COLFAX, Wash. - The Central Washington University Cross Country Teams competed at the Cougar Classic Friday evening where the women's team placed second with 52 points and the men's team finished third with 82. Leading the way for women's squad was once again Maddy Harrison, placing sixth with a time of 17:23.4. The men's team saw Weston Breen finish with a time of 25:26.8, putting him 13th.

QUOTING CWU ASSISTANT CROSS COUNTRY COACH MATT LAYTEN:
 

"I thought the race was solid and exactly what we needed for this early point of the season. We really enjoy competing with Division I competition and this meet at Washington State is a great place to do that on a fast course. Our goal was to put together some full efforts over both races that we can take back and continue building upon over the next two months leading to the conference championships and the NCAA postseason. 

On the women's side, Maddy Harrison had an outstanding day and stuck on Washington State's pack up front. Payton Conover, Hannah Pidduck, Dawn Hulstedt, and Katie Manly had outstanding personal bests today as well. Great runs by Lily Neff and Grace Grossman as well who did a outstanding job in a small field of Division I competition. On the men's side, I was really happy with our start of the season at the 8K distance by our young group of freshmen. Weston Breen and Charlie Naught have provided great leadership to our men's program this year. I'm excited to continue building upon that over the next few weeks. 

On both sides, this is a group of fighters and every opportunity we have to refine that on the racecourse is another opportunity to prepare us for a competitive field of championship racing as we get closer to that point in the season."

RACE RESULTS:

Harrison with an impressive outing leads the women's team with a 6th place finish at a time of 17:23.4. Payton Conover was the next 'Cat to cross the line in 11th place with a time of 17:53.0 with Hannah Pidduck shortly following her in 12th place running a 18:08.6. Next up was Lillian Heff as she finished 16th and ran a time of 18:20.9. Finishing 18th with a time of 18:51.6 was Dawn Hulstedt with Katie Manly behind her in 19th running a 19:01.9 and Grace Grossman just barely behind her rounding out the top 20 with a 19.02.9. The hosting Washington State Cougars came out on top as they finished with only 15 points compared to CWU's 52 and University of Montana's 77.

The men's side was led by Weston Breen as he found himself finishing 13th running a time of 25:26.8. The second Wildcat to cross the finish line was Charlie Naught in 19th at 26:25.5 followed by Cristian Rosca in 22nd and Sylas Allen in 23rd running a 26:56.7 and a 27:26.5. Sam Wagner rounded it out for the 'Cats with a 25th place finishing with a time of 27:34.4 putting the men's team in 3rd with 82 points trailing second place Montana's 44 and the Cougars 17.

View the full meet results HERE
 
UP NEXT:

Next time you can catch the 'Cats in action will be Saturday, September 19 as they travel west to race at the Pacific Lutheran Invitational.