Kara Winger finishes ninth in Zurich Diamond League finals...

ZURICH, Switzerland—Vancouver native Kara Winger (left/photo by Paul Merca), finished ninth in the javelin at the Zurich Weltklasse Diamond League finals meeting Thursday night at Letzigrund Stadium.

Winger, who finished eighth in the world championships in Beijing on Sunday, only threw a best of 188-11 (57.58m), as Olympic champion Barbora Špotáková of the Czech Republic , who Winger bumped out of the finals in Beijing, won with a throw of 211-0 (64.31m).

Špotáková won the season long Diamond Race in the javelin, scoring 19 points over the course of the 14-city IAAF Diamond League tour that began in May in Doha.  Winger finished the season in a tie for seventh with world champion Katharina Molitor of Germany with 2 Diamond Race points.

Complete results of the Zurich Weltklasse meet are available here.

In Fairbanks, Alaska, Seattle Pacific’s Anna Patti won the 6-kilometer race at the season-opening Alaska Invitational, running 22:12 to help lead the Falcons to the team title in the triangular meet involving Montana State/Billings and host Alaska-Fairbanks at the West Ridge Ski Trails.

SPU had a team low score of 21 points, while Alaska Fairbanks was second with 43 points, and Montana State Billings wound up with 65. The top four Falcons finished ahead of everyone from MSUB and all but one runner from Fairbanks.

This was the third straight year the Falcons won the Alaska Invite long-course title.

Following Patti was Sarah Macdonald in second (23:12), followed by Hannah Calvert (23:52) in fourth, Jessica Rawlins (24:04) in fifth, and Lynelle Decker (24:40) in ninth.

The Falcon men finished third in the long-course meet, scoring 80 points.  Montana State Billings, led by individual winner Robert Peterson (26:19 for 8k) edged Alaska Fairbanks for first, 24-32 over the 8k course.

Sophomore Ben Halladay placed 14th overall, his first time at the front of the Seattle Pacific pack, clocking 28:02 for 8k.

The Falcons return to action Saturday for the short course race at the Alaska Invitational against the same two teams, with both men and women racing 5k.  SPU has won the last two women’s short-course titles.

Complete results of the Alaska Invitational long-course race are available here.

NOTE:  The sports information office at Seattle Pacific contributed to this report.