Results

CLAREMONT, Calif. — Sophomore Stephenie Spencer finished eighth in a field of 133 runners to earn All-West Region honors on Saturday at the NCAA Division III West Region Championships in southern California.

Spencer also likely earned an entry into the NCAA national championships. That will be confirmed on Sunday with an official announcement from the NCAA.

Spencer ran 22:12.84 on the six kilometer course, which was held on the Pomona-Pitzer campus. The race was won by Maya Weigel of Pomona-Pitzer, who distanced herself from her nearest competitor by over 22 seconds (21:48.98). Spencer, who finished sixth at the Northwest Conference Championships three weeks ago, saw only four NWC competitors finish in front of her this time.

Serena Wallace and Jessica Knoll were the next Pacific runners to cross the finish line, in 71st and 72nd place respectively with times of 24:38.78 and 24:38.87. The Boxers finished 15th of 19 teams in the field.

Willamette won the team title on the women's side with 64 points, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps was next with 79 and Whitworth was third with 87.

For the men, Steve Allen was Pacific's top runner in 27th place and earned All-West Region honors, running the eight kilometer course in 26:34.39. Former Pacific runner Tyler Shipley, now of Puget Sound, won the race in 25:04.48, over 11 seconds ahead of the nearest runner.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps won the men's team title with 51 points, followed by Pomona-Pitzer (62) and Willamette (109).

The top two teams for both the men and women automatically qualify for the NCAA national championships, along with a to-be-determined number of individual runners. That race will be run next Saturday (Nov. 21) in Winnecone, Wisconsin.