NAMPA, Idaho – The Eastern Oregon University women's and men's cross country teams began their seasons Saturday at the Roger Curran Invitational.
The men's raced first on a slightly modified course just over 6000 meters. The EOU men ran well to finish fourth behind Boise State, a club team and host Northwest Nazarene.
Brian Bragg led the way for Eastern with a 10th place finish. His time was 47 second faster than his 2010 time on the course. Isaac Updike came in 21st place (20:16), he was followed closely
by Brian Nelson (23rd in 20:24). Ryan Booth ran fourth for EOU (32nd in 20:38). The next three Mountaineers crossed the line in a row, with Hans Roelle rounding out the scoring for EOU in 37th (20:49), Jeff Roy (38th in 20:50) and Gus Titus in 39th (20:58).
Also running for Eastern were Josh Wise (43rd in 21:12), Alex Martinez (47th in 21:31), Michael Wanta (51st in 21:56), Calvin Edward (61st in 22:41) and Salome Castillo (65th in 23:22). There were 80 male finishers and seven complete teams in the men's race.
“All in all the men competed well,” EOU head coach Ben Welch said. “We were pushing the middle of the race well to pass many individuals and meeting the goal of nobody goes by in the last 2000 meters quite well.”
For the women, course record holder Karlee Coffey, while hampered by a nagging hip problem, ran controlled to finish second in 14:59 over the 4000-meter plus route.
Alma Garcilazo ran a strong race to finish 15th in 15:55, with Cristal Delgado crossing the line in 23rd in 16:40. Laura Hansen came in 31st (17:09), with Christy Roe rounding out scoring in 42nd (17:45).
Freshmen Jacky Sheoships (45th in 18:07) and Kayla Christensen (48th in 18:25) completed the Mountaineer squad for the day.
As a team, EOU finished third out of five teams, only two points behind host NNU. Overall, 64 women finished the race.
The Mountaineers run next at the Eric Anderson/NCAA Div. 2 National Preview in Spokane, Wash. on Sept. 24.