The Western Washington University cross country teams had a successful morning road trip to compete in the Ken Garland Classic on the Saint Martin’s University campus, with both the men’s and women’s teams placing first in their respective races.
The men won their event for the second consecutive week to open the 2018 season with a team score of 15 points, while the women notched their first victory of the season with 21 team points.
WWU freshman Rebecca Lehman (Spokane Valley, WA/University) won the women’s 5K in a time 18:15.19. The Vikings had five of the top seven and six of the top 10 finishers in the 104-racer field.
Redshirt freshman Shawnee Konrad (Mead, WA/Mount Spokane) finished 3rd in 18:37.84, sophomore Jane Barr (Seattle, WA/Roosevelt) was 4th in 18:38.03 and junior Talia Dreicer (Los Alamos, NM) was 6th in 18:45.91. Junior Tracy Melville (Lamont, WA/Lind-Ritzville-Sprague) was just behind in 7th (18:46.17) and senior Aundrea Koger (Osage City, KS) finished 10th (19:00.98).
The Viking men dominated the second race of the morning, sweeping the first five spots, and had seven of the top eight finishers in the 105-racer field.
Redshirt freshman Ian Fay (Duvall, WA/Cedarcrest) won the race in 26:03.50, edging senior teammate Jadon Olson (Mill Creek, WA/Jackson) by just over six seconds. Senior Kyler Sager (Snohomish, WA) finished 3rd in 26:11.47, junior James Jasperson (Lacey, WA/North Thurston/Everett CC) was 4th in 26:13.74 and sophomore Eric Hamel (Enumclaw, WA) was 5th in 26:25.07.
Also notching top-10 finishes for Western were redshirt sophomore Ed Kiolbasa (Stillwater, MN/Stillwater Area/Univ. of North Dakota) in 7th place (26:35.26) and redshirt freshman Bentley Wilson (Newport Beach, CA/Newport Harbor).
The Vikings are off next weekend and return to action on Saturday, October 6 with a pair of meets. Select members of the squad will travel to the Division II Conference Crossover in Romeoville, Illinois at Lewis University, while remaining team members will race at the Emerald City Open hosted by Club Northwest in Lower Woodland Park in Seattle (Women’s 6K: 10:30 am, Men’s 8K: 11:15 am).
