Viking men's and women's teams make case for national ranking with strong showing at Division II Conference Crossover Invitational...
At the Division II Conference Crossover Invitational hosted by Lewis University, the women’s squad finished fourth of 28 teams, while the men’s team were eighth in the 27-team field.
The Viking women’s squad finished with a score of 175 to finish behind team champion and #3 ranked Western Colorado, who scored 38 points, followed by GNAC rival and #11 Simon Fraser’s 146, then #17 Azusa Pacific, who had 151 points.
Among the ranked teams Western Washington finished ahead of included #10 Walsh, #15 Michigan Tech, #19 Queens and #25 Point Loma.
Juniors Sophia Galvez (left/photo courtesy WWU Athletics) and Talia Dreicer, who were high school teammates in Los Alamos, New Mexico, led WWU's seven-runner contingent finishing 28th and 29th in the 276-runner race over 6 kilometers.
Galvez clocked 22:55, narrowly edging Dreicer by one-tenth of a second. Freshman Rebecca Lehman finished 34th in 23:00, followed by sophomore Jane Barr in 38th in 23:04 and redshirt freshman Shawnee Konrad in 45th in 23:08, giving the Vikings an impressive 13-second 1-5 split.
“The women have been training exceptionally hard and they have been coming along, and today they put it all together and had a great performance," said head coach Pee Wee Halsell. "Today was huge for them. They were tightly packed together and they fed off each other, which they talked about before the race. They raced well today and the great result shows that, and this will give them confidence into the championship portion of the schedule."
In the men’s 8k race, Western Washington scored 249 points, the same as GNAC rival and #10 ranked Western Oregon, but won the head-to-head tiebreaker by a 3-2 margin.
Number 5 ranked Western Colorado took the victory with 84 points, followed by #11 Queens (North Carolina) at 115, followed by GNAC member and #13 Simon Fraser, who scored 127 points.
The Vikings finished ahead of #8 Southern Indiana and #10 Western Oregon.
Eric Hamel led the way for Western with his 27th place finish in 25:28, followed by James Jasperson in 39th at 25:42, while Kyler Sager was 51st in 25:52.
Rounding out the Viking scorers were Ed Kiolbasa in 25:54, and Isaac Decline in 79th at 26:15.
The Vikings were without two of their top runners who were held out due to minor injuries, with senior Jadon Olson and redshirt freshman Ian Fay, who won the Ken Garland Classic in Lacey two weeks ago not making the trip.
"I am very excited about how the men competed against a very tough field, down two runners," added Halsell. "They stepped up and raced well today. They have to keep improving and get healthy, but I like where they are at."
The Vikings return to action in two weeks as they host the WWU Cross Country Classic at Sudden Valley Golf Course.
Western Washington’s release is available here, along with a recap of how their remaining athletes competed at the Emerald City Open meet.
Complete results of the Division II Conference Crossover Invitational are available here.
NOTE: The sports information office of Western Washington University contributed to this report.
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