MEN’S TEAM SCORES – 1. Eastern Oregon 17, 2. Southern Oregon 59, 3. Oregon Tech 63, 4. Bushnell 104, 5. Corban 125
COMPLETE MEET RESULTS
TALENT – The No. 13-ranked Eastern Oregon men’s cross country team flirted with a perfect score, cruising to a win Friday morning at the Cascade Conference Preview Meet behind individual champion Justin Ash.
Ash, a sophomore from Baker City, led wire-to-wire and cleared the 43-person field by nearly 20 seconds in completing the 8,000-meter race at Clover Road Field in 25:30.2. The Mountaineers occupied five of the top-six spots to compile 17 points, comfortably beating second-place and 10th-ranked Southern Oregon’s 59.
EOU’s Hunter Nichols (25:49.6) was the runner-up and Cristian Mendoza (25:51.7) placed third.
SOU’s Jensen Salvatori broke up the perfect score by leading the Raiders in fourth place with a time of 25:59.4. Zackary Alexander (26:18.7) took eighth and returning All-American Isaac Fernandez (26:33.3) was 11th.
The race comprised half of the conference, which will converge in full at the same site for the CCC Championships on Nov. 4. Seven runners for the Mountaineers – who finished sixth in the team standings at last year’s CCC final meet – were among the top-13. Fifth-place Winston Telford (26:03.6) and sixth-place Travis Running (26:08.3) were their fourth and fifth scorers.
Oregon Tech claimed third in the standings with 63 points, paced by seventh-place Nick McMillen (26:10.4) and 12th-place Jonah Hartline (26:40.7).
Alec Carne (27:00.5), the 14th finisher, led fourth-place Bushnell (104), and Zander Moha (28:11.0) was Corban’s top placer in 23rd.