Monday, November 11, 2019

INDIANAPOLIS – In an illustration of one of the strongest cross country conferences in the nation in the strong region in the sport in Division II, five GNAC teams have qualified for the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships. The national meet will take place on Sat., Nov. 23 in Sacramento.

The conference qualified four women’s teams for the national meet, marking the second straight year that the GNAC has earned that many invitations. Joining automatic qualifier Northwest Nazarene at the meet with at-large selections will be Alaska Anchorage, Seattle Pacific and Western Washington. On the men’s side, Western Washington also earned an at-large invitation to the meet.

Joining the four women’s teams as individual at-large qualifiers will be Simon Fraser junior Olivia Willett and Western Oregon senior Grace Knapp. Three conference men’s runners also earned at-large invitations: Alaska Anchorage juniors Felix Kemboi and Wesley Kirui and Northwest Nazarene sophomore Tyler Shea.

The West Region received unprecedented favor from the NCAA committee. In addition to the three teams that automatically qualified for the championships based on top-three finishes at Saturday’s West Region Championships in Monmouth, Oregon, four from each gender received at-large invitations. A maximum of 10 at-large teams per gender is invited to the meet.

With the addition of five at-large individual qualifiers, the West has all top-25 women’s finishers in the regional meet entered in nationals. Likewise, all but one of the men’s top-25 individuals will be in Sacramento with the addition of four at-large qualifiers.

Northwest Nazarene shocked the region by placing second in the women’s race with 134 points to earn the conference’s lone team automatic qualifier. Alaska Anchorage placed fourth with 146 points, followed by Seattle Pacific in fifth with 153 points and Western Washington in seventh with 175 points.

It is the 12th consecutive nationals invitation for Alaska Anchorage, the ninth overall for both Seattle Pacific and Western Washington. Northwest Nazarene qualified for the first time.

Willett assured herself of a nationals berth with a top-five finish at the regional meet. Part of a top-four sweep for the GNAC, Willett finished third in a time of 20:51.6. Knapp, meanwhile, earned her at-large invitation with a sixth-place finish time of 20:57.4.

The Western Washington men benefitted from the deep West Region field to earn the program’s 11th invitation to the Division II meet. The Vikings placed fifth with a score of 139 points.

Kemboi and Kirui qualified after finishing back-to-back at regionals. Kemboi placed eighth in a time of 30:11.9 while Kirui placed ninth in 30:13.4. Shea qualifies for nationals after he placed 20th in a time of 30:37.4.

The conference will return four All-Americans to the national meet from last year. Kirui placed ninth in the men’s race at the 2018 meet in a time in 32:35.1. Alaska Anchorage senior Emmah Chelimo leads three returning women’s All-Americans. This year’s regional champion placed 23rd last year in 23:15.5. Willett placed 36th in 23:26.5 while Alaska Anchorage junior Nancy Jeptoo placed 38th in 23:27.4.

The NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships will take place on Sat., Nov. 23 at the Arcade Creek Cross Country Course in Sacramento, California.