On Saturday, November 3, both the men and women’s SFU cross country teams competed at the GNAC Championships held in Monmouth, Oregon. Both teams placed second at the tournament, despite injury issues, which says a lot about the excellence of the program.
For the men, seniors Rowan Doherty and Sean Miller continued to lead the way, as they have all season. They finished third and fourth in the 8000-metre race with times of 24:40.5 and 24:43.4 respectively, only finishing behind Wesley Kirui and Felix Kemboi from the University of Alaska Anchorage. Unsurprisingly, UAA placed first on the men’s side at the championships.
Doherty stayed with the UAA runners for the duration of the race, despite their move to split away from the pack, but was unable to pass them over the last 300 metres.
Strong finishes from the rest of the group rounded out the team, with Pierre-Louis Detourbe (25:23.6), Aaron Ahl (25:23.7) Chris Sobczak (25:30.8), Carlos Vargas (25:46.3), and Thomas Gallagher finishing 14th, 15th 18th, 21st and 22nd respectively.
“As we have said so many times, the men are running as a strong unit in each race and they will have some things to prove in two weeks to make up for their huge disappointment last year,” said head coach Brit Townsend.
On the women’s side, the team came second to Alaska Anchorage once again. Olivia Willett led the way for the Clan with a time of 21:49.1, good for a fourth-place finish. This is the first time she’s led the team all season. Captain Addy Townsend battled injury heading into the race, but was still able to finish seventh with a time of 21:53.6.
Rounding out the group were Chelsea Ribeiro (22:19.9), Sophie Dodd (22:43.8), and Megan Roxby (23:02.7) who finished 16th, 25th and 32nd.
“These women have come so far this year when we thought we had little hope of being a contender for a national spot they now look to be poised to earn their berth if they can keep this up through the west regional championships,” said Townsend.
What’s next:
The team will now prepare NCAA DIV II West Region Championships, which take place on November 17 at Montana State University Billings. “The next two weeks will be spent getting everyone healthy and recovered from this race as we have had several weeks of intense high volume workouts,” said Townsend.
