Kendra Schaff & Paul Limpf break course records at Sundodger Invitational...

Kendra Schaff, the Canadian frosh phenom, proved to all in attendance at Seattle's Lincoln Park that she is indeed the real deal as she ran a Sundodger Invitational course record of 19:58 in winning the 6-kilometer race.

The freshman from Saskatchewan took command from the gun, opening a lead of 100 meters through the first lap of the 3-lap race, and never looked back as she won going away.

"My objective today was just to have fun", Schaff said in a post race interview during the awards ceremony, as Schaff became the first woman to break 20 minutes on the 6k course.

"It is definitely a confidence booster," said Schaaf. "It's good to come in and have a good race and get the year off on the right foot. The plan was to just run how I felt, and the coaches told me they expected I'd be up front. It's only my second 6K so I was getting used to that. The crowd really got behind me today, it was fun."

The previous meet record was held by Club Northwest's Sabrina Monro, who ran 20:10 in 2004.

Husky sophomore Mel Lawrence from Reno finished second in 20:23, while NCAA Division II champion Jessica Pixler of Seattle Pacific finished third in 20:31.

In the men's competition, Eastern Washington's Paul Limpf from Vancouver's Evergreen HS, reeled in Alaska-Anchorage's Marko Cheseto on the final lap to break Jon Harding's course record of 23:36 over 8 kilometers set last year by 3 seconds.

Cheseto, who lost the lead in the last kilometer, held on to finish second in 23:45, with the University of Washington's Jake Schmitt third in 23:48.

Schmitt, who last spring qualified for NCAA's on the track in the 10K, led the Huskies in his first official UW cross country outing. He transferred to Washington from California and ran unattached last year during the fall. Schmitt's time of 23:48 was the seventh-fastest in meet history.

"I thought it was exactly what I wanted to feel like. Today's kind of a rust-buster, shake up the nerves, see where the team is, and it played into that exactly," said Schmitt. "We were running together through 4K, feeling good and controlled and feeding off each other. It's good to get a little pain the legs to experience that. It's something good that needs to happen."

The Huskies travel to Auburn, Alabama for the Auburn Invitational in two weeks.

MEN'S RESULTS

1-Paul Limpf, Eastern Washington, 23:33
2-Marko Cheseto, Alaska-Anchorage, 23:45
3-Jake Schmitt, UW 23:48
4-Alex Smyth, East Wa 24:03
5-Jeremy Mineau, UW, 24:08
6-Uli Steidl, Germany 24:11
7-Alfred Kangogo, AK Anch 24:13
8-Mark Moeller, WSU 24:27
9-Eric Garner (ex UW) 24:28
10-Jonathan Marcus, West Valley TC 24:38

Huskies win both team titles; men win with 41; AK Anch 2nd 54; Eastern WA 3rd 68;
women's team scores (top 3) 1, Washington 24; 2, UC Davis 67; 3, Oregon State 75;

WOMEN'S RESULTS

1, Kendra Schaaf, UW, 19:58 (course record); 2, Marie Lawrence, UW, 20:23 3, Jessica Pixler, SPU, 20:31 4, Lauren Saylor, UW, 20:41 5, Kim Conley, UCD, 20:45; 6, Kailey Campbell, UW, 20:47; 7, Lisa Egami, WSU, 20:52; 8, Kaitlin Gregg, UCD, 20:54; 9, Sylvia Veal, OSU, 20:54 10, Casey Masterson, OSU, 20:59

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