SPRINGFIELD, Ore. – Concordia’s cross country programs didn’t let the success of wins in the Lewis & Clark Invitational a week ago get in the way of their second consecutive invitational crowns Saturday.
Both the men’s and women’s teams, which moved into the NAIA’s Top 25 polls this past week, cruised to impressive victories against a Cascade Collegiate Conference field at the Northwest Christian Invitational here at Dorris Ranch.
The Cavalier women followed up their ground-breaking title at the L&C Invitational – it was the first team championship of any kind in the three-plus seasons CU has fielded a women's cross country program – with a 15-point win over runner-up Corban. CU was once again led by transfer Linsie Michels, who led a 1-2-3 Cavalier finish with a time of 18 minutes, 22.15 seconds over the 5,000-meter layout. Teammates Andria Scheese (18:25.88) and Alice Taylor (18:31.84) followed to in succession for the Cavalier sweep of the top there places. Freshman Lauren Moran also finished in the top 10, clocking a personal best of 19:03.56 for an eight-place showing.
“The ladies had a great race, with the top four running fantastic and Maggie Pesanti (20:16.85) really stepping up as the fifth runner in what was a nice personal record,” said Concordia head coach Randy Dalzell. “Linsie, Andria, Alice and Lauren all ran together in the lead group until about the halfway point, then things started to break up with our girls pulling the front of the race out some.”
Corban was led by Carli Moller, Jennifer Hague, Katie Smith, Courtney Welling and Becca Zanon, who finished 6-9-10-11-15 for its second-place showing. Moller clocked a time of 18:50.68. Oregon Tech, which finished third with 70 points, was led by a pair of top 10 finishers – Rachel Novak, who finished fourth in a time of 18:46.61, and Amber Sinicrope, who was seventh in a time of 19:02.25. Northwest, paced by fifth-place finisher Lindsey Wagner, finished fourth as a team, and was followed by Northwest Christian and Warner Pacific.
The 13th-ranked Concordia men’s team ran – and finished – as a pack in posting its second consecutive team championship. The Cavaliers had a 3-4-5-6-7 showing for their 25-point first-place total, 28 points better than runner-up Corban. CU was led by Chris Grever (26:14.39), Martin Romero-Clark (26:15.03), Charles Cummings (26:15.93), Jessy Brown (26:16.37) and Eric Burck (26:18.01) on the 8,000-meter course.
“Our goals for today were to run as a pack and help our fourth and fifth guys run a great race, which they did,” Dalzell said. “The confidence and teamwork they gain from this is invaluable for later races. The way our normal top three (Burck, Romero-Clark, and Cummings) worked to help these guys run well today is a great lesson in teamwork and cooperation.”
Corban had a pair of top 10 finishers in individual champion Caleb Goins (26:06.54) and ninth-place finisher Ben Snell (26:30.54). Oregon Tech place third, and was led by defending CCC champion Kory Humberston, who placed second in a time of 26:07.81. Teammate Ben Baker finished eighth in a time of 26:24.05. Northwest Christian finished fourth and Warner Pacific fifth.
Concordia returns to racing on Oct. 4 when it travels to Salem, Ore., for the Willamette Invitational.