LEWISTON, Idaho – Conditions on the LC State Cross Country Trail were less than ideal for Friday’s LC State Winter Invitational, but that did not stop Warrior Cross Country from dominating the meet. On a course covered in snow with the temperature hovering around 20 degrees, Cole Olsen led the Warrior men to their second straight team win with his second consecutive individual first-place finish (23 points). Emily Adams led the LC women to victory (28 points) with a third-place finish.
Conference opponents Eastern Oregon and Northwest University were among the field of racers that battled the below freezing, snowy conditions in the Lewiston orchards.
“We woke up this morning to a white world and whether it’s fortunate or unfortunate, our sport goes no matter what,” Head Coach Mike Collins said. “There are very few things that keep us from racing so, despite the conditions, we came out with a good attitude today ready to race. In some ways it might have helped to be a bit of distraction, something new and different.
“In all my years of coaching, this will be my second race in the snow and the very first race was my first national championship meet, so it’s been almost 25 years since we’ve raced in the snow,” Collins recalled. “I thought we ran well today and when we come out here on good conditions with more teams and deeper competition, I think we’ll be even better.”
THE WOMEN
The LC State women had five runners in the top ten and packed up well for a majority of the race. This played a major role in the first-place finish for the team. Adams had a close race in the final stretch of the course, finishing third and breaking 19 with a time of 18:50. Freshman Geraldin Correa was just behind, placing fourth with a time of 19:02, and sophomore Maja Plaznik followed a second behind and finished fifth (19:03). Rylee Brown came in seventh overall with a time of 19:11, and Callie Johnson was the fifth Warrior to place in the top ten, coming in ninth (19:40).
“I thought it was a great race. It was exciting to get some revenge from the last meet,” Adams said. “Individually, I stayed strong, I had teammates there to push me when I thought I was going to be weak and using each other throughout the race kept everyone confident and strong. We ran well, considering our placing and comparing that to last meet. Overall, it was a great day and I’m excited to see where we go for indoor track and our next home meet in two weeks.”
Brooklyn Shell ran her first race in over a year due to injury and placed 13th for the Warriors (20:18). Freshman Abigail Gorton was just behind her in 14th with a time of 20:20. Sophomores Kelsey Henry and Carli Jones finished in 17th (20:30) and 19th (20:36), respectively. Ciera Bailey was 21st (20:48) and Abigail Peightal ran a time of 21:10 to finish 23rd.
“A significant improvement today with our women. I wouldn’t say we ran poorly two weeks ago in Oregon, but we definitely had to have some improvement and our goal of going to nationals is very much about a team race for us and keeping our gaps down,” Collins said. “We did a much better job of that today, and obviously having Callie in the lineup today makes a difference because we didn’t have her last meet. Emily finishing as strongly as she did today makes a huge difference, but I think in general, other than a couple things here and there, we did a much better job of keeping each other close and finishing. That’s where our success is going to be, it’s going to be about good pack running and racing, and I think today was a nice step in that direction.”
THE MEN
The Warrior men added another win to the season with five warriors in the top ten as well. Top finisher Olsen looked strong with a large lead the entire race, before he finished with a time of 24:01. Clayton VanDyke earned a second-place finish with a 25:28, followed by Chase Borrow in fourth (25:41). Dillion Dawson ran a 26:21 to place seventh and freshman Andrew Larson came in ninth at 26:30. Connor Turpin followed Larson, rounding out the top ten and finishing with a 26:43.
Freshmen Carter Gordon and David Phillis placed 13th (27:29) and 14th (27:44), respectively, and Josh Lay took 16th with a time of 28:07. Alejandro Martinez finished 20th (29:07), followed by Colton Smith in 23
rd (29:44). Brady Nelson came in 24th (30:38) and James Magill finished 26th (33:05).
“The men’s race was more strung out than the women’s,” Collins said. “There was no pack up in the front, it was split in groups here and there, which can make it tough to run and to challenge yourself to race better. Everybody needs somebody or something to bring out the best in them and today without having someone to run against, I think some of our guys in the middle of that pack had it a bit tougher. We definitely have got to get better and if the men want to return to the podium and bring home a trophy, we’ve got to do better than what we did today, but we are just getting going. We have plenty of time to get better and bridge those gaps up and if we do that, we are really good.”
The Warriors return to action on their home course when they host the LC State Winter Invitational 2 on Feb. 26, with races being a 1 p.m. for the men and 2 p.m. for the women. The meet will be the last competition before hosting the Cascade Conference Championships on Mar. 26.