Knights Place 2nd at WPC Invite
PORTLAND, Ore. - The Knight women's XC team place 2nd at the 9th Annual WPC Invitational held at Westmoreland Park.
With the weather pleasant and cool for the women's 5k race, WPC's Kayla Perry took the individual title in 18:55 for her first collegiate victory. The Beacons' Stephanie Hescock and Brittany Arch were right behind in 2nd and 3rd, leading NCU to a meet-low team score of 31 points. NCU was followed by Warner Pacific (61), Corban College (64), Oregon Tech (69), and Evergreen State (122).
Oregon Tech's Rachel Novel got out aggressively in the first kilometer to set the pace and separated from the chase pack consisting of Perry, Ballard, Arch (NCU) and Hescock (NCU). Following closely to her pre-race plan to remain patient in the early portion of the race, Perry was able to bridge across to the solo leader during the middle portion of the race before making a strong attack in the final 2k to seal the victory.
Head Coach Bryant Howard noted the growth and maturity that Perry has shown throughout the season is paying dividends, adding, "Kayla is learning how to compete at the college level while also adapting to a training system that is quite a bit different than what she worked under in high school and that takes a lot of patience and trust. Her success is a tribute to what a remarkable athlete and person that she is."
In addition to Perry, scoring for the Knights were Leah Ballard (6th, 19:36), Dominga Arzate (16th, 20:55), Katt Korpella (19th, 21:40), Kayla Winkle (22nd, 21:57), and Krystal Estrella (31st, 23:56). "We had several girls not feeling 100% out there today. I was really proud of how they competed against some very talented women in this race", Howard said.
The Knights travel to Corvallis next week to compete in the OSU Beaver Classic at Avery Park as a final tune-up for the Cascade Conference Championships on November 7th.