[
Women's Results] [
Men's Results]
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - In their final showing of the 2009 campaign, the Alaska Nanook men's and women's cross country teams gave valiant efforts at the NCAA Division II West Region Cross Country Championships Saturday at Golden Gate Park. The women finished 16th overall out of 25 teams competing, while the men placed 19th out of 20.
In the women's 6k race, sophomore
Theresia Schnurr (Buhlertal, Germany) was the top finisher at 23rd overall finishing just 15 seconds out of a spot in the top twenty with a course time of 22:10. According to assistant coach Matt Dunlap, Schnurr was about 30 seconds shy of an NCAA Championships bid.
"Theresia ran a really good race today," he said. "She was moving up the pack the whole way and it was exciting to watch her. Plus, all six of our women ran for personal bests (course times)."
Senior
Maria Stensland was next for the Blue and Gold in 71st (23:47), followed closely by
Heather Edic (Fairbanks, AK) in 74th (23:50) and
Jana Bennedix (Fairbanks, AK) in 80th (23:53). The trio ran together for the majority of the race and like Schnurr passed several runners as they moved up the ranks over the course of the race.
Other Nanook racers included
Kate Bennett (Fairbanks, AK) (155th, 28:29) and
Megan Thompson (Fairbanks, AK) (158, 29:37).
For the men's 10k race,
Sam Tilly (Rainbow Valley, AK) paced Alaska and was joined by
Alex Weissberg (Sitka, AK) as the only two Nanooks to crack the top 100 spots, coming in 83rd (34:56) and 94th (35:38), respectively.
Rounding out the Alaska men's racers were
Joseph DeWilde (North Pole, AK) (122nd, 37:45),
Cody Priest (Palmer, AK)(128th, 39:59), and
Ian Longridge (Sitka, AK) (130th, 42:32). For some of the men it was their first competitive 10k race: a factor that didn't deter four of the five from recording their personal best times.
