2024 Cross Country Preview: Saint Martin's University...
After a few years away from previewing the state's nine NCAA Division I and II cross country teams due to our emphasis on the late summer pro competitions, paulmerca.blogspot.com is posting a series of snapshots of the state's teams.
We started by previewing the state's five Division I schools, all of whom have competed in the last week.
After previewing Central Washington, we turn our attention to Saint Martin's.
Taking the helm of the SMU program is Gabriel Trimbur (photo courtesy Saint Martin's University Athletics) who was a part-time assistant coach at Seattle University last season, while working on his masters' degree from the University of Washington.
He takes over a program that quite frankly, is bare at the cupboard. Its women's team lost All-American Cassidy Walchak-Sloan to Eastern Washington, Alisha Saucedo, who was eighth at the GNAC championships to Seattle University, Sara Sabra, who was ninth at GNACs, and Elke Wijkmans, who finished tenth at GNAC. Wijkmans transferred after the cross country season to Cumberlands.
Last year's Saint Martin's squad was a fifth and sixth runner away from possibly upsetting Western Washington for the conference championship after they lost 2022 NCAA cross country qualifier Alauna Carstens, who transferred to Evergreen State before the start of the 2023 season.
Their top runner from last year's conference championship team returning is their fifth runner Kya Ramirez, who was 44th at GNACs and 107th at NCAA regionals.
The Saints add Olivia Mitchell, who scored in the NWAC conference meet in the steeple and 5000 meters for Green River College, and 12th in the cross country championships. They also add another JC transfer in Charis Dietemeyer from Clark College in Vancouver.
In the GNAC pre-season coaches poll, Saint Martin's is picked to finish fourth in the conference behind Western Washington, Alaska Fairbanks and Simon Fraser, which is quite generous. If they can stay above eighth place, that would be a major win for the program.
On the men's side, the Saints are not very deep, only listing eight runners on their TFRRS roster. The team finished seventh at last year's GNAC championship meet, and 19th at the NCAA West Regionals.
Their top returning runner is Kainalu Pagente, who was 34th at the GNAC championships, and 80th at the NCAA West Regionals.
Saint Martin's also returns Eli Dale, who was 50th in the conference and 108th at regionals, Timmy Higgins, who was 61st and 144th; Noe Ortega (72nd and 137th).
Their one significant addition is Ethan Coon, who started at Central Washington in 2023, then competed unattached this past spring.
The biggest question surrounding this team is whether or not Trimbur, who is in his first head coaching position at the collegiate level, can get his athletes to buy into his training methodology, considering that he was hired by the school towards the end of June. The other question is whether or not he can get any walk-on recruits to join the team to give it depth.
Saint Martin's will see all three Washington GNAC schools three times before the conference championship meet on October 26th in Bellingham: at the Green River Invitational on September 14th; the WWU Bill Roe Classic in Ferndale on September 28th; and the Emerald City Open in Seattle on October 12th.
After the GNAC championships in Bellingham, the NCAA West Regionals will be held in Billings, Montana, and the NCAA Division II championships will be contested in Sacramento, California.
NOTE: The sports information office of Saint Martin's University and the Great Northwest Athletic Conference contributed to this report.
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