WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- Kicking off their chase for a Northwest Conference title, the Whitworth College women's cross country team raced to victory in the first meet of 2005, while the Whitworth men finished a very close second to NCAA Division II Northwest Nazarene on Saturday morning at the Whitman College Invitational.

Kristi Dickey (Sr., Kennewick, Wash.) won the 4 kilometer women's race by more than 17 seconds over teammate Elaine Heinemann (Sr., West. St. Paul, Minn.), finishing in 15:09.98 to Heinemann's 15:27.55. The 1-2 Pirate finish led Whitworth to the team victory with 31 points, ahead of NNU (34) and Whitman (66). Julie Lauterbach (Jr., Arnold, Calif.) finished 5th (15:39.70), while Andrea Carnahan (So., Moscow, Idaho) was 9th in 16:35.03. Shannon Newth (So., Havre, Mont.) rounded out the Pirate scoring, taking 14th place (16:54.32).

Doug Blackburn (Sr., Evansville, Ind.) made it a Whitworth sweep of the individual titles with a time of 19:12.88 in the six kilometer men's competition. He defeated Kevin Lambert of NNU by nearly six seconds (19:18.84). Jacob Deitz (So., Mead, Wash.) finished third overall in 19:43.43. Jeff Grassley (Jr., Flower Mound, Texas) was sixth in 19:55.93. Phil Grahlfs (Sr., Naches, Wash.) and Alex Evans (Fr., Forsyth, Mont.) came from well back to take 11th (20:43.40) and 12th (20:45.07) places, respectively. But the Pirates just missed catching NNU for the team title. The Crusaders scored 30 points to Whitworth's 31 points. Whitman finished third (65 points).

Next week Whitworth will head to just outside Missoula, Montana to compete in the University of Montana Open. The meet will take place at the Lubrecht Experimental Forest 30 miles northeast of Missoula on Highway 200. The men will race at 1:00 pm, followed by the women at 1:30 pm.