Oct. 15, 2004

SPOKANE, Wash. - Three different teams have won the Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's cross country championship in the first three years of the league's history.

And if you trust the most recent NCAA Division II West Regional rankings, there is a good chance it could be four-for-four.

Humboldt State University will host the fourth annual event Sat., Oct. 23, at Beau Pre Golf Course in McKinleyville, Calif. The men's 8,000 meter race will begin at 9 a.m. with the women's 6,000 meter race to follow at 10 a.m.

Past champions have included Northwest Nazarene (2001), Alaska Anchorage (2002) and Western Washington (2003). None of those teams, however, are among the top three ranked GNAC teams in this week's NCAA West Regional poll.

Saint Martin's is the top-ranked GNAC team at No. 4, while Western Oregon and Seattle Pacific rank fifth and sixth, respectively. Alaska Anchorage and Western Washington are seventh and eighth.

In reality, there is no clear-cut conference favorite.

Saint Martin's has won two events this fall, including a dual and its own invitational, but the Saints have never finished higher than fifth in the conference meet.

Seattle Pacific has probably been the surprise team of the 2004 season. The Falcons haven't finished higher than seventh in a conference meet since placing fourth in the 1999 PacWest meet. SPU, however, has four team wins, including the Emerald City and Western Washington invitationals and a pair of duals with Alaska Fairbanks.

The "mystery" team is Western Oregon, which has finished third each of the past two seasons in the GNAC meet. The Wolves, under first-year coach Mike Johnson, are an unknown as they've competed in only one event this year against another conference team.

That was last week in the Evergreen Invitational where they finished third behind Saint Martin's. But, even then they were without two of their top two runners.

Alaska Anchorage is the only other GNAC team to win an event this fall, winning a pair of duals with UAF.

Individually, Humboldt State's Brian Kostock and Jasper Peach established themselves among the favorites by finishing 1-2 in the WWU Invitational Oct. 9 at Bellingham. That race, however, was 10,000 meters, two kilometers farther than the conference race.

Six of last year's Top 10 conference finishers are back, including Western Oregon's Chase Wells, who placed second just two seconds back of winner Doug Hamilton of Humboldt State.

Also returning for the Wolves is 2003 GNAC Newcomer-of-the-Year Brad Brolin, who finished sixth.

Saint Martin's also returns two Top 10 finishers in Andy Prentice and Tris O'Bluck. Prentice, who has two individual wins this fall, finished third and O'Bluck, the 2003 GNAC Freshman-of-the-Year, placed 10th a year ago.

Also back for a run at the individual title are Northwest Nazarene's Jake Hotchkiss, and UAA's Brandon Stum, who placed eighth and ninth, respectively.