Nanooks ready for 2012 GNAC Cross Country Championships
October 19, 2012
Jamie Foland
474-6807
The Alaska Nanooks men's and women's cross country teams will travel down to Monmouth, Ore., this Saturday to compete in the 2012 Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships, which will be hosted by Western Oregon University at the Ash Creek Preserve cross-country course.
The men's eight-kilometer race is set to begin at 9 a.m. (AKDT) with the women's six-kilometer race following at 10 a.m. (AKDT).
“The men and women have put in a lot of hard work and they are ready to run fast,” associate head coach Matt Dunlap said. “We've tailored our training to run fast this weekend. The whole focus this season has been to run fast later and later is now. People are confident and understand what it takes to run fast.”
The women, who finished fourth at last year's meet, will be headlined by juniors Raphaela Sieber and Alyson McPhetres. Sieber last ran the conference race in 2010, where she placed eighth to garner All-GNAC status and McPhetres (45th in 2011) was the top finisher for the Nanooks in both races she competed in thus far in 2012.
Filling out the women's roster are seniors Marit Rjabov and Megan Thompson, sophomore Kryston McPhetres (60th in 2011) and freshmen Julia Ebner and Sara Falconer.
“The women are confident, exciting and racing well,” Dunlap said. “The mindset has been on GNAC's all year and that we were going to peak to run well, whether they've traveled or not. They way we're going into this race, the women are prepared to run fast. It comes down to having five good races on the same day.”
On the men's side, the squad will look to improve from last season's 10th place finish as the veteran group returns four runners from last year's meet. Senior Tyler Kornfield is the top returnee as the Anchorage native took 37th at the 2011 championship.
The six other harriers competing this weekend are senior Lars Arneson (61st in 2011), juniors Andrew Arnold (41st in 2011) and Tux Seims (43rd in 2011), redshirt freshmanRoss MacDougall and German rookies Michael Fehrenbach and Max Olex.
“Our men have had very high goals since the beginning of the year,” Dunlap said. “We haven't traveled with all these guys at once but have with most of them on one or two occasions. The ones who have traveled have run well. Like the women, the men are peaking to run fast at GNAC's. They are confident and excited and I think we'll see some really good things from them this weekend.”
Alaska Anchorage is the favorite on both sides as the Seawolves will look for their third straight men's title and fourth consecutive women's crown.