Women Take 2nd and Udo is 3rd Overall in First Meet

Everett, WA - The Trojans got the 2025 season underway on Saturday with a solid performance at the Puget Sound Invite, hosted by the University of Puget Sound.  Both the men's and women's fields featured high caliber athletes from NCAA DIII schools, NAIA, and NWAC schools. 

The men's 5k was the first race of the day with 60 competitors, and six scoring teams.  Of the six, the Trojan men finished 4th, ahead of fellow NWAC school Olympic College and just one point behind Pacific Lutheran University and two points behind Green River College.  Freshman Kenenisa Udo had a great college debut, finishing 3rd overall, and first among the NWAC competition.  His time of 15:51.4 was seven seconds ahead of Samuel Grice of Green River who was the next highest NWAC finisher.  Hector Mendoza, a middle distance specialist on the EvCC track team was the next Trojan finisher, followed closely by sophomore Charlie Roberts.  The pair finished less than a second apart from one another at 14th and 15th overall.  The second EvCC pair to finish was Isaac Pratt and William Pyeatt, both freshman. The two rounded out the scoring for Everett at the 17:17 mark and at 13rd and 24th respectively.  

The women's 5k was a smaller field of 43 runners, and EvCC was the only NWAC school to field a full team.  The Trojans placed three runners inside the top 10 and finished in 2nd place as a team behind the host University of Puget Sound, but ahead of PLU and Evergreen State College.  UPS finished One through four, but EvCC's Lily Rock and Teagan Pentz finished 5th and 6th. Pentz's time of 19:56.7 was a 5k PR, nearly a full minute faster than her best 5k time a season ago.  Not far behind Rock and Pentz was Reda Long at 9th overall who along with Rock also had a solid freshman debut.    

Rounding out the team scoring for Everett was a trio of sophomores, Taya Kilgore, Amelia Koon, and Ariel Rodriguez-Garcia, all finished in order 32nd, 33rd, and 34th.  

Everett's next race will be in two weeks at the Gator Invite, hosted by Green River College at Fort Steilacoom Park in Lakewood, WA.  The men will get another opportunity against the Gators in a smaller sized field and the women will look to maintain their edge of Green River's top female runners.