Cross Country | 9/10/2016 7:49:00 PM
ELLESNBURG, Wash. (Sept. 10) – Elena Gomez finished atop the women's results and
Josh Boston finished third for the Central Washington University cross country teams in the Central Washington University Cross Country Invitational.
Both the men and women finished second behind Western Washington. The men finished just two points behind the Vikings.
Gomez topped the women's leaderboard with a time of 15:11 in the 4k. She finished 23 seconds ahead of the Vikings' Lillianna Stelling.
"Elena did a great job," CWU Head Coach
Kevin Adkisson said. "She just went out and ran and went for it. She really pushed herself and is on a mission to do some big things this season."
Alexa Shindruk came in fourth with a time of 15:47.
Delaney Clem finished eighth with a time of 16:06. Rounding out the top 10 for the women was
Ashley Mason, who crossed the finish line in 16:08.
"Alexa did some great things finishing as a top 5," Adkisson added. "Western showed how strong their pack is and it showed a lot for them. We aren't quite there after graduating so many last year and we will look to grow over the course of the season to see if we can get closer to them as it goes."
Boston led the Wildcats on the men's side with a time of 20:24 in the 6k, finishing behind Western Washington's Andrew Wise (20:19) and Matthew Lutz (20:23).
Kaleb Javier and
Nick Spencer finished behind Boston at 20:31 and 20:33, respectively.
Also in the top 10 were
Tyler Humphries (20:56),
Ron Leaf (21:01), and
Hanson Lee (21:02).
"It shows a lot from our men's squad to be right up there with Western," Adkisson said of his men's squad. "That's something we think has been growing. Kaleb and Nick are fifth-year seniors and will help put some depth in the men's front squad and that showed today. Getting three of the top five finishers is a great way to start."
The CWU Cross Country Invitational was the first meet of the season for Central Washington.
"Definitely pleased with what we saw for our first meet of the year," Adkisson noted. "It's a time to test out what everyone has been doing and it reflects their summer training more so than what we have been able to do. On the whole we saw some great efforts."
The Wildcats are back in action on Saturday (Sept. 17) at the University of Washington for their second meet of the season.
"Great day overall, always wish we could avoid the Ellensburg wind," Adkisson finished. "We look forward to great things in the coming weeks."
