1. Home
2. Athletics
3. Cross Country
4. News

Cross Country News

Eagle XC in Rain Soaked Concordia Meet

PORTLAND, Ore. - The weather at the Concordia/Puma Cross Country Classic on Saturday was not kind to the NU cross country team and other runners as they took part in the annual event.

Record rains made the going tough at Fernhill Park in Portland as the NU women made their way through their 5k course. Lindsey Wagner had the best finish of the Eagle women with her 32nd place time of 19:26. Wagner had the 4th best time among CCC runners entered in the race. Brittany Long and Paige DeLapp finished 42nd and 43rd with times of 19:58 and 20:01 respectively. 84 runners took part in the 8k race.

In the men's 4-mile event, NU's top runner, Seth Bridges, remained in Kirkland as Matt Porter finished 67th with a 22:01 for the course. Tyler Hart came in at 22:19 (77th) and freshman Garrett Foot finished the course in 22:47 (92nd). There were 124 runners entered in the men's event.

"I thought we ran okay considering the conditions on the course today," commented Eagle Head Coach, Mark Mandi.  "It was as bad of conditions as I've seen at a cross country meet. Lindsey Wagner had a better showing this time out in a pretty competitive field. Brittany Long and Paige DeLapp were within 30 seconds of Lindsey, which is what you'd like to see as a coach." Mandi continued. "On the men's side, we left Seth Bridges behind which left the door open for someone else to lead the team during the race and Matt Porter was that man today, as he was the top Eagle finisher. Not too far behind were Tyler Hart and Garret Foot. Garrett had the best race of his running career and has continued to make huge strides. As a team, we have to move forward and prepare for the conference championships in 3 weeks. We still have some things we need to work on, but I think that we'll be ready to go by then," Coach Mandi concluded.

In the men's division, with three teams ranked in the top 15 in the country, including No. 5 British Columbia (UBC), the No. 2 ranked Southern Oregon men’s cross country defended its ranking with a team championship.

In the women's 8k, the University of Victoria (B.C.) recorded a meet-low 40-point total to edge No. 4 ranked Simon Fraser U. by two points. 10th-ranked UBC registered 89 points for third place while Concordia had the highest finish of CCC teams in fourth place. NU did not field the required number of runners (5) to qualify for a team placing in both the men's and women's races.

Next up for the Eagles is the CCC Cross Country Championships on November 7th which will be hosted by Northwest Christian University and run in Springfield, Oregon this year. The CCC is also playing host to the NAIA National Cross Country Championships this fall which will be held in Vancouver, Washington on November 21, 2009.

Athletic News Archive

October 18, 2009