University Place, WA - On a cloudy but otherwise beautiful November afternoon at picturesque Chambers Creek, 68 women's runners representing 14 different NWAC colleges raced for the final time this cross country season. It was the first NWAC Championship since 2019 and there was much anticipation with several runners in the hunt for the 2021 crown. Coming into the race, Izzabelle Anderson from Whatcom had the best 5k time of the season at 18:44.7 which she set back on October 7th at the NWAC preview meet (also ran at Chambers Creek albeit a slightly different course layout). Other runners such as Piper Crook from Lane, and Tressa Wood from Spokane also had impressive sub 19-minute PR's. For Everett, sophomore Avery Daniels set a PR last season of 19:07 on a fast course, but hoping to improve on her 2021 season best 5k time of 20:53.2 set two weeks prior at the Northwest Region Championship race where she placed 4th overall.
As the race got underway, the anticipated suspects formed at the front of the pack, but hanging in that group from Everett was freshman Patience Mwaura and sophomore Tracey Hatch. After the halway point, Anderson from Whatcom and Crook from Lane started to pull away, with Jasmine Davis from Pierce College on their heels. Tracey Hatch from Everett remained inside the top 15, and after a slow start, Avery Daniels began to start picking off runners and found herself inside the top 20 with Patience Mwaura.
Piper Crook from Lane had the lead in the final 100 yards, but an incredible kick helped Izzabelle Anderson edge out Crook by three tenths of a second. They were followed by a great race from Arlyce Harlan (also from Whatcom) Jasmine Davis of Pierce, and Pamela Decko of Umpqua CC to round out the top 5.
Avery Daniels had continued to climb the leaderboard but ran out of real estate and finished 13th overall, just four seconds behind the 12th place finisher. Avery finished with a time of 20:31.3 which set a season PR in the 5k and was two seconds faster than her last NWAC championship race back on November 12, 2016 where she finished 6th overall. Tracey Hatch was not far behind, running a lifetime best 20:47.6 shattering her previous PR by 17 seconds. Patience Mwaura dropped slightly in the field but still finished inside the top 30 at 27th overall. Rounding out the team scoring for Everett was Dylan Dimond (34th), Caelyn Foster (57th), and Johanna Schmidt (63rd).
Not surprisingly Lane CC ran away with the team trophy scoring 42 total points and all 5 scoring runners inside the top 16. Spokane was a distant second with 100 points, and Clark College took 3rd with 110. The Trojans ended up in 5th place, beating out Umpqua by 5 points and narrowly missing out on 4th place by 10 points.
Overall it was a challenging season, overcoming adversity on a variety of fronts but the team pulled together and competed hard at the championship event. The distance team will have a couple months off before outdoor track season begins in February.