Monday, November 25, 2019

PORTLAND, Ore. – Alaska Anchorage has made its presence in NCAA Division II cross country known for more than a decade. This year, the Seawolves continued that tradition.

The Alaska Anchorage women’s cross country team concluded its 2019 campaign on Saturday with an eighth-place finish at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships at the Arcade Creek Cross Country Course in Sacramento, California, to earn selection as the GNAC Team of the Week.

The Seawolves topped the GNAC field after finishing with 374 points. The eighth-place finish marks the Seawolves’ 11th consecutive year finishing in the top-eight at the national meet and the 12th straight year finishing in the top-10. The Seawolves’ best finish was in 2013 when the team finished in fourth.

With the eighth-place finish, the Seawolves also overachieved their No. 15 ranking by seven spots, the best of any top-15 team at the meet.

“It was a very impressive run by our women’s team,” assistant coach Michael Friess said. “We can certainly be proud of the fact that we finished in the elite eight for the 11th straight year. Being able to continue our strong tradition is impressive.”

Senior Emmah Chelimo paced the Seawolves once again, finishing in fifth in a time of 20:18.3 over the 6,000-meter course. Junior Nancy Jeptoo wasn’t far behind as she finished in 10th in 20:30.2. The duo earned All-American honors for the second time and improved from last year’s NCAA Championships as Chelimo and Jeptoo finished in 23rd and 38th at the 2018 meet, respectively.

Freshman Joan Kipsanai snuck into the top-100 in her debut at the national meet, finishing in 99th in 21:38.7. Sophomore Ruth Cvancara finished in 160th (22:16.2) while senior Yvonne Jeschke rounded out the Seawolves’ scoring runners in 165th (22:19.7).

In her first year as a member of the Seawolves’ cross country program, Jeschke was the recipient of the NCAA Elite 90 Award. The award recognizes the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site. Ties are broken by the number of credits completed.

Jeschke joins Western Oregon’s Tyler Jones and Central Washington’s Alexa Shindruk, last year’s men’s and women’s recipients, as GNAC cross country student-athletes to win the Elite 90 Award.