Friday, December 6, 2019

PORTLAND, Ore. - After seeing Western Washington unexpectedly sweep the conference titles and earn trips to the NCAA Division II Championships, Vikings’ head coach PeeWee Halsell has been voted by his peers as both the GNAC Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year.

The awards are the sixth and seventh GNAC Cross Country Coach of the Year awards in Halsell’s career and the 20th conference honor overall between cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field. Halsell was last named the Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year in 2009 and last earned the women’s award in 2015.

Picked to finish third in the men’s race and fourth in the women’s race according to the preseason coaches poll, Western Washington used some solid pack running to win both titles at the GNAC Cross Country Championships. It marked the first time that a team other than Alaska Anchorage had swept the team titles.

The Vikings’ women won their first-ever GNAC championship with 53 points, seven points ahead of second-place Alaska Anchorage and 11 points ahead of third-place Simon Fraser. Western Washington placed three runners in the top-10 to earn All-GNAC honors and had a gap of just 26 seconds between the No. 1 and No. 5 scoring runners.

Western Washington’s men placed four runners in the top-10 and had a gap of just 20 seconds between the scoring five to win their first title since 2009 with a score of 38 points. The four top-10 finishers also earned All-GNAC honors as the Vikings finished 38 points clear of second-place Simon Fraser.

Halsell’s teams both earned at-large berths to the NCAA Championships after solid finishes in a tough West Region Championship meet at Western Oregon’s Ash Creek Preserve. The men finished fifth with a score of 139 points and were the only GNAC team to qualify for the national meet. The women placed seventh with 175 points and were one of four GNAC teams invited to Sacramento.

At the national meet, Western Washington’s women placed 17th with a score of 507 points. The men placed 22nd with a score of 511 points.

The Cross Country Coach of the Year awards is the third and fourth such awards in a row for Halsell. He was named the Men’s Indoor Track and Field Coach of the Year and Men’s Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year during the 2019 seasons.