long-distance training going a little bit more.”
