Cindy Nguyen – For the Review. Senior Marci Klimek made history Oct. 31, becoming the first Linfield woman to capture a Northwest Conference individual championship in cross country. Her first-place position and time of 21 minutes, 50 seconds on the 6-kilometer race earned the Linfield team its highest conference standing in more than a decade.
The three-year letter winner has already set a Linfield 6K distance record at the 2008 NCAA Championships and holds the highest record finish — 45th place — by a Linfield woman in an NCAA meet.
Other notable performances were also made at the championship, which took place in McIver State Park in Oregon City, Ore.
“I am really pleased with how the race turned out; [Klimek] did awesome,” senior Frances Corcoran, who placed in the top 25 at the championship, said.
Linfield finished third overall, an accomplishment not seen since 1998. Four ’Cats placed in the top 25: Corcoran, 23:11, and sophomore Gretchen George, 23:35. In the men’s division, senior Shawn Fisher finished in 25:47, and senior Chris McIsaac ran the course in 25:53.
“There’s room for improvement, but we ran a pretty good race,” McIsaac, who ran his fastest conference time, said.
The race concluded with University of Puget Sound senior Francis Reynolds winning his second NWC individual crown in the 8K men’s race with a time of 25 minutes flat. Junior Dana Misterek of Whitworth University took second place in the women’s division with a time of 22:12.
The top seven finishers of the championships earned all-NWC honors while those who finished between eighth and 14th were named second-team all NWC.
The Wildcats head to Claremont, Calif., on Nov. 14 for the NCAA III Regional Championships. They will then travel to Cleveland, Ohio, for the NCAA Division III National Championships on Nov. 21.