Both Western Washington squads and Seattle Pacific women eye nationals spots in Monmouth...

All eyes will be on the Western Washington men’s and women’s teams, as well as the Seattle Pacific women’s squad in their attempts to qualify for the NCAA Division II cross country championships in Sacramento in two weeks as they, along with the men’s and women’s teams from all four GNAC schools head to Monmouth, Oregon for the NCAA Division II West Regionals Saturday at Ash Creek Preserve hosted by Western Oregon University.

The women’s 6k race kicks things off at 10 am, while the men’s 10k gets underway at 11:15 am.

The Viking men and women (above/photo courtesy Great Northwest Athletic Conference), who swept the conference championships in Billings, Montana two weeks ago, are looking to punch their tickets to the NCAA championships in Sacramento.

Western became the first team other than Alaska Anchorage to claim both the women's and men's team titles in the same year in the 19-year history of the GNAC Championships dating back to 2001, with UAA sweeping top team honors seven previous times.

"We are running great right now and coming off a wonderful team performance at the GNAC Championships. They worked together as a unit and the pack was extremely strong leading to both teams winning the conference title," said WWU head coach Pee Wee Halsell.

"We are looking to bottle that same energy and grit heading into the regional competition with a trip to nationals on the line. This is a team with lofty goals and I expect them to go down to Oregon and lay it all on the line and have a great race."

Following the GNAC sweep, the Vikings moved up in the national and regional rankings with the women listed number 11 in the latest USTFCCCA D2 national coaches poll. The WWU men are ranked number 21 in the coaches’ poll.

In contrast, the Seattle Pacific women, who finished third two weeks ago at the GNACs to both Western Washington and Alaska Anchorage, will have to run their best race of the season for the second straight meet, especially going against a field that includes eight teams ranked in the top 25 in the USTFCCCA national coaches’ poll.

The Falcons, who were ranked number 7 in the country going into the GNAC championships, are currently ranked number 14 in the country.

SPU took a hit before the conference championships when sophomore All-American Kaylee Mitchell announced her decision to leave the Falcon program.

With Mitchell gone from the team, there’s added pressure on the three runners who were behind senior Kate Lilly and junior Dania Holmberg, who finished second and fourth at GNACs two weeks ago.

At GNAC in Billings, junior Elizabeth Thompson came up with her best race of the season and was third for the Falcons, 17th overall, redshirt freshman Kelsey Washenberger was 19th, and senior Katherine Walter was 23rd. They were within 10 seconds of each other, and were 56 seconds behind fourth-place Holmberg.

That trio will need to run closer to Lilly and Holmberg if they hope to get one of the three automatic team qualifying spots for Sacramento.

According to Falcon distance coach Chris Reed, "Our team is a little different now than it was in preseason. One of our goals going into the year was to put ourselves in position to know on November 9th if we are advancing to the NCAAs. That's still very much in play. We have to run extremely well, and we have to run our best race of the season for the second straight meet."

“If we fall a little short, we still have a shot (with an at-large bid). Us, Western Washington, Anchorage and East Bay are kind of in that mix, and there's some chance Cal Poly Pomona or UC San Diego could rise up and sneak in there."

The top three teams in both the men’s and women’s races will qualify for the NCAA Division II Championships, which take place on November 23rd in Sacramento. In addition, the top two individuals who are not part of a qualifying team will automatically qualify for the national meet as well as all individuals who finish in the top-five and are not part of a qualifying team.

In addition to the top three teams from each of the eight regional championship meets, a total of 10 teams and eight individuals from all eight regions will receive at-large selections to the meet. Those selections will be announced by the NCAA on Monday November 11th.

The link to live results is available here.

NOTE:  The sports information offices of Western Washington, Seattle Pacific, and the Great Northwest Athletic Conference contributed to this report.