BY SUN SPORTS STAFF
10/28/2001

For the men, it was a four-peat. For the women, it was a return to dominance.
For NAU, it was a clean sweep at the Big Sky cross country championships at Eastern Washington Saturday.

The men won their fourth consecutive title, led by sophomore Henrik Ahnstrom, who won the race in 24 minutes, 56.8 seconds. The women took their 10th conference title since 1982 as Ida Nillsson won the meet with a time of 17:29.

The men blew past Weber State with 25 points to win the meet. The Wildcats were second with 59 and Montana State was third with 67 points.

Lumberjacks finished 1-2 in the meet, as Travis Laird finished less than a second behind Ahnstrom to take second in the meet. Bruno Mazzotta took fourth, Tyler Williams was seventh and Juwan Nuvayokva was 11th.

The women tied a meet record by finishing with just 19 points. Finishing behind Nillsson were Susie Rutherford (second), Jinny Hanifan (third), Jamie Herman (sixth) and Erika Edwards (seventh).

"Winning this one was especially special," said NAU coach Ron Mann, who wrapped up his 51st and 52nd Big Sky championships. "There were tremendous performances on both sides, and I was especially pleased with Nillsson winning as a freshman and Henrik's performance. They were great, the teams were great, and it's a tremendous accomplishment to score under 25 points at the conference meet."

NAU will take the week off before participating in the NCAA Mountain Regionals in Provo, Utah Nov. 10.