SALEM, Ore. – Northwest got its first look at Cascade Collegiate Conference competitors Saturday and had a respectable showing at the Charles Bowles Invitational.
The men's team placed sixth with 194 points and a team time of 2:10.57 on the eight-kilometer course. The Eagles were third among five Cascade Collegiate Conference teams.
Micah Murphy placed 20th overall for 13 points in 25:05. To pace the Eagles. Dawson Andrews finished in 25:07, for 15th. Cameron Nielsen placed 36th at 25:34, Brennan Koontz completed the course in 27:25 for 100th and Craig Lambert rounded out the scoring in 116th at 27:42.
Jack Kopatich placed 120th in 27:50 and Jarron Ransford finished 143rd at 28:49.
"It was a good day, with some big highlights," said NU Head Coach Mark Mandi. "On the men's side, I thought we had a strong performance from Micah, Dawson, and Cam who led the guys well up front of the race. Jack and Scott had massive PRs which were just set at last week's race. It's really starting to come together for our guys but we still have work to do these next five weeks. We definitely have some work to do with closing our gaps from 1-5 but I think we're close to figuring that out."
Also for the Eagles, Brady Elliott finished in 29:40, Ryan Slupski in 31:42, Trevor Blair in 31:44, Braiden Scott in 32:16, and Thomas Susana in 32:35.
Portland won with 29 points, followed by Eastern Oregon at 49 and Oregon Tech at 118. Bushnell finished 13th at 355 and Corban 14th at 368. The race included 17 teams and 217 runners.
Kaylea Hartman led the NU women in 30th place at 18:59.3 in the six-kilometer race. Anya Bohuta was 104th at 21:25, Elizabeth Behnke took 141st at 23:39, and Felicia Franco was 156th at 29:25.
"On our women's side, everyone looked much better and more comfortable racing compared to last week," Mandi said. "We've been keeping training and races controlled for Kaylea for quite a while but today she had the green light to push the pace a bit more and she looked really great doing that. Once we race our full women's team in a couple of weeks I think it's going to be even better for our group!"
Northwest returns to action in two weeks, running in the Lewis & Clark Invite in Portland on Oct. 15.