Sept. 21, 2013

Men's Results

Women's Results

SPOKANE, Wash. - Achieving its main goal of learning the course where the regionals will be held, Western Washington University placed ninth in the women's division and 10th in the men's division at the Erik Anderson Cross Country Invitational held Saturday at the Plantes Ferry Sports Complex.

"Our main goal was to learn the course, so that in seven weeks we can come back here and go after it," said WWU coach Pee Wee Halsell (27th year). "We worked them hard this week and they were very tired coming in. We accomplished what we wanted to. Our top kids were working on tempo and our teams overall did a great job of staying together."

The invitational was serving as a regional and national preview as Pantes Ferry will host the NCAA Division II West Regional on Nov. 9 and the NCAA Division II national meet on Nov. 23. The Great Northwest Athletic Conference is the host for both events.

Katelyn Steen (Jr., Sammamish/Eastlake) paced the WWU women in the 17-team field, placing 19th individually over the six-kilometer course with a time of 22:37.29.

Division I Lipscomb had the top three runners, led by Dani Walker (21:39.83), as it took the team title with 20 points. Simon Fraser, ranked No.6 nationally in Division II, was second (65), followed by DI Gonzaga (71). WWU was ninth (272).

Lipscomb, placing five runners among the top 11, also won the men's crown with 40 points in a 19-team field. Gonzaga was second (77) and WWU 10th (344).

Taking individual honors was Lewis & Clark's Sam Atkin with a 25:14.03 clocking over the eight-kilometer distance.

Leading the Vikings was redshirt freshman Matt Lutz (Bremerton/Olympic), who finished 76th with a time of 27:33.96.

Both Lutz and Steen has paced WWU in each of the last two meets.

The Vikings entered the competition with its men ranked sixth and women seventh in their respective regional polls.

WWU competes in the Saint Martin's Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 28 (10 a.m.).