ELLENSBURG, Wash. – The Central Washington University Cross Country Teams opened their season hosting the CWU XC Opener on the campus of CWU late Saturday morning. Both teams finished first in the meet with two newcomers coming out on top.
Weston Breen took the top spot in the men's race with a time of 15:43.7 while
Maddy Harrison claimed the gold in the women's race with a time of 18:54.9. Both CWU teams claimed first in the meet with the men's team earning 15 total points while the women's team earned 19 total points.
QUOTING CWU HEAD CROSS COUNTRY COACH JONATHAN HILL
"Today was an awesome opener for our program and it was so great being able to open up at home. Shout out to Dennis and Andrew for helping us make this happen, Gabe and SMU for rolling with us in our inaugural CWU Opener and obviously Matt for all he put into creating this.
Our kids really embraced the opportunity to run at home. We have SO many new faces, and we are just getting to know each other, being at home we could keep things as comfortable as possible. Madeline Harrison is for real. She looked strong and composed, and in total control of her pace and therefore the race. Lilly and Payton are going to be there too, so having a top 3 like that is something we haven't seen in a while.
Katie Manly is going to be a huge player in this team's success going forward. She's made of all the right stuff. Julie is ready for a breakout as well. She had a great offseason, and it shows in her fitness and confidence.
Our men have a ton of new faces with almost our whole roster being in their 1st or 2nd year with us. We needed to replace Johan, and while that is basically impossible, we've got a group of 4 guys that would make him proud. Weston, Dina, Kellen and Ares all held the lead in the race at one point, and Luke was never outside the lead pack. Our guys ran a solo effort against a strong, experience GNAC program in SMU. They were not intimidated by NCAA competition and announced they belong at this level. It will be exciting to see what they do on bigger and bigger stages coming up.
It feels good to be 1-0."
RACE RESULTS
The Wildcat men's squad saw the crimson and black claim the top five finishes in the meet. Breen paved the way for the 'Cats and was followed by
Kellen McInelly and
Luke Hurd who finished with the times of 15:58.1 and 16:00.8, respectively. Freshmen
Ares Van Straaten and
Dima Serafimovici rounded out the top five of the meet with times of 16:06.9 and 16:19.0.
Max Hutton (7th-place, 16:48.2) and
Ethan Moore (9th-place, 17:00.2) also saw top 10 finishes.
On the women's side CWU saw nine runners finish in the top 11 of the meet led by Harrison. Kekaihulai Halpern of St. Martin's was the runner up behind Harrison with a time of 19:06.2, but the 'Cats claimed the next seven finishers in
Payton Conover (19:29.0),
Lillian Neff (19:31.3),
Katie Manly (19:38.7),
Julie Johnson (19:51.8),
Hannah Pidduck (20:15.5),
Araceli Esquivel (20:28.8), and
Helayna Bonilla (20:36.2) to round out the top-nine.
UP NEXT
CWU will travel to Colfax, Washington to race next, turning their attention to the Cougar Classic, hosted by Washington State University, on Friday, September 12 from the Colfax Golf Club with a start time set at 5:00 p.m.
