Tuesday, October 17, 2017

PORTLAND, Ore. – As we gear up for basketball season and the GNAC cross country championships, GNAC Insider aired Tuesday night at 7 p.m., Pacific, hosted by Rob Lowery. Tuesday's guests were Western Washington men’s cross country runner Andrew Wise, Simon Fraser cross country runner Julia Howley and Northwest Nazarene Director of Athletics Kelli Lindley.

Wise has finished in the top-20 in each of the four races he has run this season. Last week, Wise was named the GNAC Men’s Cross Country Athlete of the Week after placing sixth at the Western Washington Classic. He led the Vikings to a second-place finish. Western Washington achieved its highest ranking in the USTFCCCA Division II Coaches Poll last week at No. 23. The Vikings race in the GNAC Championships at Lake Padden this weekend, the third-consecutive year that the event will be held on their home course.

Howley, the three-time GNAC Cross Country Women’s Athlete of the Week, has compiled a stellar senior year. She has led the Clan to four first-place team finishes in as many tries this season. Her highest finish this season (first place) came at the Ash Creek Invitational on Sept. 8 and placed second among Division II runners at the Roy Griak Invitational on Sept. 23. Simon Fraser is ranked No. 5 in this week’s USTFCCCA Division II Coaches Poll and has been ranked in the top-five since Sept. 20. In last year’s GNAC Championships, Howley finished seventh overall in 22:09.00.

During her three-year tenure as Northwest Nazarene’s athletic director, Lindley has seen the Nighthawks’ volleyball climb to a No. 10 national ranking while men’s soccer reached a program-best No. 12 national ranking. In the past two years, 41 NNU student-athletes have won GNAC Faculty Athletic Representative Scholar-Athlete awards. Lindley is a member of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and is currently serving her second three-year term on the NCAA Regional Ranking Committee for women’s basketball. As the former NNU head women’s basketball coach, Lindley compiled a 202-131 career record as the and led her team to post-season appearances in six of her twelve years.