RESULTS
COLFAX, Wash. – Tristin O'Brien had the best race of his career and led the No. 15 LC State Men's Cross Country team at the Cougar Classic in Colfax on Friday. The Warriors placed seventh as a team in the NCAA Division I-heavy race and were led by five seniors.
"I feel pretty good about today's results," coach Mike Collins said. "We started this season trying to back off early in order to build our intensity as we go, so we definitely knew going in that we were not going to perform today at the level we performed last year, so we've got to make sure that we are setting the expectations at the level that we should. Despite that, I thought we had a really nice day, especially Damaris."
O'Brien was the first Warrior to cross the line and was just one second off his personal best. The senior placed 60
th in the field of more than 120 with a time of 26:03.9. Friday was the first time O'Brien led LC State in a race.
"Or men's race I thought went extremely well," Collins said. "We had four guys packed super tight together. Tristin had a great day moving forward as he went. It was probably the best race he's had in his career, so nice to see."
Alexander Fry was the second LC State runner for the second straight race and placed 63
rd with a time of 26:06.6. Connor Alexander was not far behind in 67
th (26:19.2) and Kobe Wessels was 69
th (26:22.8).
Senior Ben Vernon rounded out the top five in 85
th place on a time of 27:04.7.
Freshmen Malachi Walsh and Dawson Welliver finished 98
th and 121
st, respectively, with times of 27:40.7 and 29:18.3. Jace Joslyn was 124
th (31:25.9).
"Our goal today with both teams was to go through the first 800-1000m at a pace that was well below what were used to doing in order to try to stay under control, and then to work our way back through the field," Collins explained. "I think if you look at both the men's and women's races, you will see almost every single one of our runners did that, which is very exciting because as we get in to races with more of the teams from our conference we can get into that pattern and to that mentality of being a hunter."
UP NEXT
LC State Cross Country is back in action at the Western Washington Invitational in Bellingham, Wash., on Sept. 26.
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