Cross country finishes season strong

The NWAACC Cross Country championships on Nov. 9 turned out to be the one of the Saints’ best performances of the season as the runners gave their all and saw their hard work pay off in the year’s finale.

Lewisville Park, near Battle Ground, Wash., was the site of the final contest in which the MHCC men’s team placed sixth, three spots higher than in 2012.

The women’s squad came in seventh, after finishing sixth a year ago.

Twelve teams competed in both the men’s and women’s divisions.

For the Mt. Hood men, freshman Brandon Raleigh led the way again with a new personal best of 25:06 (minutes) for the 8,000 meters. He smashed his old mark by about 80 seconds and finished 12th out of 75 runners, only one second out of a Top 10 placement.

“A couple guys squeezed by me in the final seconds of the race, but I definitely think I could have placed 10th if I would have kicked a tiny bit harder,” Raleigh said.

Fellow freshman Taylor Hybl also got one of his best times of the year as he finished second among MHCC men at 25:37, cutting his time from the previous meet by nearly two minutes.

Another Saint who ran one his best races of the year was freshman Cody Beierle, who posted a 26:15 time to finish third for Mt. Hood.

“We had a great group of men this year. We are young and I am encouraged that we will be strong for years to come,” said head coach Matt Hart.

The women’s team also was led by freshmen.

Emily Trosino finished strong – in sixth place, overall, out of 70 women runners – with a time of 19:25, just 12 seconds behind the season-best mark she recorded in her previous meet.

Finishing second for the Saints was Haley McDonald, at 20:33, and rounding up the top three for MHCC was yet another freshman, Courtney Andre  who had one of her best races of the year, at 21:38.

The championships ended a year in which the Saints finished strong after several ups and downs. The group seemed to always stay together and got through every meet in positive fashion, Hart said.

Both the men’s and women’s teams relied on a strong core of freshmen recruited almost exclusively from Gresham-area high schools that compete in the Mt. Hood Conference.

That familiarity helped the runners, Hart said.

“Because they all knew each other previously, they all seem to be very close,” Hart said. “We had a great group that all liked each other and are welcoming of anyone, and because of their attitudes, our training and competition atmosphere were fun and supportive.”