Monday, October 24, 2022

PORTLAND, Ore. – Before Saturday’s Division II Pre-Nationals, very few on the national scene paid any attention to the Alaska cross country program.

It is safe to say that has changed after sophomore Naomi Bailey won the women’s invitational race and earned selection as the U.S. Track and Field & Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) M-F Athlete Division II Women’s National Athlete of the Week award.

Bailey was the winner going away in the women’s invitational race that featured five nationally-ranked teams and eight teams ranked in the West Region top 10, clocking a time of 20:46.1 over the 6,000-meter course. She was nine seconds ahead of second-place Katie Doucette of Western Colorado and 17 seconds ahead of the next GNAC competitor, teammate Kendall Kramer, who placed sixth.

Bailey led a solid performance that saw Alaska place its top three runners in the top 20 out of 230 competitors in the women’s invitational race, which featured the top runners from 30 competing institutions.

The award is the first USTFCCCA Cross Country Athlete of the Week for Alaska in program history. It is the first award for a GNAC athlete this season and the first for the conference since Emmah Chelimo received the honor on Oct. 23, 2018.

Alaska finished 12th at Pre-Nationals with 297 points. The Nanooks were the third-place team among GNAC squads, trailing Western Washington (eighth, 242 pts.) and Simon Fraser (ninth, 246 pts.). The meet served as a preview of the course for the 2022 NCAA Division II Championships, which take place on Friday, Dec. 2.