MEN'S RESULTS
WOMEN'S RESULTS
LA GRANDE, Ore. – On a perfect evening just before the sun went down, the Eastern Oregon cross country teams got their seasons started with the EOU Invitational, hosted at Lane Farms on Friday.
Both teams took third place in the small meet, which featured 43 runners on the women's side and 40 on the men's.
Mirroring the national title race in November, the men ran their 8,000-meter race first. Leading for a good portion of the race, senior Alex Navarro eventually settled for sixth place behind a couple of College of Idaho and Northwest Nazarene runners. Navarro finished in 26:17.7 in his first official race since 2017 after redshirting last year.
Sophomore Brennen Lebel had a good race, taking 17th for the Mountie s in a time of 27:29.9. He was followed by fellow sophomore Braxton Wilson in 22nd (28:03.5), junior Hunter Schiess in 27th (28:19.7) and freshman Hunter Nichols (28:34.6) to wrap up the team's top-five. Sophomores Robie Swanson and Travis Running took 34th and 35th, respectively.
The women's team then ran its 5K race, finishing with 65 points. Sophomore Michelle Herbes was in the front pack all race, taking seventh overall in 19:21.1. Junior Megan Boals had a strong race of 19:45.9 to take 10th.
Sophomore Katie Jo Gebhardt placed 13th in 20:06.2. She was followed by freshman Ella Coughlan in 21st place in 20:44.2 and sophomore Molly Gulden in 20:56.5 for 23rd to complete EOU's scoring.
Also running for the Mountie women was Mackenzie Trainer in 25th (21:00.4), Melia Loe in 31st (21:46.1), Stormy Bullard in 33rd (21:52.2), Kendra Blake in 34th (22:11.1) and Alexa Jones in 39th (23:04.5).
The two teams will compete once again next week at the CCC Preview, going head to head with many teams they'll see at the conference championships in November. The race is scheduled for Friday in Cottage Grove, Oregon on the same course as the CCC Championships.
For more information on Eastern Oregon cross country, follow @EOUAthletics or visit eousports.com.
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Contact: Iain Dexter; 541-962-3946; idexter@eou.edu