Meet Results: Men | Women
MISSOULA, Mont. (Oct. 4) -- Junior Rudy Spencer (Liberty Lake/Central Valley HS) led the Central Washington University men for the fourth time in as many meets, and sophomore Dani Eggleston (Longview/R.A. Long HS) edged teammate Connie Morgan (Hoquiam) for the top women's finish at the UM Open cross country meet in Missoula, Mont., on Friday morning.
The CWU men and women both finished fourth of six teams in the meet. The Wildcats were the lone school from outside the state of Montana to compete in the meet, as Division I schools Montana and Montana State also participated, as did GNAC foe Montana State Billings and NAIA members Carroll and Rocky Mountain.
Montana State cruised to both team titles, scoring five of the top six individual finishes in the men's race while posting four top-five finishes on the women's side.
"It was a good day for us overall," CWU head coach
Kevin Adkisson said. "It was a pretty tough course (running at a higher altitude), but I'm pretty proud of what we did."
Spencer finished 19th overall in the eight-kilometer race with a time of 26:45, while senior Nathan Minor (Mount Vernon), freshman Tomislav Smith (Mukilteo/Kamiak HS), and senior John Wojtech (Bremerton/Olympic HS) were also top-30 finishers who had times less than a half-minute behind Spencer. Sophomore Nick Spencer (Tacoma/Aberdeen HS) was the Wildcats' fifth-place scorer with a 36th-place finish overall in a time of 27:26.
"I was really pleased with our men's results," Adkisson continued. "We were able to compete extremely well with (regionally-ranked) Montana State Billings, and it's very encouraging to see our scores and times closer together between our first- and fifth-place runners. It's definitely what we needed to see as we progress towards the championships later this month."
Eggleston beat out Morgan by just one second in the women's race, placing 12th overall in a time of 22:47. Morgan crossed in 22:48, but the Wildcats' next finisher was junior Lacey Wagner (Lake Stevens) in 32nd place at 24:09. CWU had a total of six top-40 finishers, though, as sophomore Danielle Maldonado (Spokane/Mead HS), sophomore Megan Rogers (Covington/Kentlake HS), and freshman Hannah Dowdell (Everett/Cascade HS) placed 35th, 37th, and 38th, respectively.
"Dani had probably her best race of the year," Adkisson proclaimed. "She and Connie ran together the whole way and worked together well, posting some very good times. We came very close to finishing ahead of a nationally-ranked NAIA program (Carroll), which was good to see for us as a squad."
CWU will have one more meet prior to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships, with that taking place next Saturday (Oct. 12) at the Western Washington University Invitational in Bellingham. The GNAC Championships are Oct. 26 at Monmouth, Ore.
