MONMOUTH, Ore.- The Central Washington University cross country teams delivered impressive performances at the NCAA West Regional Championships on Saturday afternoon.
Luke Hurd paced the Wildcats, placing 25th with a personal-record time of 30:29.07 and earning All-Region honors.
RACE RESULTS
Kellen McInelly placed 47th with a time of 31:15.75, while
Charles Naught finished 74th in 31:58.70, setting a new personal record.
Dima Serafimovici followed in 78th with a time of 32:04.51, and
Ares Van Straaten was close behind in 80th at 32:05.36.
On the women's side,
Maddy Harrison led the Wildcats with a 28th-place finish, recording a personal-best time of 21:18.08.
Payton Conover was next across the line for CWU, placing 56th in 21:47.50, also a personal record.
Lillian Neff finished 74th in 22:00.84, earning another PR for the Wildcats, while
Katie Manly (76th, 22:04.32) and
Hannah Pidduck (78th, 22:05.18) rounded out a strong team performance.
QUOTING ASSISTANT COACH MATT LAYTEN
"Proud of both our squads this weekend at NCAA Regionals! We felt that our best race was still ahead of us and we wanted to make that a reality at the NCAA Regional meet amongst our counterparts from the West. We went into the weekend feeling that Top 10 finishes was a realistic goal for the weekend for both groups.
The ladies started off strong with another outstanding effort by freshman
Maddy Harrison, which we believe was one of the fastest 6K marks ever recorded by a CWU freshman woman. What made a huge difference today was the fact that our team ran as a unit in the 2 through 5 slots.
Payton Conover took our group with Lily Neff,
Katie Manly, and
Hannah Pidduck through the race and they wouldn't be separated through 3K. Our time spread from 1 through 5 was one of the smallest in the region (47 seconds) with a Top 5 that only has 1 upperclassman on it. We just missed the Top 10 by 2 points but over the last 3 years we've made an outstanding climb from the bottom of the region to now in the conversation for a top 10 spot. I'm proud of these ladies and excited about what the future brings as they continue to redefine what it means to be a CWU cross country runner. Our region earned 5 qualifying spots to nationals as a team so the next few years will be exciting as we try to make the jump into that range from our strong finish of 11th this year.
Our guys had a resilient and outstanding day of their own. They rose to the occasion by bouncing back from the conference meet and re-establishing themselves as a young group to watch out for in the near future.
Luke Hurd had his best collegiate race every today by running himself into the Top 25 and earning All-NCAA West Region honors, making it the 3
rd year in a row for CWU Cross Country men earning All-Region Honors.
Kellen McInelly, Charlie Naught, Ares van Straaten, and
Dima Serafimovici ran tough through the whole 10K to secure the top-10 spot for our guys. That makes it 2 years in a row for our guys finishing in the top 10 in the region, which makes this the first time this has happened since CWU moved into the NCAA in the early 2000s. These guys are tough, resilient, and won't back down from challenges. With these guys, I know our future is strong as we continue to move up a very tough and competitive region and into contention for NCAA team qualification.
I'm proud of this group with our best combined team finish since 2018. This young group wants to be great and wants to continue working hard. We want to be a program that has both teams make the national championship meet year in and year out, and this year we took a huge step closer towards making that a reality in coming seasons."
UP NEXT
The Wildcats now turn their attention to the NCAA Championships, set for Saturday, November 22, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, at the Wayne E. Dannehl National Cross Country Course.
