Men's Results
Women's Results
BELLINGHAM (Oct. 8) -- Sophomore Nathan Minor (Mount Vernon) finished in 25th place overall, and freshman teammate Ryan Thompson (Edmonds/Edmonds-Woodway HS) was 41st, helping the Central Washington University men's cross country team finish eighth overall at the 37th annual Western Classic Invitational at East Lake Padden Park on Saturday.
The CWU women finished ninth in the team competition, and were led by sophomore Connie Morgan (Hoquiam) in 55th place overall in the six-kilometer race.
For the CWU men, the Wildcats competed without two of their top performers -- seniors Manuel Santos (Yakima/A.C. Davis HS) and Scott Power (Burlington/Burlington-Edison HS) -- due to injury, costing CWU some potential team points. The Wildcats finished ahead of three other teams in the team scoring, totaling 227 points. Great Northwest Athletic Conference rival Alaska Anchorage won the meet with 33 points, followed closely by the University of Victoria (B.C.).
"We were missing one of our top runners on both sides, so team-wise I think we suffered a little bit," CWU head coach
Kevin Adkisson said. "We certainly missed Manuel, but we weren't that far off Simon Fraser (in the team scoring) today."
Minor finished the 10-kilometer men's race in a time of 32 minutes, 54 seconds, giving him one of Central's top two individual finishes for the fourth time in as many meets.
"Nate (Minor) had another great race," Adkisson said. "His finish was one of the highest we have had in this meet in a long time."
On the women's side, Morgan led the way for the fourth time this season, finishing with a time of 24:36 over six kilometers. Freshman Chelsea Dowdell (Everett) was Central's second-place finisher, crossing 76th overall with a time of 25:14.
"Connie continues to do well," Adkisson explained. "She is coming off a redshirt year, and she had never competed in cross country in high school, so she is still learning the game really. This was her first-ever 6K race."
Central Washington will have one more meet prior to the 11th annual Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships, which are Oct. 22 in Yakima. The Wildcats will head to the PLU Invitational in Tacoma next Saturday (Oct. 15).
