Anchorage Daily News

UAA's day of supremacy at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference cross-country meet produced two championship performances Saturday that will be remembered for far different reasons.

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Witt

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Kipngeno

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Keino

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Keegan

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Cheseto

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One involved a show of force. The other involved a shoe that forced defending men's champion Marko Cheseto to stop in the middle of his race.

The UAA women put on a display of dominance seldom seen at the GNAC championships. Their top five runners formed a tight pack that finished in the top seven, carrying the Seawolves to the team title with 25 points -- the second-best total in the nine-year history of the GNAC and 10 points short of perfection.

As for Cheseto, the junior from Kenya became the first repeat men's champion with an effort that was equal parts decisive and unusual.

UAA coach Michael Friess said Cheseto took charge of the 8-kilometer race early. But Friess temporarily lost sight of the frontrunners about halfway through the race, and when he next saw them, Cheseto had lost the lead to Western Washington's Jordan Welling.

"Marko was 50 meters behind Jordan and I didn't know what was going on," Friess said. "When Marko came running by me, I told him, 'Just relax, he's just trying to put a big surge on you.' And Marko looks me square in the eyes and just smiles.

"I think, 'What are you smiling for? You're getting beat.' ''

Soon after that, Cheseto regained the lead, opened up a gap and cruised to victory in 24 minutes, 50 seconds -- 15 seconds ahead of anyone else. At the finish line, he told Friess his tale of the trail: about two miles into the five-mile race, one of his Adidas slipped off his foot. Cheseto stopped, bent down, put the shoe back on, got up and resumed racing.

"He's so talented he can stop and still win," Friess said.

Cheseto was joined by two teammates in the top five to help lift UAA to second place in the men's team race, behind Western Washington. Sophomore Alfred Kangogo placed fourth in 25:12 and freshman Micah Chelimo was fifth in 25:13.

UAA was second to none in the women's 6-kilometer race, putting on a performance worthy of a team ranked fifth in among the nation's NCAA Division II teams.

The Seawolves' top five runners finished 3-4-5-6-7, with freshman Miriam Kipngeno leading the pack and senior Laura Carr bringing up the rear -- and only 16 seconds separating them.

Kipngeno was third in 22:02, sophomore Shoshana Keegan fourth in 22:06, sophomore Ruth Keino fifth in 22:12, junior Hallidie Wilt sixth in 22:16 and Carr seventh in 22:18.

"We wanted to go out strong and try to run in a pack as far as they could and just keep the hammer down," Friess said.

The Seawolves scored 25 points to snap Seattle Pacific's streak of four straight GNAC titles. SPU, led by the talented Jessica Pixler who won an unprecedented fourth conference championship in a time of 21:03, was the runnerup with 48 points.

A victory over Seattle Pacific was by no means a guarantee -- the Falcons are ranked seventh in the country and return all of their top runners from a team that placed fourth at last year's national championships. UAA and Seattle Pacific waged a close battle for the first half of the race, Friess said, but the Seawolves took command during the second half.

"The girls just kept the pressure on them and wore them out," he said. "We thought it'd be a little closer, but sometimes that's the way it goes. SPU is a talented team, filled with seniors and coming in with a lot of pride, but we stopped their streak. They won it four straight years and we finished second to them enough. The girls decided enough is enough."

And while it was UAA's Kenyan connection of Cheseto, Kangogo and Chelimo sparking the men's second-place finish, runners from all corners of the map powered the women.

Kipngeno and Keino are from Kenya. Keegan is from Anchorage. Wilt is from Unalaska in the Aleutian Islands. And Carr is from the heart of America -- South Bend, Ind.

The heart of her team for the last couple seasons, Carr finished in the top 10 for the fourth time in her career to become UAA's third runner to earn all-conference honors four times, joining Stacy Edwards and Mandy Kaempf.

The Seawolves were due to return from Yakima on Saturday night and Friess planned a light workout for them today, with the intensity picking up on Monday. UAA returns to action in two weeks for the West Region championships, the last meet before the national championships.

"We just have to keep healthy, move forward on our training and prepare for regionals," Friess said Saturday. "But we'll enjoy today."

GNAC cross country championships

Yakima, Wash.

Men's 8 kilometers

Team scores -- 1) Western Washington 33, 2) UAA 70, 3) Western Oregon 74, 4) Northwest Nazarene 99, 5) Seattle Pacific 138, 6) Central Washington 167, 7) Saint Martin's 190, 8) UAF 219, 9) Montana State-Billings 257.

Individual results (top 5) -- 1) Marko Cheseto, UAA, 24:50; 2) Bennett Grimes, WW, 25:05; 3) Jordan Welling, WW, 25:08; 4) Alfred Kangogo, UAA, 25:12; 5) Micah Chelimo, UAA, 25:13.

Other UAA finishers -- 31) Michael Adams, 27:21; 39) Thomas Hill, 27:38; 42) Paul Rottich 27:46; 63) Will Estes, 28:36.

UAF finishers -- 37) Tyler Kornfield, 27:36; 43) Ray Sabo, 27:50; 54) Mitch Chandler, 28:12; 60) Sam Tilly, 28:25; 62) Einar Often, 28:34; 72) Lars Arneson, 29:46; 78) Henri Soom, 32:34.

Other Alaska finisher -- 6) AnthonyTomsich, Western Washington, 25:14 (Fairbanks).

Women's 6 kilometers

Team scores -- 1) UAA 25, 2) Seattle Pacific 48, 3) Western Washington 64, 4) Northwest Nazarene 114, 5) Western Oregon 146, 6) Montana State-Billings 167, 7) UAF 196, 8) Central Washington 205, 9) Saint Martin's 255.

Individual results (top 5) -- 1) Jessica Pixler, SPU, 21:03; 2) Sarah Porter, WW, 21:13; 3) Miriam Kipngeno, UAA, 22:02; 4) Shoshana Keegan, UAA, 22:06; 5) Ruth Keino, UAA, 22:12.

Other UAA finishers -- 6) Hallidie Wilt, 22:16; 7) Laura Carr, 22:18; 27) Emma Bohman, 24:08; 29) Alex West 24:16; 36) Ariel Rolle, 24:30; 43) Mychaela Bailey, 24:43; 58) Kayla Teslow 25:18.

UAF finishers -- 17) Theresia Schnurr, 23:33; 39) Jana Benedix, 24:32; 44) Heather Edic, 24:44; 53) Maria Stensland, 25:02; 70) Aurelia Korthauer, 26:22; 72) Marit Rjabov, 26:43; 81) Rebecca Konieczny, 28:49.

Other Alaska finisher-- 67) Alee Rowley, Western Oregon, 26:06 (Kenai).

Foldager sisters shine

The Foldager twins of Seward earned all-conference honors at Saturday's California Collegiate Athletic Association cross country championships in McKinleyville, Calif.

Denali Foldager placed 10th in the women's six-kilometer race in a time of 23 minutes, 9.1 seconds and sister Rubye was 14 seconds back in 12th place with a career-best time of 23:23.1. Together, the sophomores led Cal State-Stanislaus to a fifth-place team finish.

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