Spokane Falls’ womens cross-country team took home the championship title during this years North West Athletic Associations of Community Colleges (NWAACC) Championship.
The women’s team took home the team Championship, head coach Sean McLachlan was named Coach of the Year and Jessica Mildes won the Individual Championship award for the second year in a row.
The mens team did not recapture their team title this year but Freshman Daniel Schofield took home the Individual Championship award.
Four runners from Spokane Falls were named to the All-American team. Sara Fristoe, Rachel Ward along with Mildes from the womens team and Schofield from the mens team.
“Our guys and gals worked very hard and came to practice every day and there was no drama at all during this quarter,” said Sean McLachlan, cross-country coach.
Preparing for a meet takes a lot of work on behalf of the cross-country players, and keeping their energy up during a meet can be difficult.
“All prep takes place long before the meet starts,” said McLachlan. “As with any sport, practice makes perfect, and that is certainly true for cross-country.”
Coming to the end of such a great season and year is always exciting, and a lot is in store for SFCC’s cross country team next year.
“We are seeing Jessica Mildes and Vanessa Church graduating and moving on, and we might be seeing Sarah and Megan Fristoe leave as well,” said McLachlan. “But we have a lot of potential with our freshmen and we have been having a good time recruiting for next fall.” said McLachlan.
Despite the players returning, there will be some holes to fill before the start of the new season.
“A few of them were injured and we didn’t think they could make it to the end, but they did. It would be nice to have more than seven in the future.” said McLachlan.
Students interested in signing up for men’s or women’s cross-country at SFCC should go to athletics.spokane.edu and click on the link for “prospective students” and fill out the questionairre regarding their specific interests.
“We are hoping to get more girls; you can only race seven in a meet, and we had exactly seven teammates this year,” said McLachlan.