ELLENSBURG, Wash. – The Central Washington University cross country team opens their season at home. The CWU Invitational will be held at Apple Ridge Run Cross Country Course in Yakima, Washington on Saturday.
MEET INFORMATION
CWU Invitational
Saturday | 11:00 a.m.
Apple Ridge Run Cross Country Course | Yakima, Wash.
QUOTABLE
"We're definitely looking forward to getting into the racing season here this weekend," CWU Head Coach
Kevin Adkisson said. "We have had a couple good weeks of training as we started off our season. We're pretty pleased with what we're seeing. We're coming together all right so we're very excited to see you know what we've got. We know we got a lot of work ahead towards the rest of our season. We have a good number of teams coming to the meet. It's going to be a little bigger than last year and that should make for better competition. The squad is certainly excited. All the people we were thinking would be ready to lead the team are doing well. It should be a fun opening weekend."
GNAC PRESEASON COACHES POLL
Both the men's and women's teams were picked to finish fifth place by the coaches of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
USTFCCCA WEST REGION RANKINGS
The Wildcat women rank seventh in the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Preseason West Region Poll.
LAST SEASON
Last year, the Wildcat women placed five runners inside the top-50 at the conference meet.
Nicole Soleim is expected to lead the way for the team. Soleim scarred to a sixth-place finish at last year's conference meet. Her time of 21:31.1 earned her All-GNAC honors. Soleim joined Elite 90 award winner
Alexa Shindruk at the 2018 NCAA National Championships. Soleim earned a 57th place finish with a time of 23:50.4.
Molly Mattson and
Madison Child turned heads as freshmen a season ago. The duo helped each other progress throughout the season, as both brought home a top 35 finish at the conference meet. Mattson ran the race in 22:58.1 to get 30th place, while Child finished in 34th with a time of 23:08.1.
Delaney Clem also ran a strong race for the Wildcats, crossing the line in 46th place.
The Wildcat men were chosen to repeat their 2018 performance with a fifth-place finish.
Trevor Allen took 30th at the conference meet last season. Allen ran the race in 25:56.4 and is anticipated to be the leader of the 2019 squad.
Henry Milodragovich ran the conference meet in 26:00.2 and finish a spot behind Allen. The final Wildcat inside the top 50 at the conference meet was
Rajesh Gill. Gill took 49th with a time of 26:36.9.
UP NEXT
The Wildcats travel to Monmouth, Oregon to compete in the Sundowner Invitational on Friday, Sept. 20.
