Final Preparations Before Championships
The Trojans took to the course one final time in preparation for the upcoming championship races.
Portland, OR - The Trojans took to the course one final time in preparation for the upcoming championship races. Once again the men's and women's cross country teams headed south, this time at Lents Park in Portland, OR for the Warner Pacific University Invitational. The race featured two NCAA Division I teams including the University of Portland and Portland State University as well as a number of other four-year university programs and six NWAC schools. Heavy rain and a muddy course made it slow going for most of the runners, but there were significant gains from many of the EvCC runners.
For the men, sophomore Nathan McGinity posted his best 8k time of the season by six seconds and has consistently shaved off time from the first race of the season. Freshman Nathan Schneider finished 66th overall, and 2nd among 33 NWAC competitors. As a team the Trojans finished 2nd among the 5 NWAC teams and just 9 points behind Clackamas CC who finished first among the NWAC teams.
On the women's side, there were no PR's other than freshman Tracey Hatch who appeared in her first collegiate race and posted a time of 22:31.4, two seconds behind sophomore teammate Maylynn Cendejas and three seconds behind another sophomore teammate Sandra Hart. Despite the slightly slower times on an individual level for the women's 5k, the Trojans came in first as a team among the other two competing NWAC teams, one of which being Umpqua CC, a team that has finished higher than the Trojans in two previous meets. Sophomore leader Ellee London came in 2nd among all NWAC competitors, just four seconds behind the first place NWAC finisher from Umpqua CC.
Everett will have two weeks to recover an prepare for the Northwest Region Championship race on November 2nd at McCollum Park in Everett, WA featuring Olympic College from Bremerton, WA and Green River College from Auburn, WA. Last year the Trojans swept both the men's and women's title's, however this year both races appear that they will be extremely close and too difficult to name out any favorites.
The Northwest Region Championship race will be the final race before the NWAC Championships on November 18th which will be hosted on the campus of Saint Martin's University. This will be the same course ran back on September 28th at the Ken Garland Classic.