Anna Patti takes second as Falcons finish third at Charles Bowles Invite...

SALEM, Oregon—Led by Anna Patti’s second place finish, the 19th ranked Seattle Pacific women’s cross country team finished third in the Cardinal section of the Charles Bowles Invitational at Bush’s Pasture Park Saturday.

Over the 5k course, Patti ran 17:36, five seconds behind Amanda Boman of Portland State, who took the lead early in the race and maintained it.

Behind Patti came a pack of five Falcons placing in the top 35—Sarah Macdonald (12, 18:06), Mary Charleston (28, 18:31), Chynna Phan (31, 18:36), Hannah Calvert (32, 18:40), and Lynelle Decker (33, 18:41).

Seattle Pacific's total of 105 points on a sunny, comfortable morning trailed only Portland State (75) and the University of Portland (100), both NCAA Division I schools.

Among the 16 teams that SPU beat in the 18-team field were Point Loma (fourth with 119 points) and Humboldt State (seventh with 163). That's significant, because they'll come up against them again on Nov. 7 in Monmouth, Ore, at the NCAA Division II West Regionals. On that day, the top five placers will earn trips to Missouri for the D2 nationals on November 21.

"That was super important today. We've got to beat good teams to get ourselves to the NCAA Championships,” said SPU assistant coach Audra Smith. "That has been our goal since we stepped on campus in the beginning of September. We had a handful of girls who had massive PRs – that is so encouraging.”

In the men’s 8k race, Seattle Pacific finished tenth with 262 points, as Humboldt State won with 43 points.  SeattleU’s B team, comprising of runners who did not run at the Washington Invitational, was third with 91 points, followed by D3 schools Puget Sound (111), Whitman (140), and Whitworth (184).

Tyler Shipley of Puget Sound, their D3 All-American, won in 24:34.

Complete results of the Charles Bowles Invitational are available here.

This was Seattle Pacific’s final regular season meet, as they will skip next week’s Western Washington Invitational and train through the next few weeks before the GNAC championship on October 24th in Bellingham.

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