By: Evan O'Kelly, Associate Commissioner for Communications

INDIANAPOLIS – Three teams plus five individuals from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference qualified for the 2024 NCAA Cross Country Championships, as the selections were announced from NCAA headquarters on Monday.
 
Both the Western Washington women’s and men’s teams are headed to the NCAA Championships for the second straight season, and the Alaska Fairbanks women will compete as a team for the second time since the conference was founded in 2001. Individuals from Central Washington, Alaska Anchorage, Seattle Pacific and Simon Fraser also qualified, making it six of the conference’s 10 universities that will be represented at the national meet.
 
The 2024 NCAA Cross Country Championships are Nov. 23, 2024 at Arcade Creek Cross Country Course in Sacramento, Calif. The event will be streamed live on www.ncaa.com and live results will be available online here.
 
Fresh off their third-straight GNAC team titles, both Western Washington teams finished as the runners-up at last week’s NCAA West Region Championships hosted by Montana State Billings. The Viking women finished 14th at last year’s national championship meet, while the men placed 16th a season ago.
 
On the women’s side, Ashley Reeck leads the way as a returning All-American and the team’s top finisher at the GNAC Championships and the regional meet. Reeck placed sixth at the conference meet, running 21:49.8 to lead her team to victory on its home course. She followed with a 12th-place finish at the regional meet with a time of 21:24.3. Reeck placed 30th at last year’s NCAA Championships, running a personal-best 6k time of 20:35.3.
 
Other returners from last year’s team that finished 14th at nationals include Ila Davis, Mia Crocker, Emma Smith, Sophie Wright and Meaera Nystrom. All five of those runners finished in the top-25 at the GNAC Championships to give WWU a runaway team win, and contributed to the team’s 115 points at the regional meet to fall within 11 points of regional team champion Chico State. In the latest USTFCCCA national coaches poll, released Oct. 30, the Viking women were ranked 14th nationally.
 
The WWU men have featured a rotation of leaders at the top of the lineup, with Jeret Gillingham winning the GNAC Championships title and Ryan Clough finishing as the conference’s top runner in second place at the regional championships. Clough was WWU’s top performer at last year’s national meet, placing 73rd with a 10k time of 30:51.7. Other returners to the WWU roster from last year’s nationals squad are Kevin McDermott, Gillingham, Jalen Javurek, Will Henry and Jason Blinn. George Karamitsos and Jared Alderfer each earned all-conference this fall with top-10 finishes at the conference meet, and Jonah Billings earned GNAC Freshman of the Year after placing 12th at the GNAC Championships.
 
Headed by the dynamic duo of Rosie Fordham and Kendall Kramer, the Nanooks will compete as a team for the first time since 2011 when they placed 17th at the NCAA Championships. Fordham is fresh off the individual regional title, where she ran the fastest-ever time by a GNAC runner at a regional meet in 19:52.68. Kramer, the three-time defending GNAC champion, finished as the runner-up at last week’s meet and was the top finisher from the conference at last year’s national championships. Both earning All-America honors in 2023, Kramer finished in 23rd place (20:31.2 while Fordham wound up in 36th place (20:40.3). The Nanooks showed depth with a fourth-place finish at last week’s regional meet, as they were bolstered by a 25th-place finish from Tabitha Williams and a 50th-place finish by Katharine Brigham.
 
Central Washington will send a pair of men to the national meet, with reigning All-American Johan Correa and freshly-minted GNAC Newcomer of the Year Ramon Rodriguez both qualifying. Correa, who won last year’s regional meet and placed 17th at nationals, crossed the line in sixth place last week with a 10k time of 30:35.6. Rodriguez was right by his side in fifth place at 30:35.5, as the duo successfully followed their all-GNAC performances with all-region efforts.
 
Alaska Anchorage’s John Peckham, who checked in eighth at last week’s regional meet with a time of 30:44.6, is also headed back to the national championships. Competing as a member of the Seawolves’ team last November, Peckham finished in 198th place with a time of 32:11.3 in 2023.
 
Seattle Pacific’s Annika Esvelt and Simon Fraser’s Rachael Watkins each also qualified after standout fall seasons. Esvelt, a multi-time track and field GNAC champion and All-American, earned her first-ever berth into the NCAA Cross Country Championships after finishing sixth at last week’s regional meet with a time of 20:47.8. Watkins is also set for her first NCAA Championships meet, after placing 10th at the regional meet with a time of 21:10.2.