Western’s Guenther leads her team at XC championship

Western Washington University’s Taylor Guenther was the first to cross the finish line, leading her womens’ Cross Country team with a time of 22 minutes and 1.5 seconds to second overall during the 2015 Great Northwest Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships on Saturday, Oct. 24.

Guenther, a senior at Western, has led her team this season as captain. She ranked sixth overall in the 6K Women's Race on Saturday at Lake Padden.

A walk-on her freshman year, Guenther said she had no thoughts of competing at the highest levels. Now, after four years with her team, she wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

"I love every single girl on this team," Guenther said. "It's awesome. The program has changed a lot over the last four years and to be at this point, it's really cool going into regionals in good standing."

WWU’s Brittany Grant and Tracy Melville placed eighth and 10th, respectively, the women’s run. Grant finished with a time of 22:10.90, and Melville was seconds behind at 22:24.90.

"Tracy ran well. Her and Brittany, that's the key," Western cross country coach Pee Wee Halsell said. "Brittany was our No. 8 runner last year and now she's our No. 2. It's amazing. Some amazing things are happening."

Western's cross country teams both placed well on Saturday, the women coming in second and the men third, with three finishers in the top ten for women and three in the top 16 for the men. Alaska Anchorage took the women’s and men’s championship title.

Western’s Andrew Wise finished 10th with a time of 25:30.80, Mathew Lutz was 14th (25:43.40) and Nick Mounier took 16th (25:47.80).

""I think this was a really neat opportunity, because we have the chance to have the home field advantage so we didn't have to travel and our legs were fresh," Guenther said. "It was really nice just having the pride in our home course and knowing every nook and cranny of the course and the hills."

At about the 2-mile mark on the course, runners get into hills around the lake. That moment, she said, is the test of how much you want to win.

Halsell said that Guenther's run went extremely well.

"It looked great," he said. "She just went out there, didn't go out with the leaders but was right in contact, close enough in contact, just ran a great race."

As her coach the last four years, Halsell said he has seen growth in ability and confidence. He believes she is capable of being an All-American this year, a goal Guenther has herself said she is working toward.

Looking ahead, Halsell said training is going to be more of the same. Regionals is the nationals qualifier and therefore the team's focus.

"The focus is for them to perform better than they did today, for Taylor and all of them," he said.

Regionals will be hosted by Western Oregon University on Nov. 7. It is a course Western's team has competed on before for Conference.

This story was originally published October 24, 2015 at 7:30 PM with the headline "Western’s Guenther leads her team at XC championship."