Noah Dantes Jack Kuyper
Managing editor Sports editor
ngdantes@willamette.edu jlkuyper@willamette.edu
Willamette University’s women’s and men’s cross country teams placed third and sixth in their respective races at the Ash Creek Invitational this past Friday, Sept. 6. Over 100 runners took part in each race. 12 schools took part in the women’s race, while 15 took part in the men’s race. Senior Michael Montague led the men with an 11th place finish, while first-year Emelia Sherman led the women with a 21st place finish. The University of Oregon won both races with a score of 16 in the women’s event and a perfect score of 15 in the men’s.
The overall score for a team is calculated by adding the team’s runners’ placings together. For example, since Montague finished in 11th place, he earned Willamette 11 points. Since the University of Oregon had the least amount of points in both competitions, they won both.
In the women’s race, Western Oregon University claimed second place with a score of 90. Willamette finished third with 117 points, significantly lower than the fourth place finisher, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Susan Ejore of the University of Oregon finished first with a time of 14:27.4. The University of Oregon would have achieved a perfect score if it had not been for runner Anika Rasubula of Northwest Christian University, who finished fifth at 15:13.6. Sherman, finishing at 16:21, was quickly followed by four more WU runners: first-year April Holland at 16:24.2, first-year Sam Smith at 16:24.4, sophomore Audrey Piacsek at 16:25.8 and first-year Eva Higgens at 16:29.6. All of the Bearcat runners finished the race between the 16th and 19th-minute mark, showing a strong team performance across the board.
The University of Oregon achieved a perfect score in the men’s race, with their seven runners finishing first through seventh place. Lucky Schreiner won the men’s race with a time of 17:52.3, finishing just in front of teammate Jackson Mastler at 17:52.9. Montague of Willamette finished at 18:42.6, just ten seconds behind Austin Tamagno of the University of Oregon. First-year Gabriel Regimbal took the second highest standing for WU’s men’s team, finishing in 37th place at 19:53.0, and first-year Ronnie Davis wasn’t far behind him, finishing 42nd with a time of 20:07.6. Willamette scored 192 points overall.
Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams will be competing again on Friday, Sept. 20, at the Sundown Invitational, hosted again by Western Oregon University at the Ash Creek Preserve. The first race is set to begin at 5 p.m.
Comments