Nell Baker led the Seawolves Women's team, coming in 5th place overall. Photo by Justin Cox.
It was a chilly Saturday morning at Kincaid Park on Oct. 21. That’s where the Greater Northwest Athletic Conference held their cross-country championship on Saturday.
With strong performances this season, the UAA men’s team was looking to clinch a championship win. Unfortunately they were bested by Western Washington and took the number two spot.
It was no easy victory for Washinton, though, as both teams were exhausted by the race, panting visible breath in the cold air and sitting down to recover just beyond the finish line.
Hosted by UAA, the championship brought nine other colleges to compete in Anchorage. This marks the first time in several decades that UAA hosted the GNAC cross-country championship.
The women kicked off the championship in the morning, and the men raced after.
There were clear blue skies and a breeze out of the north when the women lined up in the Kincaid Park stadium to start their race.
Temperatures were still below freezing when the starting gun went off, sending the women off to run a double loop course totaling six kilometers.
The women pounded the frozen ground as they charged up and down the trails of Kincaid Park.
The double loop brought the runners back through the stadium and past cheering fans who had turned out to show their support.
UAF’s Kendall Kramer took victory in the women’s race. According to an article in the Anchorage Daily News, she said many of her family members were able to come from Fairbanks and watch her compete.
“A bunch of people drove to see me and I’m very grateful, so I definitely wanted to put on a good show for them.”
Western Washington took first place for women's teams over all, with a total of 49 points.
The points are totaled by adding up the placing of the top five runners for each team. The team with the lowest score wins. If a team runs additional athletes, their placing is not added to the score, but they can push other runners down in the standings.
The fastest UAA female was Nell Baker, coming in 5th place overall. According to goseawolves.com, “she earned all-conference and GNAC Newcomer of the Year honors for her efforts.”
Baker spoke with The Northern Light in an interview and talked about her performance while running the course.
She said it’s probably one of the hilliest courses she’s ever run.
“It beats you up a little bit, but it’s a pretty … fun course. I’ve kind of equated it to a BMX pump track … You’re up and down, and you’re turning, but it’s really really fun, it feels kind of like a little roller coaster.”
She described the uphill stretch of the race that took the runners back toward the finish line as “brutal” — a 90-foot upward elevation change over just one mile.
The climb topped out over the tunnel south of the stadium before turning back to the north and bringing the runners home.
Baker said that the team gave special attention to that section as they practiced over the semester – practicing passing each other while heading up the hill.
She said that it’s the first time that the team had run the course with frozen ground and that the harder ground meant that they were running the course faster than they expected.
Baker said that this race restored a lot of her confidence. Last year she had a post-hip stress fracture that kept her from running.
“I have been struggling [the last] nine months to find a version of the runner and competitor that I used to be before that injury. And I was trying to find peace in thinking maybe that side of me is gone and I’m going to have to be okay with that, but [at Kincaid] I felt like I haven’t felt in a very long time running … and it was just such a joy to feel that again.”
Baker said she will continue to run the rest of this season, followed by track and field this spring, and finishing with another season of cross-country next fall.
UAA’s women’s team came in 5th overall – which according to previous reporting in The Northern Light was an achievement for them.
Last year the women’s team placed seventh in the GNAC championship.
The rest of the scoring Seawolves for the women's team are as follows: Tressa Wood in 29th, Sofija Spaic in 31st, Avery Willamson in 35th and Monica Ruelas in 37th.
After the women’s race, the men took their turn on the course. The men’s course also consisted of a double loop; though, it was longer at eight kilometers.
About halfway through the race – just before completing their first loop – UAA’s Cole Nash held first place, leading the front runners.
But by the time the men were coming in for the final stretch, Nash had fallen back to third place with some distance between him and the two leaders.
John Corona of Central Washington was in the lead as he and Kevin McDermott ran the end of the race. McDermott ended up overtaking Correa and claimed first place for Western Washington.
Correa came in second and was followed by Nash in third. Nash won GNAC last year.
According to the Anchorage Daily News, Nash wasn’t running at peak performance for this race, quoting him as saying “I knew I wasn’t 100% going into this race, so I was going to hang with (the top pack) as long as I could and score as little of points as I could for the team.”
The rest of the scoring Seawolves for the men’s team placed as follows: Michael Zapherson in sixth, John Peckman 11th, George Payne 13th and Ty Elliott 18th.
Western Washington won with 37 points and Anchorage came in second with 51 points. Western Washington also came in first last year.
The men’s team was looking for a win though. The ADN reports that associate head coach Chas Davis said, “I’m not going to mince words, I’m not going to lie, the goal from the beginning was to win a team championship today.”
But – according to goseawovles.com – Davis is happy with the performance of both teams, especially given the comeback from the pandemic.
“Yes we are thrilled with the women placing fifth and happy with the men finishing - both program bests since at least 2019. But knowing what went into those performances is the reward and the story of a radically changed team.”
Up next for the Seawolves will be the NCAA regional championships in Monmouth, Oregon on Nov. 4. For more information and updates, visit goseawolves.com.
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