UAA runners broke the tape twice, both times with teammates chasing them, Saturday at the West Region championships.
Henry Cheseto and Joyce Chelimo claimed the individual titles at the NCAA Division II region championships in Monmouth, Oregon, where the Seawolves finished 1-2 in both races while qualifying both their men's and women's teams for the national championships.
"That was pretty fun," UAA coach Michael Friess said.
The fifth-ranked UAA men collected the first-place trophy -- their third title in history, with the others coming in 2010 and 2011 -- getting a 1-2 finish from Cheseto and Dominik Notz and placing six runners in the top 25 to knock off Chico State, the second-ranked Division II team in the nation.
The women, ranked sixth nationally, won a close battle for third place thanks to the 1-2 finish by Chelimo and Caroline Kurgat.
It was a big day for the Cheseto and Chelimo families, who have captured a total of seven West Region individual championships for UAA.
Henry is the younger brother of two-time region champion Marko Cheseto, and Joyce is the wife of two-time region champion Micah Chelimo.
Cheseto, a sophomore, repeated as the men's champion by holding Notz and Chico State's William Reyes in the 10-kilometer race.
The race was a three-man duel won by Cheseto in 29 minutes, 29.82 seconds. Notz was second in 29:32.63 and Reyes was third in 29:36.55.
Cheseto's victory gave UAA its sixth men's champion in seven years.
Chelimo, a junior who redshirted last season while pregnant, became UAA's fourth women's champion in five years by dominating the 7-K race in 20:42.34. She beat Kurgat by nearly 18 seconds.
"She decided at about 4-K she was going to run away from people, and she did," Friess said. "Caroline kind of went with the surge and got some separation between herself and the third-place gal.
"They really needed to do that. Joyce at that point didn't know how the rest of the team was performing behind her, but she knew she needed to roll."
The 1-2 finish was critical. The top five teams earned spots in the NCAA championships in two weeks but only six points separated third-place UAA (201) from fifth-place Seattle Pacific (207). Finishing a close sixth and failing to advance was Central Washington with 212.
Chelimo and Kurgat were the only Seawolves in the women's top 25. Freshman Kimberly Coscia was 31st, Kaitlyn Maker was 76th and Jessica Pahkala was 94th.
"Our women's team can run better than it showed today, and our strength in the top two was pretty much what pulled us through," Friess said.
"My intent is to have that women's team a lot more ready at the nationals. The meet was very intense (and) a couple of them didn't respond well to the intensity of the race."
The women raced first at Ash Creek Preserve, and before the men took off, they got a talk from Friess.
"The men benefited from the women, because (between races) we made it well known that it was clear that the region was coming to play today and they had to be at their very best and go out and win it," Friess said.
"I just said, 'You have to brace yourself. You have to be ready.' The people here today came to play, not just to qualify. The biggest thing I told them was you need to run to win."
And they did. Joining Cheseto and Notz in the top 25 were eighth-place Edwin Kangogo, 20th-place Victor Samoei, 24th-place Nathan Kipchumba and 25th-place Michael Mendenhall.
Cheseto, Notz and Chico State's Reyes broke away from a big lead pack about seven or eight kilometers into the race, Friess said.
"The Chico guy tried to lay down the hammer. Dom went with him and Henry got a little inspiration from that and went with him as well," he said. "Going into the last (kilometer) they were pretty much all even. Henry opened up a two- to three-second lead with about 300 or so meters to go."