Cross country battles at Willamette Invite, teams improve among conference competitors

Natalie Kelley, Staff Writer

The Wildcat cross country team raced Saturday morning at the 42nd Annual Charles Bowles Willamette Invitational at Bush’s Pasture Park.

Individually, Adrian Clifford stood out in the men’s Cardinal 8k, finishing with a time of 26 minutes and 14.2 seconds, coming in 55th place. Three other Wildcat men also placed within the top 100 in this race.

Chris Roth took 80th place with a time of 26 minutes and 43.7 seconds, Art O’Kelly took 91st place with a time of 26:56, and Calvin Ong took 93rd place with 26:58.

Jeff Lee’s time of 27:35.6 got him 114th place, and the last spot in the scoring five for Linfield. Grant Blodgette came in 125th place with a time of 27:56.2 and Griffin Taylor came in 162nd place with a time of 31:45.7 seconds.

“I think our team is showing improvement from our last meet and we are moving up in ranking in the conference. I was impressed with Calvin Ong and Art O’Kelly’s performances, in particular breaking 27 minutes. They are looking stronger every meet. My racing has been strong over the last two meets and I’m excited to race at Mission Park in the following weeks to get a preview of the conference meet,” said Clifford.

Coach Olson also saw improvements in Ong and O’Kelly’s racing.

“Adrian Clifford has shown to be our clear number one, but it has been the noticeable improvement of Calvin Ong and Art O’Kelly that has really stood out this season on the men’s side. We will need the consistency of Chris Roth and Jeff Lee as well as newcomer Liam Pickhardt if we want to contend in the top half of the conference by the end of the season.”

Emma Knudson and Courtney Beard stood out in the women’s Cardinal 5k. Knudson finished with a time of 18 minutes and 58.8 seconds, coming in 42nd place. Beard finished with a time of 19:11.7, coming in 55th place.

Kerri Paasche also made it in the top 100, coming in 93rd place, with her time of 19:57.5. Katie Higinbotham’s time of 20:02.8 secured her 100th place. The fifth scoring Wildcat was Vera Heidmann, coming in at 104th place with her time of 20:08.4.

Linfield’s Ana Ramirez came in 148th, Rebecca DeLeon came in 149th, Maiti Hunter came in 168th and Birch Clark came in 179th.

“For the women, this was our first 5k of the season, and I was really proud of the way my teammates pushed themselves. I’m confident that we can continue to work our way up in conference. I think as a team we’re continuing to get stronger and mentally tougher as our workouts progress,” said Higinbotham.

In regards to this season as a whole, coach Blackmore says that, “In general, both teams are getting better. The most important thing is we are getting closer to the teams that are in front of us each week. As a group, everybody is running a little bit faster.”

Overall, among all of the teams competing Saturday morning, Linfield finished 14th in men’s and 15th in women’s team standings. Out of the eight conference teams competing, Linfield women came in fifth and men came in sixth.

“I’m really pleased to see what our team, as a whole, is doing. This group of student athletes really enjoys helping each other become better,” said coach Blackmore.