Cole Nash wins cross-country race in Bellingham

The Seawolf cross-country team competed in the Bill Roe Invitational on Saturday, hosted by Western Washington University. UAA’s Cole Nash won the men’s race, remaining undefeated this season.

The race was held in Bellingham, Washington, and both the men’s and women’s courses consisted of a loop around Lake Padden.

UAA cross-country runner Nell Baker spoke with The Northern Light in an interview. She said the course started on a grass field and began with a tight 1K loop, then went on to loop around the lake. She described the section around the lake as packed dirt and gravel.

The men’s course followed the same path, but had more tight loops to add length.

Baker said the course was unique because the roughly 2 1/2 mile section that circled around the lake didn’t have any spectators. She said there were some rolling hills on the back end of the lake, so it wasn’t a very fast course.  

“It’s not as hilly as the courses we have run here in Anchorage or in Fairbanks, but it is definitely a [more hilly] course for what you see in collegiate courses, I would say.”

The women ran their race first. Baker said the weather was overcast and a little chilly, and she said it started to rain and blow a little when the men’s race started.

Overall, the men’s team came in second with 62 points, and Western Washington won with 47 points.

To score the teams, the top five runners are assigned points based on their standing — first gets one point, second gets two points, etc. — and after the points are added up, the team with the lowest score wins.

Nash completed the men’s 8K course in 24:41. John Peckham came in eighth with a time of 25:09, and Michael Zapherson finished in ninth place with a time of 25:10.

Both Nash and Zapherson saw improvement over last year, with Nash going from second to first and Zapherson going from 27th to ninth.

The men’s team overall moved up from sixth place last year to second place this year.

Nash spoke with The Northern Light about his performance in the race. He said that he had a hard fall in the beginning but that he quickly recovered to the front of the pack.

He said that he pulled ahead and led for most of the race after that.

“It ended up being more of a relaxed race until about two miles when we got to the lap around the lake and then I kind of just took the lead and started pressing from there.”

Nash said that Sebastian Brinkman – competing for Simon Fraiser – passed him with about a mile to go, but Nash was able to retake the lead with about  400 meters to go.

Nash said that he’s raced Brinkman before and that he could outpace Brinkman in the last stretch.

“He’s a [talented runner] but he doesn’t really ever have much of a sprint in him at the end, so I was just kind of waiting for that last 400.”

Nash is looking forward to having the home field advantage in October when athletes come to Anchorage to compete in the GNAC Championship.

“The one race that really matters is conference championship. I think having that here in Anchorage is huge … Most teams haven’t ever run a course as hard as the one we’ll run at Kincaid. So I think that will be the main difference maker for us.”

The women’s team came in seventh place overall.

Baker was the fastest seawolf and earned 10th place with a time of 22:07 for the women’s 6K course. Jordan Strausbaugh came in 35th with a time of 23:18, and Avery Williamson came in 54th at 24:06.

Baker said the women’s race started bunched up but spread out quickly. She said it's important to position yourself well in the first mile so you can move up later on.

“That first mile is usually quite a bit faster than the pace of the  rest of the course, so it's kind of just feeling confident knowing this first mile is going to be really hot, but I don’t have to hold that pace the whole time.”

She said the team was coming off some hard training and the goal of the race was to get a sense of where they stood in relation to the other runners in the conference.

“This meet was just to race some of the other women in the conference and see where they're at and where I’m at. And … if that was the goal — of just running with those women and making sure when conference championship comes I can run with them — then we definitely achieved that goal.

She said she came away with a good sense of what she needs to do to be successful in the conference championship.

“Overall I’m really happy with the performance.”

In an interview associate head coach Chas Davis told The Northern Light that both teams have had their best performance since 2019.

“... We’ve got a team on the men’s side that can [legitimately] challenge for a conference championship and legitimately challenge for a national championship qualification …we haven’t had a team that could do anything like that in four years.”

He said: “It was a very nice monkey off the back for [Nash] to go out and win that as smooth as he did and as well as he did. It took a lot of pressure off of him. Even with the rest of the men too … there was a lot of nervousness for everyone, so it was really nice to kinda get that nervousness out … Especially the way that [Peckman] and [Zapherson] raced … they ran very well, they are in a very good place.”

He said the women’s team also did well and they individually beat some women they’ve never beat before.

He said that Baker, who came from Idaho University where she got her undergraduate degree, hasn’t run in two years, so it was good for her to see that she could still perform.

“It was really cool to see her in her first real cross-country race in two years and see her finish top 10.”

He also said that Williamson has made dramatic improvement in the sport.

“She was more of a sprinter and hurdler [in high school]. She ran cross country, but her performance [was] not indicative of where she is now.”

The next cross-country race will be in Romeoville, Illinois, on October 7.

The GNAC Championship will be coming to Anchorage on Oct. 21. You can find more information and updates on goseawolves.com.