Same result, different year.
The Fort Lewis women’s cross country team went out to Sacramento, California, last weekend and competed against the best teams in the country in Division II in the 2024 Cross Country NCAA Division II National Championships. The Skyhawks, ranked 15th in Division II heading into the meet, finished 20th out of 34 schools. FLC women’s cross country also finished 20th last year at the national championships.
“It was a day of maybe mixed emotions,” FLC women’s cross country coach Gracen Key said. “On one hand, going in ranked 15th, hoping to be at least 15th, we were a little off that goal. In that moment, it was a little bit of a hard pill to swallow … However, I am very proud of their efforts; there's no question in my mind that their effort was there. I just think that the execution was maybe a little off … It was definitely a very good day because we didn't go backward from their performance last year.”
Key had prior experience at the national championships during her time as a graduate assistant at her alma mater West Texas A&M and as a coach at fellow Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference school Western Colorado.
She told her team to approach the national championships like it’s another meet. She wanted them to have the mindset that they deserved to be there and that this was a result of their hard work, resilience and dedication.
FLC and the rest of the competitors race on the Haggin Oaks Golf Complex. Key said the course was pretty wide open and never turned into a bottleneck like some other courses. The course was pretty flat, but it rained a lot before Saturday’s 6-kilometer women’s race including on Saturday morning. Key said this made the course slick, muddy and slower since the women didn’t have great footing. There were some places on the course where the women had to splash through muddy puddles, according to Key, which didn’t help times either.
The Skyhawks were led by junior Hannah Hartwell and sophomore Linda Weigang. Hartwell finished fifth out of 259 runners in 20 minutes and 34.9 seconds. Lauren Kiley from Grand Valley State won the race in 20:28.5. Kendall Kramer from Alaska Fairbanks finished second in 20:30.7 and Colorado School of Mines’ Jenna Ramsey-Rutledge finished third in 20:34.
Hartwell got a great start and was in the top group almost all race. She was as high as second at the 2-kilometer timing split and was in the top five throughout the race. She narrowly lost out on fourth place in a sprint to Seattle Pacific’s Annika Esvelt.
Weigang finished 10th in 20:48.9. She didn’t get as great of a start as Hartwell and was 17th after the first kilometer. She made her way past some great runners and was ninth at the 5.6-kilometer split before crossing the finish line in 10th.
Both Hartwell and Weigang received All-American honors for their performances.
“Hannah and Linda had good positioning from the get-go and they couldn't have executed any better,” Key said. “I told them that they needed to get in there and I wanted them to set the tone for the group they were in. A lot of times they hang at the back of their respective packs. I told them, ‘I want you guys to be the ones to dictate what goes on in those groups so that means you need to be toward the front of the packs that you're in.’ I just couldn't have asked them to perform any better. It was a very good day for those two and because of those two finishes, that's a big reason why we were 20th.”
Junior Althea Griffith was the third fastest Skyhawk and finished in 180th in 23:01.5. Not too far behind her was junior Marisol Castilleja, who finished in 182nd in 23:04.7. Sophomore Tessa Stadler was the final scorer for FLC in 185th in 23:05.8.
Key said Griffith, Castilleja and Stadler struggled with their starts in the first 600 meters and put themselves in a tough position after that.
The Skyhawks should be in a position to be back at the national championships next year and to improve on the last two seasons’ results. Key will be in her second year running the women’s cross country program and should return her top nine runners. She’s bringing in a large freshman class which could have a few runners contribute right away.
“I'm so excited,” Key said. “Anytime you see someone at the national meet and they're not graduating a lot of people, you're always thinking about what are they going to do next year. That’s very hopeful for me and for the women … This program really is just going in such a positive direction.”
On the men’s side, junior Elijah Smith represented the Skyhawks as an individual qualifier and finished 49th in the men’s 10K in 30.42.8. Smith overcame a poor start where he was 84th after the first kilometer. He also improved on his 53rd-place finish at last year’s national championships.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
