The men and women’s cross country team finished their season on Saturday Nov.15 at the NCAA west regional’s at Salem, Oregon.
The men’s team placed 15 out of 17 while the women placed 10 out of 19. Freshman Jeff Lee, placed 54 overall in the men’s meet, setting the best time for the Linfield men’s team.
Freshman Kaelia Neal finished 29 overall setting the best time for the women’s team and freshman Emma Knudson finished 44 overall with the women’s second best time.
Neal is an all regional runner for finishing among the top 35 runners at the regional meet.
“The girls team did we all; we achieved both of our goals which included being top 10 at regionals,” Neal wrote in an email. “My personal goal was to be all-region (top 35).”
Though the season is over Neal is looking forward to running next season.
“I want to run every race like it is my last and push myself to be the best I can be,” Neal said.
Expectations were high for both teams. They were looking to run to the best of their abilities and that is exactly how they performed.
“I think our team competed well. I think we all raced our hearts out and gave it our all. I’m proud of how we did as a whole,” Knudson wrote in an email. “I expected it to be kind of like how conference was, but more intense definitely. I also knew it was going to be a pretty muddy course, and there were times I was slipping around and running was difficult, but the energy was great. We were, as a girls team at least, shooting to be in the top ten as a team and we got 10th so we were excited about that. At the same time, I didn’t really know what to expect, considering this is my first regional’s race. But it was great.”
Linfield was unable to send any runners to nationals, but there were other NWC runners who qualified for nationals.