Falcons and Wildcats head to Tacoma for Saturday's Pacific Lutheran Open...

 

Central Washington and Seattle Pacific are the only Washington Division I or II teams competing this weekend, as both squads head to Tacoma for the Pacific Lutheran Open on the PLU campus.

Action begins with the women's 6k race at 11 am, followed by the men's 8k at 11:45.

The Seattle Pacific women's team, currently ranked #22 in the USTFCCCA Division II coaches' poll, is expected to field a full squad after only running four athletes at last week's Ash Creek Invitational in Monmouth, Oregon.

Those who did run in Oregon delivered some solid performances. Annika Esvelt took third place overall in her college cross country debut, finishing 5 kilometers in 14:13.

She will be looking to be among the front runners again this week, as will Ellie Rising and Kelsey Washenberger. Rising ran fourth in Oregon, and Washenberger was seventh.

"We knew it would be kind of tough to fully evaluate where the women's team is at without a full squad out there," said SPU distance coach Chris Reed. 

"But we knew with the people we had out there, as long as they raced as if there was a (full) team … we would get a pretty good gauge of where they were at."

 In last week's Central Washington Invitational, both Wildcat squads finished fourth.

CWU coach Kevin Adkisson said in the school's weekly release that the PLU Open will be the "first true test of where we are at."

Kay Lester (photo courtesy CWU Athletics) led the Wildcats in Ellensburg last week with her tenth place finish in 16:35 over 4k, while Ty Savely was Central's top runner in the men's 6k race, finishing 11th in 20:20.

NOTE: The sports information offices of Central Washington and Seattle Pacific contributed to this report.

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