Nov. 6, 2007

Female Harriers To Compete at the West Regional Championships

THIS WEEK: The Pacific Lutheran women’s cross country team travels to McIver State Park in Estacada, Oregon to compete in the NCAA Division III West Region Championships on Saturday. Race time is set for 11 a.m.

MEET PREVIEW: Willamette has won five region championships in a row and will be challenging for the title again. The Bearcats captured the Northwest Conference championship with Sarah Zerzan and Maddie Coffman finishing 1-2 in the race. Zerzan, the defending national champion, has won the region race the last two years. If Willamette’s top five can stay close to their front runners, the Bearcats will be tough to beat. Puget Sound was runner-up to Willamette in the NWC with runners in the 4-5-6 positions, but had a gap to their fifth runner which was the same situation for Lewis & Clark after their #3 and #7 placers. Colorado College, runner-up in their SCAC championship, had a very tight pack and Occidental, the SCIAC champions, looked very similar. Whitman had a tight pack at the NWC, but with their first runner placing 16th overall, they may have to move forward as a group to challenge the front teams.

YOUNG GUNS: PLU heads into the meet with a young squad. Corrine Gogert has been the top runner at four of the six meets this season. The freshman from Arlington set a new school record for the 6k at the PLU Invitational when she ran 22:36, only to break it the two weeks later at the Beaver Classic when she ran 22:35. The two meets Gogert wasn’t the top Lute sophomore Katie Choate lead the pack. Choate ran a second off her lifetime best at the conference meet and is known to race well at the end of the season. Freshman Mary Wuest has placed in the top five for the Lutes at every meet and has shown great improvement as the season progressed. The two veterans on the team are junior Lexie Miller and senior Lauren McDonald. Miller ran a lifetime best at the Beaver Classic a month ago as she slipped under the 23-minute barrier running 22:58. McDonald has been extremely consistent this year. An example of this is the finishing times of her last three races - 23:28, 23:29, and 23:28.

WEST REGION HISTORY: PLU has competed at the West Region Championships since the 1998 season where the Lutes put together their best team performances. The 1998 men’s team finished second and the women took fourth. While the Lutes have had success as a team at the West Regional meet that has not been the case in recent history. 2002 was the last year a PLU team competed at the meet. Individually the Lutes have had some impressive performances. In 1998 Maree George won the women’s individual title while Ryan Pauling won the men’s. In the 2000 season George finished runner up to teammate Lia Ossiander. Ryan Reed was fifth in 2000 and runner-up in 2001. More recently Bethany De Vilbiss took third in 2004.

- PLU -