Championship Saturday looms for all four Washington GNAC schools in Bellingham...

It's championship week for the state's four Division II schools, as they head north to Bellingham for the annual Great Northwest Athletic Conference meet at the Sudden Valley Golf Course on Saturday.

Starting the morning of racing is the men's 8k at 10 am, followed by the women's 6k at 11 am.

Admission to the meet is free, Saturday’s championship races have the potential to run slow, with a 75% chance of rain and temperatures ranging from 47-55 degrees (F).

Host Western Washington looks to become the second GNAC school to win three straight men’s team titles and the third GNAC school to claim three straight women’s team titles. The Vikings swept both the 2022 and 2023 team cross country titles, and last year became the first school in GNAC history to win six trophies (men’s and women’s cross country, indoor track and outdoor track) in the same academic year.

After their sixth place performance at the Lewis Crossover in Romeoville, Illinois, the Vikings are ranked number eight in the latest USTFCCCA Division II national coaches poll, and are the only GNAC school in the top 30.

Should the men of Western Washington win Saturday, they'll become the first team to win the conference crown three straight times since Alaska Anchorage, which has the GNAC record of seven straight from 2010-16. The Vikings are the only other team to have won two straight times, having done so in 2006-07, then the current string from 2022-23.

Going into Saturday, the last GNAC women’s team to win three straight crowns was Alaska Anchorage, which claimed four straight from 2015-19 after winning five straight from 2009-13. 

Seattle Pacific was the first women’s cross country GNAC dynasty, winning four consecutive team titles from 2005-08. The Alaska Nanooks, who are ranked number 14 in the USTFCCCA national coaches' poll, one spot ahead of Western Washington, will battle for their first-ever GNAC women’s cross country trophy.

 

WOMEN'S PREVIEW

The women's team race on paper figures to be closer between Alaska Fairbanks and Western Washington. The Vikings beat the Nanooks at the Bill Roe Classic, where All-American Ashley Reeck (Paul Merca photo) was their lead runner in tenth place, but packed all five scorers in a 20-second span, while Alaska's fifth runner was 2:30 behind their leader and defending GNAC champ Kendall Kramer,

The Nanooks got payback two weeks later at the Lewis Crossover, when they finished fifth, beating the Vikings by one place.

Kramer and teammate Rosie Fordham, who were All-Americans last season, finished 2-4 at Lewis, while Reeck was the first Viking in 32nd. The Nanooks had a significant improvement in their 1-5 split at 1:48, while Western ran a 29 second 1-5 split.

That said, a smaller field of 100 runners favors Western Washington, unlike the Lewis Crossover, which had 334 finishers and 36 teams in the race.

Up front, the women's individual crown looks to be a battle between Alaska's Kramer, Fordham, and Seattle Pacific track All-American Annika Esvelt, with Western's Reeck, who was an All-American in cross country, in the mix. 

Surprisingly, Esvelt has never beaten Kramer in cross country.

For Seattle Pacific to break into the top five, they will need Maya Ewing, Matise Mulch, NCAA D3 qualifier Madelyn Buckley to step up and run a 1-5 split under 2 minutes.

Central and Saint Martin's are going through some growing pains. Freshman Payton Conover and sophomore Hannah Mikkelsen are the two team leaders, while for Saint Martin's, senior Kya Ramirez is the lone returning runner from the squad that put four in the top ten at last year's meet and finished second in the GNAC meet.

Saint Martin's was decimated by a combination of coaching changes, graduation and entry into the transfer portal from their top four from last year.

MEN'S PREVIEW

In the men's team race, the big question is how many Western Washington runners will finish in the top ten?

At last year's championship race, the Vikings put four inside the top ten, led by Kevin McDermott, who returns to defend his title.

Also returning from last year's top ten for Western are Ryan Clough, who was ninth, and Jeret Gillingham, who finished tenth. 

The biggest threat to McDermott repeating as GNAC individual champion is Central Washington's Johan Correa (#107/Paul Merca photo), who lost out by four seconds at last year's meet in Anchorage. Correa got payback at last year's West Regionals and also at the NCAA championships, where he finished 17th and was the only All-American on the men's side to come out of the GNAC.

Correa will be joined by teammate Ramon Rodriguez (#117). Rodriguez, a junior from Spain, won the PLU Invitational, and has finished close to Correa in every meet this season.

Central, which finished sixth last year, added transfers Luke Hurd (Spokane CC), Will McGonigal (Wayne State), and Noah Sanchez (Green River CC), but will need to run closer to their two leaders.

While Seattle Pacific and Saint Martin's don't have enough depth to contend for a top five finish, Silas Demmert is SPU’s top returner, after placing 38th with a time of 26:44 at last year’s event. Saint Martin’s will look to Eli Dale (50th, 27:08) to lead the way.

While there is no live stream of the meet, live results will be available here.

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

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