![](../images/ccrun-mw/heather_koertje_a.jpg")
WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- Walla Walla's Heather Koertje and three of her teammates earned all-conference cross country honors Saturday morning, powering the Whitman College women's team to its first Northwest Conference title since 1995.
Running at McIver Park near Estacada, Ore., Koertje placed fourth in the women's 5,000 meters to lead the Missionaries to a decisive victory in the team scoring. Whitman took first with a team score of 49 points, well ahead of Whitworth College and Willamette University, two teams that tied for second with 67 points. Pacific Lutheran totaled 75 points for fourth place in the nine-school field.
"I'm extremely pleased and proud of the way the women ran," Whitman coach Carol Feezell said. "Before the race, I was expecting to have one runner make the all-conference team, not four. To have that many is amazing."
In the men's 8,000 meters Saturday, Whitman placed seventh. Junior Lars Tysver (Bothell WA, Bothell HS) posted Whitman's best individual effort, placing 28th.
Koertje, a junior, finished with a career-best time of 18:52, just one second behind third-place Kim Ball of Pacific University. Beth Fitzgerald of Willamette won the race in 18:30, while Lia Lissiander of Pacific Lutheran was second in 18:43.
"No one had a bad race for our women, but that was an outstanding race for Heather," Feezell said. "She really broke out today."
Koertje, who placed 22nd a year ago in the conference championships, was one of three Missionary women who earned first-team all-conference honors by placing in the top seven in Saturday's race. Freshman Karin Pfeiffer-Hoyt (Deming WA, Mount Baker HS) was sixth in 18:59, and senior Elisa Bobnes (McMinnville OR, McMinnville HS) finished seventh for a second straight year in a time of 19:02.
![](../images/ccrun-mw/womchamp20.jpg")
"Karin also had a great race," Feezell said. "She wanted to run aggressively today, and she wanted to run a personal-best time. She's only a freshman, but she accomplished both of those goals."
Senior Megan Hunter (Boulder CO, Boulder HS) claimed second-team all-conference honors for Whitman by placing 11th in 19:18. It was the first time this season that Hunter did not place first among Missionary runners.
Three more seniors had Whitman's next best times. Amanda Havens (Olympia WA, Capital HS) was 21st in 19:46, Taylor Dale (Crested Butte CO, Gunnison HS) took 25th in 19:53, and Kitty Rasmussen (Seattle WA, Highline HS) was 27th in 20:02.
Also placing for the Whitman women were junior Heather Barr (Orinda CA, Athenian School/Danville), 49th, 20:33; freshman Mary Jo Southwick (Heber City UT, Wasatch HS), 52nd, 20:40; and Stacy St. John (Anchorage AK; Monroe, Wash., HS), 64th, 21:13.
After placing fifth at last year's conference championships, the Whitman women ended that season on a high note by placing a surprising second at the NCAA regional meet. "I knew we had a strong team coming back, but it wasn't until midway through this season that I started thinking we had a shot at the conference title. Our women kept getting stronger and stronger all season."
Koertje, who received Walla Walla's annual Murr Scholarship to attend Whitman, said superior depth has been the key to her team's success this year. "There are several of us who run in a big pack," she said. "We can have different people finish in different spots from week to week, but our team always does well."
Koertje was still high school when the Whitman women's team won three consecutive cross country titles from 1993 to 1995. "Those were the days when Jessica Bissonnette and Kathleen Gibson were running, and the Whitman women were always going to nationals," Koertje said.
Whitman's cross country teams will return to McIver Park in two weeks for this year's NCAA III regional meet. The top two teams in both the Women's and men's events will advance to the national championships. The top six runners not on each event's two qualifying teams will also advance to nationals.
The Whitman women have been ranked No. 4 in the west region poll for the last five weeks.
In the men's race Saturday, Whitman's Tysver ran a 27:28 in finishing 28th, six places better than at last year's conference championships. Senior Keli'i Kotubetey (Kailua HI, Kamehameha HS/Honolulu) placed 54th in 28:53, freshman Andrew Moore (Portland OR, Lincoln HS) was 59th in 29:16, and Joel Byersdorfer (Issaquah WA, Issaquah HS) placed 60th in 29:22.
Also placing for the Whitman men were freshman Ryan Gold (Talent OR, Phoenix HS), 66th, 29:58; freshman Jerome Schwartz (Bellingham WA, Sehome HS), 70th, 30:32; and senior Calon Russell (McCall ID, McCall-Donnelly HS), 72nd, 31:29.