Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
Sep 3, 20173 min
The 5th place team from one year ago opens up the season ranked 5th place in the USTFCCCA preseason polls. However, the team that earned a 5th place finish in St. Leo is much different than the 2017 Seawolves. Four of the Seawolves top seven from last season are not returning. This includes the huge losses of Michel Ramirez, the 13th place individual at the cross country championships in 2016. The Seawolves also lost their 49th place individual and 90th placed individual in Henry Chesto and Victor Samoei.
2016 was a great year for the Seawolves as they either won or finished second in every meet except the National Championship (where they finished 5th overall). The Seawolves began their season with a perfect score at the NDNU Argo Invitational by taking the top five spots overall. They followed that up by placing 2nd in the open section of the UW Sundodger Invitational and 2nd again at the WWU Classic Invitational. Both of these loses came at the defeat to Trinity Western, the Canadian West champions and 2nd place team at the U. Sports National Championships (the Canadian equivalent of the NCAA Championships).
The Seawolves went on to handily win the GNAC championship, placing runners 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. The Seawolves scored 31 points at the GNAC championship and placed their top seven runners in the top 17 which showed the depth of the program. In fact, the team had not lost to an NCAA team until the West Regional Championship where they fell to Chico State.
Alaska Anchorage concluded their season just one spot off the podium finishing 5th at the National Championship. They scored 222 points thanks to finishes of 11th, 29th, 44th, 61st, and 77th in the team scoring. Looking into the 2017 season, the Seawolves have lost three of those five scoring runners from last year’s National Championship.
Most teams would be doomed by the loss of four of their top seven. However, Coach Friess has reloaded this team in preparation for the 2017 season. The Seawolves have added Taylor Turney, a transfer from Colorado School of Mines along with Jorge Sanchez (14:47:5000m) from Hartnell College. Jorge will likely be a member of the Seawolves top five.
In addition to these two transfers, Coach Friess has also recruited three new Kenyan runners for the team, building to the legacy this program has of recruiting Kenyan athletes. These three athletes: Robert Cheruiyot, Felix Kemboi, and Nickson Koech are complete wild cards for the Seawolves, but past results indicate a bright future.
The Seawolves have had a great history with Kenyan born athletes in their program. Marki Chesto finished 9th at NCAA’s in 2008 while Micah Chelimo finished 40th, 21st, 15th and 1st in his four years at Anchorage between 2009 and 2012. More recently, Henry Chesto finished 3rd.
The 2017 roster for the Seawolves is deep with upperclassmen yet again this year as their entire projected top five consists of either juniors or seniors. The three freshmen from Kenya could use the leadership of an older team to propel them back into national title consideration on both the individual and team level.
On the track, Edwin Kangogo led the returning Wolves by running 8:56 in the 3000m steeple and placing 6th at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. He also ran 30:06 for 10,000m and won the GNAC title over the same distance. Another key returner is Justin Carrancho who ran 14:48 for 5,000m and 31:12 for 10,000m.
Going into this season, the Seawolves should have high hopes of contending for a national title with a large group of upperclassmen. The season may be decided by the five newcomers to the program who will be making immediate impacts on the team.