Cross Country Regional Championship

The men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled down I-205 to compete in the NWAC Southern Region Championship at Clackamas Community College last Friday.  The event was rain-soaked, but runners battled through the muddy elements in the next-to-last race of the season.

The women’s side was highlighted again by Leah Norquist, running the 5K in 20:01 and finishing sixth out of 40 runners overall. Kayla Watkins was next for the Saints at 22:12, followed by softball team recruits Hailey Valitski and Reeghan Lehnert with times of 23:42 and 25:52, respectively. Unfortunately, head coach Jim Satterfield’s women’s squad was a runner shy of the minimum five-member requirement, prohibiting the finish times from counting.  Other NWAC schools, including Rogue Community College and Clark College, ran into the same problem, lacking the bodies to officially place.

As for the men’s team, the Saints’ fastest 8K time was posted by Luke Lowe, completing the race in 27:50, good for 34th place. He was trailed by MHCC’s Jonathan Zacarius in 36th place, with a time of 28:10, then Dean Nizer, in 38th, with a 28:28, and Jacob Barnett in 43rd place with a 29:37, tying fellow Saint Jon Morrell-Salter in time. Rounding out the men’s race were Troy Ryals in 45th at 29:53, and finally, Ivan Gongora in 46th with a time of 32:03.

There’s quite the parity between the Mt. Hood men and women, with an obvious size in numbers advantage going to the men, but a top performer belonging to the women.

This regional championship will be followed up by the NWAC Championship on Saturday, Nov. 14, giving the teams a couple of weeks off to prepare. The final race occurs at Lewisville Park in Battle Ground, Wash. Lewisville is Clark County’s oldest regional park, established in the 1930s, and features 154 acres of forest and meadows and borders the scenic East Fork of the Lewis River. Just as the regional meet, the women are first to run at 11 a.m. with the men firing off at noon.