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Oct. 23, 2009

BELLINGHAM, Wash. -

BEN FLETCHER - THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

The Western Washington Vikings men's and women's cross country teams have put together yet another successful year headed into the ninth annual Great Northwest Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships slated for Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Apple Ridge Run Cross Country facility in Yakima.

Junior Sarah Porter leads the women's team into Saturday's action, having already secured individual wins at the Central Washington University Apple Ridge Invitational and the Western Washington University Invitational.

Porter is also looking for her third straight top 10 finish at the GNAC championships. Last year, the All-American Viking finished the Apple Ridge layout less than a minute behind winner Seattle Pacific's Jessica Pixler, a two-time national champ who will be trying for her fourth consecutive individual GNAC title.

As a team, the Western women are ranked fourth in the latest USTFCCAA NCAA Division II West Regional Rankings and eighth in national rankings.

The Viking men carry with them a second place slot in regional rankings and a national rank of seventh. They head into Saturday's race boasting an imposing trifecta of front runners: Jordan Welling, Bennett Grimes and Blake Medhaug were all All-American performers last year and give the Western men a legitimate chance to win a GNAC team title after finishing second at last year's race to the Alaska Anchorage, which had four runners finish in the top six, by just 19 points. Welling placed fifth at the 2008 GNAC meet while Grimes was ninth and Medhaug 10th.

Regardless of its performance at the conference meet, Western will compete in the NCAA West Regional, which will be held at Golden State Park in San Francisco, on Saturday, Nov. 7.