Multnomah's Leah Norquist placed 56th in the Gold 5K race at the Charles Bowles Invitational Saturday in Salem, leading the Lions to 14th in the event.
CHARLES BOWLES INVITATIONAL: Lions Make Great Strides in Gold 5K at Willamette Meet
SALEM, Ore. – With
Leah Norquist leading the way, the improving Multnomah University Lions finished 14
th out of 17 team in the 43
rd Charles Bowles Invitational women's cross country 5K race for NAIA, junior college, Canadian and unattached runners hosted by Willamette University Saturday morning here at Bush's Pasture Park.
Norquist posted a time of 20:18.7, finishing 56
th overall out of 140 runners and 52
nd for team scoring. Second for the Lions was
Natasha Jensen, who placed 82
nd overall and 74
th for team scoring. Close together were
Ashley Hauger (21:18.0, 94
th / 81
st) and
Sarah Carrier (21:22.4, 96
th / 82
nd). Rounding out the scoring for Multnomah was
Moriah Paterson (21:49.6, 107
th / 91
st).
The University of Victoria won the race with 44 points to 66 for the University of British Columbia. Individual honors went to Alison Hooper of Victoria, who ran a 17:34.1, while Madelyn Brunt of British Columbia was second in 17:48.9.
Quoting Coach Corey Mehl: "We had our best pack yet. The gap between our top runner and our fifth was only 91 seconds. It's awesome to see them run along one another … Leah improved by nearly 20 seconds from last week to lead the charge. Ashley dropped the hammer and improved over 30 seconds in only her second collegiate race. Sarah, a senior, ran her collegiate best. Moriah continues her incredible improvement from being a walk-on two years ago with a 10-second all-time PR … I really challenged both teams (men and women) to get out hard and fast during the first mile today, and every single runner responded accordingly and set themselves up for a great race. We are at the halfway point of our season and I'm super encouraged by our progress so far."
Next: Multnomah will compete in the Wes Cook Invitational hosted by George Fox University at Willamette Mission State Park in Brooks, Ore., on Saturday, Oct. 14. The first race is scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m.