McMINNVILLE, Ore. – In the first of five races scheduled for the 2024 season on a balmy Mid-Willamette Valley morning, the Corban University Cross Country programs participated in the Linfield Harrier Classic at Joe Dancer Park, where the women earned an eighth-place finish and the highest team placement of the NAIA teams present, while the No. 22-ranked men's team shocked the field and placed second-overall, beating out multiple NCAA DI and DIII teams in the process. The University of Portland took the team titles in both the men's and women's races after securing multiple top ten finishes.
To view the results from today's races, click HERE.
"It is awesome to see us finally have a group of gals coming into the start of the season together," shared Warriors' assistant coach Stuart Eagon. "We put four women within 32 seconds, and once we have Judah and Abby back from injury, we will be improved even more so at our fifth spot. We will be a much better team by the end of the year thanks to this group of young women. Great job by all the ladies today!"
With the program's lone senior out for their season opener, the youthful Warrior women's team sent six underclassmen to McMinnville and showed that their added depth this past summer was exactly what they needed to remain competitive within the Pacific Northwest and Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC).
Multi-sport athlete and cross country freshman Shaelee Killorn traded her soccer cleats for spikes and became the top finisher for Corban this morning on the women's side, placing 37th overall and clocked the only sub-15 4k time at 15:45.93. Freshman Carrie Babcock was the next finisher in 47th at 16:01.41, followed by sophomore Abigail Scott in 49th who ran a 16:05.26.
Back-to-back freshmen rounded out the top five finishers for the Warriors today, with Myana Stock (16:17.56) and Makayla Rose (17:37.05) in 55th and 80th, respectively. Sophomore Johnna Waddell was the final member of the team to cross the finish line this morning in 88th overall and clocked in at 18:14.62.
"The guys ran well today and made it a great start to the season," explained Coach Eagon. "We placed even better than last year and were about 80 seconds faster as a team, about 16 seconds a runner, for our average within our top five guys. I think we are set up very well to place highly at the national meet should we continue the momentum we began today. There is a lot of fitness still to be gained and we are starting things off well."
The men's team had eight representatives hit the course this morning with an aggressive field in front of them, most notably DI programs of Portland, Portland State University, and DIII powerhouse George Fox University. However, four top twenty placements allowed the team to gradually rise in the team rankings over the course of the 6k race, eventually taking the runner-up team result by five points over DIII Lewis & Clark College.
Sophomore Jack Gladfelter continued the success he had in the CCC and NAIA postseason meets last season with a seventh place finish this morning at 18:28.13, representing the top NAIA finisher and the fastest 6k time in Corban men's cross country history. Gladfelter bested Warrior legend Robert Swoboda's 18:29.0 from last year's Harrier Classic by less than a second to make his mark on the program in just the first race of 2024.
Junior Zander Moha continually ran faster as each of the three checkpoints passed, allowing him to sneak into the top ten and tenth overall and just nine seconds behind Gladfelter with an 18:37.15 final mark. Freshman Bennet Mason had a collegiate opener for the ages, as he finished in 17th and clocked a 19:05.09 for the third highest finish among Corban student-athletes.
Senior Forrest Cooley (19:06.94) and sophomore Braydon Lee (19:23.35) rounded out the top five placements in 18th and 29th to earn the Warriors a runner-up team finish, moving from fourth, to third, to second over the 2k, 4k, and 6k markers. Junior Grant Anderson (20:57.19), junior Nathan Pfaff (21:17.85), and freshman Josiah Ziesemer all clinched top 100 finishes to close out the 141-man competition for Corban.
The Corban cross country program's will next be in action on September 20th for the CCC Preview meet, which will be hosted by Multnomah at the Rose City Golf Club with a 9am anticipated start time.
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