Central's Alexa Shindruk & Seattle Pacific's Kaylee Mitchell earn All-America honors at NCAA D2 champs...
Competing in wet and muddy conditions, Shindruk, who went to the NCAA championships last year in the 10000m on the track, and earned a berth to the cross country championships as an at-large athlete after her eighth place finish at the regionals in Billings two weeks ago, started off in the middle of the pack for the first half mile of the race, before working her way to 65th place near the end of the first of three laps of the 6k race.
By the end of the second lap, she found her way into 25th place, and moved up to 20th place with almost one kilometer to go, before crossing the finish line in 21st in a time of 23:15.
Ten seconds behind Shindruk was Seattle Pacific freshman Kaylee Mitchell, who finished in 35th place, running 23:25 to also earn All-America honors.
Shindruk’s teammate Nicole Soleim finished 57th in 23:56.
Finishing behind Mitchell for the #13 ranked Seattle Pacific squad, which made its first appearance as a team since 2015, were Katherine Walter in 85th (24:19), Kate Lilly in 120th (24:33), Krystal Kaufman in 136th (24:47), and Dania Holmberg in 176th (25:27).
Rounding out the Falcons’ seven runners were Sedona McNerney in 2015th (25:47), and Elizabeth Thompson in 218th (26:07), as Seattle Pacific finished in 15th place with a final team score of 466 points.
Western Washington, which entered the meet ranked #14 in the final regular season poll, finished 20th with a final team score of 525 points.
The Vikings were led by Jane Barr in 65th (24:02), followed by Sophia Galvez in 66th (24:03).
Following were Shawnee Konrad in 160th (25:11), Tracy Melville in 163rd (25:13), and Rebecca Lehman in 172nd (25:22) to round out the Viking scorers.
Talia Dreicer in 184th (25:33), and Peyton Shinnick in 193rd (25:39) closed out Western’s seven runners.
Sarah Berger of Grand Valley State won the women’s title, as she ran 22:08 to lead her team to the NCAA title with a final score of 41 points.
The top GNAC team was Alaska Anchorage in sixth with 255 points, followed by Simon Fraser in ninth with 342 points.
In the men’s 10k championship race, the Vikings finished 26th in the 34 team field with a final team score of 633 points.
Western Washington’s top runner was Eric Hamel in 58th (33:56), followed by Jadon Olson in 123rd (34:53).
Behind Olson was Dylan Hayes in 166th (35:28), Colton Hoggarth in 193rd (35:56), and Kyler Sager in 200th (36:03).
James Jasperson in 210th (36:21) and Edward Kiolbasa in 225th (36:40) closed out the Vikings’ seven runners.
Marcelo Laguera of Colorado State University-Pueblo won the national title in a time of 31:47, but it was Grand Valley State also taking the team title with a score of 89 points as the Lakers swept both the men’s and women’s championship crowns.
Alaska Anchorage led the GNAC conference with its eighth place finish at 279 points, while Simon Fraser finished 14th at 421 points.
Complete results of the NCAA Division II cross country championships are available here.
NOTE: The sports information offices of Central Washington University, Seattle Pacific University, Western Washington University, and the USTFCCCA contributed to this report.
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