The first team to win a Pacific West Conference championship in the history of Azusa Pacific Athletics, the women’s cross country team has done it again. The Cougars defended their title Saturday morning with an 11-point margin over Hawai’i Pacific. The championship victory was the second PacWest title in APU history, earned shortly before the women’s soccer team earned their first ever PacWest title against Cal Baptist later that day.
The Cougars’ top three landed the second, third, and fourth spots in the race. Junior Kristie Sikma finished at 17:43.8, senior Sarah Higgens finished at 17:51.4 and sophomore Reika Kijima finished at 17:52.1. According to head coach Preston Grey, when a team has three runners finishing in the top four, that team is tough to beat.
“We were very pleased with the women; we felt they ran their best race of the year,” Grey said. “This race is representative of how the women have been training. It’s the first one that I would say we really put it all together.”
Top APU women’s runner Sikma credits her teammates for pushing their hardest so far this year.
“The two and three on the team worked together really well and helped push each other, which helped place three and four, so the team worked to make sure there was nobody in between them and everyone stepped up,” Sikma said.
Freshman Kylie Betts finished 12th (18:29.8) and junior Elizabeth Lyons finished 13th (18:31.8). The final two performers for the Cougars were junior Elle Farrar, who placed 18th, (18:41.1), and sophomore Natalie Koskela, who placed 26th (18:56.7). Despite being the last Cougar to cross the finish line, Koskela did well overall by placing 26th in a race that included 84 total runners.
The men of APU cross country finished in third behind Cal Baptist and Hawai’i Pacific. Top men’s runner junior Peter Buscheck finished in 7th place at 26:59.0. Sophomore Ryan Phillips was the next men’s runner, finishing in 10th place at 27:26.2 and sophomore Aaron Potts finished in 14th at 27:41.4. Grey said he was satisfied with the effort the men put out there in the championship race.
“The men went out hard and went out with Cal Baptist. That’s what we wanted to do,” Grey said. “We knew that Cal Baptist was a better team than us, but we wanted to give ourselves a chance to see what happened. We faded a bit and that probably cost us second place, but we definitely made the decision to go after the win and if that cost us second place, that was okay.”
Buscheck said directly after the race, he called the men’s runners together to discuss the highs and lows of the race. According to Buscheck, they were disappointed and frustrated with their performance but are looking for redemption at the National Christian College Athletic Association Championships in Cedarville, Ohio two weeks from now.
“That’s disappointing, to not show up at the conference meet, but we have one more race coming up—nationals in two weeks, so we’re looking towards that,” Buscheck said. “We want to run really well there.”
The men look to motivate and find energy in each other as they prepare for their final race of the year at the NCCAA championships.
“We have a really good camaraderie,” Buscheck said. “It wasn’t our best day. We’re all going through it together. I think the fact that we all get along together so well, we’re just enjoying every step of the way. It really has a good effect on our team and it will do well for us in nationals in two weeks because we’ll be able to brush this one off and move on.”
Grey said he is proud of both the men and women for the hard work they have put in with early training times, hard work and good attitudes.
“They’re carrying that legacy on. I have a lot of respect for this team because it’s been a tough transition into the NCAA,” Grey said. “You don’t have that national championship per se, that NAIA or NCAA title out there to chase. These are the kids that are carrying that burden and taking us to the next level. I think all our sports, when we look back on our years, these teams are going to be important teams in the history of Azusa Pacific.”