Women's Cross Country eighth at GNAC Championship
October 22, 2012
Jamie Foland
474-6807
Junior Raphaela Sieber finished in 14th place to lead the Alaska women's cross country team to eighth place at the 2012 Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championship at the Ash Creek Preserve cross country course on the campus of Western Oregon University.
The Nanooks finished with a team score of 198 points as the top five runners had a pack time of one minute, 45.83 seconds.
"Raphaela traveled for the first time this year and she got engaged early and was floating with the top 10 for a bit," Dunlap said. "I thought it was a strong day for her and ran very well."
Sieber, completed the six-kilometer course with a time of 21 minutes, 47.37 seconds to score 14 points for the Nanooks. Junior teammate Alyson McPhetres cross the finish line just over a minute later in 22:53.47 to place 43rd (40th scoring).
"It was a good race," Sieber said. "This race was important for me because I wanted to see if my training was going well and heading in the right direction. I tried to stay with the lead pack but had some trouble to keep up with them. I tried to do my own race and it worked out and I'm satisfied with it."
German rookie Julia Ebner placed 48th (45th scoring) as she finished six seconds later in 22:59.79. Sophomore Kryston McPhetres and freshman Sara Falconer completed the team's scoring as they finished back-to-back with times of 23:31.56 and 23:33.20 for 55th (49th scoring) and 56th (50th scoring), respectively.
Senior Marit Rjabov also finished 66th in 23:58.00 while senior Megan Thompson rounded out Alaska's team in 90th with a time of 26:33.79.
Alaska Anchorage won its fourth women's title in a row as Susan Tanui won the individual title in 20:37.29. Six Seawolves finished in the top seven as they posted a team score of 16, setting a new championship record.
Simon Fraser took runner-up with 61 points, followed by Seattle Pacific (104), Western Washington (115), Central Washington (151), Montana State-Billings (168) and Northwest Nazarene (181). Following Alaska in ninth and 10th were Western Oregon (201) and Saint Martin's (317).
Next up for the Nanooks is the NCAA West Region Championships on Nov. 3 in Oahu, Hawaii.