CU's Alice Taylor finished second overall to lead the Cavaliers on Saturday.
CU's Alice Taylor Second at Pioneer Open
ESTACADA, Ore.—Sophomore Alice Taylor and senior Martin Romero-Clark each placed inside the top five to lead Concordia in their season-opening competition at the
Lewis & Clark Pioneer Open held at McIver State Park on Saturday.
The Concordia women placed fifth out of 11 teams with 120 points while the Cavalier men came in third place with 77 points.
Whitman took the women’s title with a meet-low 35 points while the host Pioneers placed second with 60. Northwest Christian edged CU for the best showing among Cascade Collegiate Conference teams with 113 points for fourth place. Corban finished eighth with 238 points.
Western Oregon took the men’s title with 51 points to Linfield’s 71 in a runner-up performance. Northwest Christian and Corban placed seventh and eighth, respectively, with the Beacons tallying a 206-point sum to 216 for the Warriors.
“We didn’t run everyone on either side so we didn’t perform what we will expect, but we had some good performances individually today,” CU head coach Randy Dalzell said. “We will see how the team scores come in as in a few weeks when we get our teams to full strength.”
Taylor (Auckland, New Zealand) placed second overall among 110 competitors as she crossed the line in 22 minutes, 33.60 seconds after covering the 6,000-meter course. Linfield’s Marci Klimek won convincingly with a 22:17.50.
Samantha Robert (Middleton, Idaho) paced her way to CU’s No. 2 runner with a 24:02.10 for 18th place. Lauren Moran (Lake Stevens, Wash.) cracked the top 25 with a 24:19.70 in 23rd place.
Rounding out the CU scoring were Junia Limage (Vancouver, Wash.) in 49th place with a 25:47.50 and Maggie Pesanti (Missoula, Mont.) in 53rd with a 25:55.80.
On the men’s side, the Cavaliers placed four runners inside the top 25 with Romero-Clark
(Portland, Ore.) crossing in fifth place and teammate Jessy Brown (Gresham, Ore.) close behind in seventh. Romero-Clark toured the 8,000-meter layout in 26:08.40 and Brown finished in 26:09.70.
An NAIA All-American a year ago, Charles Cummings (Yakima, Wash.) finished with a 26:40.10 to finish in 16th place. Dylan Zitzer (Dillon, Mont.) came in as CU’s fourth runner with a 24th-place performance with a 26:58.30.
Concordia returns to action on Sept. 19 when it competes at the Northwest Christian Invite on Sept. 19.