Vikings pull a double three-peat in winning Great Northwest Athletic Conference harrier titles...
At the halfway point of the race, Gillingham found himself in 13th place, only three seconds behind leaders Johan Correa of Central Washington and defending champion Kevin McDermott.
Gillingham asserted himself halfway through the third lap, and opened a two second lead by the 6k mark, then pulled away to win the race in a time of 24:19, with Correa second in 24:30.
Behind Correa was his teammate Ramon Rodriguez who finished in 24:33, with Ryan Clough of Western Washington fourth in 24:37.
The Vikings put all of their scorers in the top 11, as George Karamitsos was seventh in 24:45, Jared Alderfer ninth in 24:47, and defending champion and early leader Kevin McDermott eleventh in 24:49.
The Vikings ran a 1-5 split of 30 seconds to win their third straight conference championship, a feat only accomplished by Alaska Anchorage, when they strung together seven straight titles
Central Washington finished fifth with 95 points, the same score as Western Oregon, but were hurt by a 1-5 split of 1:35, with their fifth scorer Charlie Naught finishing in 38th in 26:05.
Seattle Pacific finished eighth with 248 points led by Silas Demmert in 42nd in 26:13. Saint Martin's was ninth with 257, led by Eli Dale in 44th in 26:14.
WOMEN'S RECAP...
As expected, the top three from last year's race--Kendall Kramer & Rosie Fordham of Alaska Fairbanks, and Annika Esvelt of Seattle Pacific, moved away from the rest of the field early, and as it turned out, that's how they finished.
Kramer pulled away from everyone and won in a time of 20:33 over the 6k distance, with Fordham second in 20:55, with the Falcons' Esvelt third in 21:03.
Perhaps the revelation of the race was Seattle Pacific's Maya Ewing, who stormed from eighth at the 4k mark to finish fourth in 21:44.
All American Ashley Reeck led the charge for the Vikings with her sixth place finish in 21:50.
Sophie Wright was ninth in 21:59, and Ella Edens was tenth in 22:00. Danielle McLain was 11th in 22:07, and Ila Davis rounded up the scoring for Western Washington in 12th in 22:10.
The Vikings ran a 1-5 split of 20 seconds to win their third straight conference title.
Seattle Pacific finished fourth with 80 points, the same score as Alaska Anchorage, but the Seawolves earned the tiebreaker to take third.
Anna Prussian was Seattle Pacific's fifth runner in 34th with a time of 23:13, as the Falcons ran a 1-5 split of 2:10.
Central Washington finished seventh with 180 points, led by Payton Conover in 31st in 23:04, while Saint Martin's, who was second in this meet last year, finished tenth with 314 points.
The Saints were led by Kya Ramirez in 52nd in 23:56.
NOTE: The Great Northwest Athletic Conference and the sports information office of Western Washington University contributed to this report.
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