WOMEN'S RESULTS
SALEM, Ore. – The Eastern Oregon University women's cross country team carded a seventh-place finish at the 2015 Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) Championships, as sophomore McKenzie Evans finished first on the squad and 25th overall at the race.
"Our youth and inexperience in such a high-caliber championship race showed," said head cross country coach Ben Welch. "While they raced very well late in the race and did a great job of working together, there was a moment early in the race where they missed a major fundamental shift in the pack dynamics and got left behind and had to play catch up."
Overall, the Navy and Gold tallied 158 points to finish ahead of Warner Pacific. No. 1 Northwest Christian brought home the women's title, as each of the Beacons' top five runners finished in the top 10.
Evans crossed the finish line at the 19:48.2 mark, just five seconds shy of setting a season-best mark. Freshman Amanda Welch finished second on the squad and 28th overall with a time of 19:57.0, while freshman Caitlyn Rowe (20:04.1) took 30th.
"McKenzie Evans and Caitlyn Rowe turned in extremely strong performances considering they are both still coming off injuries and are not 100 percent yet," said Welch.
Freshman Stormy Bullard (20:10.4) and senior Kailey Wilson (21:16.5) rounded out the scoring for EOU, as they took 33rd and 42nd, respectively.
"While the seventh-place finish was not what we were hoping for, this is a quality group of young ladies who will undoubtedly learn from the experience and be stronger for it in the future," said Welch.
Highlights courtesy of CorbanWarriors.com.
