Southern Region meet turns Saints focus to NWAACCs

The performances of sophomores Gabriela Diaz and Chris Newell were the highlights of last Saturday’s Southern Region Championship meet, placing 8th and 11th, respectively.

The meet, the season’s last before the NWAACC championship meet, was held at Clackamas Community College.

Conditions were fair, with some early morning drizzle softening up the flat course before the women’s 5K and the men’s 8K races.

But with the addition of long stretches of gravel, the course was not as tame as it seemed, which left many runners struggling.

Head cross country coach Matt Hart said that although he felt the team performed adequately, PRs were scarce and he feels the team was capable of more.

“We didn’t perform as well as we could have,” he said. “But we’re still running faster this year than last year. So there’s some good and there’s some bad.

“I think what’s happening is that their stress levels are too high,” he said, adding that they think too much about placement instead of focusing on the race.

“They need to compete more aggressively,” he said.
“There were key points where they (athletes) admitted they could have done better,” he said.

Freshman Kyle Williams, who placed 22nd, said, “I’m satisfied with my performance. I didn’t run as fast as I wanted, but no race is perfect.”

The women’s team placed third at the meet (of three teams) with sophomore Diaz placing highest on the team, breaking into the top 10 at eighth place (19:51), followed by freshman Christa Collmer, 11th (20:18) and sophomores Jennifer Tina, 16th (21:04) Andrea Beseda, 18th (21:33). Then came freshmen Laura Knudson, 22nd (24:26), Molly Scoles, 23rd (24:30), Mariah Crumpler, 24th (24:36), Katie Brokaw, 25th (24:55), and Bianca Jimenez, 26th place (24:55).

On the men’s side, sophomore Newell once again led the pack, placing 11th overall (27:01), with sophomore Jonathon Butcher not too far behind in 17th (27:55). They followed by freshman Kyle Williams, 22nd (28:31), sophomores Donnie Coulson, 23rd (28:31.27), Wes Hughes, 26th (28:47), and freshmen Brian Hoglund, 34th (31:05), and Robert Hanke, 37th (33:32).

With the Southern Region meet behind them, the cross country team now has one more bye week to prepare before they head to Everett, Wash., for the NWAACC championship meet, to be held Nov. 12 at Everett Community College on the Legion Memorial Golf Course.

Asked whether they’ll take it easy in the bye week and rest up or go full throttle, Hart said, “We’ve still got to get fit and build up speed. I’m hoping we stay healthy, too,” he said.

Williams said, “It’s going to be a hard week of training, focusing on the NWAACC meet.”

The NWAACC course is familiar to the runners, who raced on it in October.
“(The team) really likes the NWAACC course.” It’s not a fast course, but not a slow course,” said Hart.

“Now when they go into the meet, that’s already a plus,” he said.
As for his goals at NWAACCs, Williams said, “I want to PR and go under (28 minutes in the 8K).”

Asked what he needs to do to reach his goal, he said, “I’ll need to work the last few miles hard and be competitive.”

Hart, when asked the same of his team, restated his emphasis on speed for next week’s training and learning to compete effectively.

“There’s lots of room for improvement and we have a lot of talent,” he said. “I’m just hoping we use that talent.”