National Championship Berths are on the Line

Whitworth at NCAA West Regionals Campus course - Pomona-Pitzer Claremont, Calif. DIII West Region XC Site

Dana Misterek

Nick Gallagher

SPOKANE, Wash. -- The Whitworth University cross country teams will have a chance to qualify for the 2009 NCAA Division III Championships this weekend when the Pirates run at the NCAA Division III West Region meet. The women will race at 9:00 a.m. and the men at 9:45 a.m. on the campus course of host Pomona-Pitzer Colleges in Claremont, California.

The Pirate women head into the meet as one of the favorites after winning the Northwest Conference title two Saturdays ago. The Bucs are ranked 17th in the most recent USTFCCCA Division III top-35 poll and first in the West Region. The Whitworth men are defending championships, but will have to surprise some to challenge for an national-qualifying spot. The Pirate men are ranked fourth in the region and 34th in the USTFCCCA top 35 poll.

The top two teams and the top seven individuals not on those two teams will qualify for the national championship meet. While there are some at-large berths available for teams and individuals not among the automatic qualifiers, the west region has not had great success securing those extra spots.

The Whitworth women figure to get their greatest challenge from 23rd-ranked Whitman and Occidental and Pomona-Pitzer from the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletics Conference. Dana Misterek (So., Gig Harbor, Wash.) and Joy Shufeldt (Fr., Portland, Ore.) finished second and third, respectively at the NWC Championships, while Kathryn Williams (Jr., Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Tonya Turner (So., Spokane, Wash.) were eighth and 10th. Jo E. Mayer (Sr., Spokane, Wash.) gives Whitworth a strong top-five group.

Nick Gallagher (Jr., Bedford, Iowa) is last season's DIII West Region champion. For the Pirates to have a chance, he will have to bounce back from illness and injury to return to close to the form of 2008. Gallagher finished 18th at the recent NWC Championships, but it was his first meet back after sitting out for three weeks. At the conference meet Aaron Jenkins (So., Pocatello, Idaho) was ninth, while Tyler Dudley (So., Salem, Ore.) was 10th and Dusty Caseria (Sr., Bellingham, Wash.) was 14th, giving Whitworth three Second Team All-NWC honorees. Whitworth will be up against highly-ranked Willamette of the NWC, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer of the SCIAC and Colorado College.

The Coach: The fall of 2009 marks Dr. Toby Schwarz's 12th season as head coach of the Whitworth Cross Country program. In 2008 Schwarz led the Pirate men to a Northwest Conference title and the NCAA DIII West Regional Championship, which qualified them for their first ever NCAA Championships meet. In 2002 Schwarz led the Whitworth women to an NCAA West Region title and the team's first-ever berth to the NCAA Championships. Schwarz was named the NCAA West Region women's Coach of the Year in 2002, the men’s Coach of the Year in 2008; and was honored as the NWC Men’s Coach of the Year in 2008.

Coach Schwarz's Quotes: Toby Schwarz talks about the team's performance at the NWC Championships and gives his outlook for this weekend's West Region meet. Click here to listen to Coach Schwarz's Quotes.