By: Evan O'Kelly, Associate Commissioner for Communications

MONMOUTH, Ore. – A pleasantly mild November morning at Western Oregon University made for good racing conditions on Saturday, as Great Northwest Athletic Conference runners speckled the leaderboard at the 2025 NCAA West Region Cross Country Championships held at the Ash Creek Preserve course.
 
The Western Washington men finished as the team runner-up with 88 points among a field of 23 teams, while the Viking women placed third of 28 teams with 140 points as the 2025 GNAC champions were the league’s top performers once again on Saturday.
 
Grady Mylander of Northwest Nazarene placed third overall with a 10k time of 29:35.36 minutes, as he was the top GNAC men’s runner and punched his ticket to the national championships. John Peckham – the GNAC individual champion – and Ty Elliott of Alaska Anchorage finished in fourth (29:36.56 minute) and fifth (29:38.88 minutes), respectively. The big effort spearheaded UAA’s team score of 126 points, which was good enough for fourth place in the team standings.
 
GNAC Freshman of the Year Dexter Delaney of Alaska was seventh (29:45.47 minutes) and Jonah Billings of Western Washington was eighth (29:51.11 minutes) giving the GNAC half of the top-10 finishers among the field of 163 runners.
 
On the women’s side, Rachael Watkins of Simon Fraser was the conference’s top performer as she placed fifth with a time of 20:34.05 minutes. Also finishing in the top-10 among a field of 191 competitors was GNAC individual champion Maya Ewing of Seattle Pacific, who clocked a 6k time of 20:51.85 minutes.
 
Eight other GNAC men earned all-region honors by virtue of finishing within the top-25. The Northwest Nazarene duo of Brody Kemble and Ian Stockett finished in 11th (30:08.87 minutes) and 12th (30:10.21 minutes), respectively, helping the Nighthawks finish in fifth place in the team standings with 141 points. Right behind them were Jared Alderfer and Sten Brakstad of Western Washington. Alderfer placed 13th with a time of 30:11.90 minutes, Brakstad finished 17th in 30:22.78 minutes to help fuel the Vikings to the second spot. Other key contributions came from all-region performer George Fernandez in 23rd place (30:27.92 minutes) and Logan Werner who just missed a medal in 27th place (30:34.90 minutes).
 
Western Oregon’s lineup featured a pair of all-region performers in sophomore Matthew Resnik, who finished in 21st place in 30:26.41 minutes, and junior Remedan Seman, who finished in 24th place in 30:28.52 minutes. The Wolves were the fourth-finishing GNAC team at the meet, checking in eighth with 223 points.
 
Earning the final all-region spot was Central Washington senior Luke Hurd, who ran a personal-best 10k time of 30:29.07 minutes to take 25th place. Hurd’s big effort helped the Wildcats to an upper-half finish in the team standings, with 304 total points for 10th place.
 
In addition to Watkins and Ewing, seven other GNAC women’s runners also finished in the top-25 to earn all-region accolades. Representing the Alaska Nanooks on the all-region list were sophomore Lucca Duke and junior Tabitha Williams. Duke finished 14th overall with a time of 21:04.05 minutes, while Williams was 22nd in 21:11.57 minutes.
 
Western Washington’s third-place team finish was fueled by a trio of all-region performers in juniors Ella Edens and Jill Philbin and senior Alexis Parker. Edens crossed the line in 16th place (21:05.19 minutes), Philbin was 17th (21:05.36 minutes) and Parker followed in 23rd (21:15.41 minutes).
 
Northwest Nazarene senior Morgan Erler earned a medal in her final collegiate cross country race, finishing in 19th place with a time of 21:07.35 minutes. Her teammate freshman Hazel Kunkel missed all-region by just one spot, finishing in 26th at 21:16.62 minutes. That was just over half a second behind Western Oregon’s Kyla Potratz, who claimed the final all-region spot by finishing 25th (21:16.02 minutes).
 
Seattle Pacific’s women wound up seventh in the team standings with 252 points and Simon Fraser (ninth, 287 points), Central Washington (11th, 308 points), Alaska Anchorage (12th, 324 points) and Northwest Nazarene (14th, 377 points) made it 6 of 10 GNAC schools to finish in the upper-half of the team standings.
 
Chico State won both team titles, with the men posting a score of 75 points to beat WWU by 13 and the women posting 40 points for a runaway, 46-point win over team runner-up Cal Poly Pomona. Chico State’s Damian Garcia was the men’s regional champion with a time of 29:26.33 minutes, just over four seconds ahead of runner-up Ricardo Vargas of Cal Poly Pomona (29:30.46 minutes). On the women’s side it was Biola’s Bethany Mapes who claimed the title with a time of 20:29.31 minutes, as she held off runner-up Iresh Molina of Chico State (20:32.54 minutes) by just over three seconds.
 
The 2025 NCAA Cross Country Championships are on Nov. 22 at Wayne E. Dannehl National Cross Country Course in Kenosha, Wis. The women’s 6k championship race will begin at 10 a.m. (Central) with the men’s 10k championship race following at 11:15 a.m. (Central). Team and individual selections into the championship meet will be announced by the NCAA on Monday, Nov. 10.