Knights Claim Title at WPC Invitational
PORTLAND, Ore - The Warner Pacific men's XC team claimed the team title at the 9th Annual WPC Invitational held at Westmoreland Park.
The skies opened up a downpour a few minutes into the men's 8k race which made for some soggy running conditions.
Unattached runner and WP asssitant coach Tahir Chakisso crossed the line first in 25:30. The first scoring runner was Caleb Goins from Corban College in 25:35 while Karim Shakalia lead the parade of Knights that claimed 6 of the top 15 scoring places. As a team Warner Pacific totalled a meet low score of 35 points to outpace conference foes Corban (43), Northwest Christian (61), Evergreen State (104), and Oregon Tech (120).
Following Shakalia across the line were Juan De La Cruz (6th, 26:49), Ephrem Mammo (8th, 27:06), Han White-Duong (12th, 27:43), Christopher Meeker (14th, 27:52), Travis Pengra (17th, 28:08), and Kevin Fleishman (24th, 29:12). "This was a terrific day for our pack," commented Head Coach Bryant Howard, "we knew we had the guys up front to make us competitive, but our 3-7 guys needed to compete well for us to get the team victory and they did that beautifully."
The Knights will travel to Corvallis next week to compete at the OSU Beaver Classic at Avery Park as a final tune-up before the Cascade Conference Championships on November 7th.