Oregon Tech Cross Country Looking to make History at NAIA Championships
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. – For the first time in school history, the Oregon Tech women will enter the NAIA Cross Country Championships as the number one ranked team in the country, and thus are the favorites to win the first team title in school history. The OIT men enter the meet as the 25th ranked team in the NAIA and are looking to match last year's Top 10 performance at Seminole Valley Cross Country Course in Cedar Rapids, Iowa this Friday morning.
The Lady Owls earned an automatic bid to the Championships by virtue of their Cascade Conference Championship title as they dominated the CCC Championships led by Cindy Reed. The No. 1 ranked Oregon Tech women finished 1st, 2nd, and 3rd while the OIT men grabbed 5th place at the CCC Championships and received one of 13-at-large bids to the NAIA Championships.
"The men were rated 24th going into nationals in 2017 and finished 10th. They are looking to do the same this year and shake up the national apple cart," said Head Coach Jack Kegg. "They will need a much tighter team finish to do so, while the ladies are looking to hold court and prove the raters right that they are the best team in the country. There are three very good teams that will challenge the Owls. Taylor in Indiana, SCAD Atlanta, and Madonna in Michigan are all strong teams."
Tech's Cindy Reed (Far Right) West Region "Runner of the Year"
Tech's Cindy Reed was named CCC Runner of the Year and was also just honored this past week as USTFCCCA Western Region Runner of the Year, with Jack Kegg also being named CCC Coach of the Year and named the USTFCCCA Western Region Coach of the Year.
"This is a great group of young women and they grow and challenge each other and myself every day," said Kegg. "The seniors are all capable of individual success and Cindy had a fearless conference race."
At the CCC Championships the OIT women were led by Reed in a time of 17:38 as she finished two seconds in front of Susie Garza (17:40) who was 16 seconds in front of Danielle De Castro (17:56) as the Lady Owls went 1-2-3. Faith Widman was 11th (18:23) with Annika Andersen 12th (18:24) followed by Mallory Ward 23rd (18:55) and Hannah Mason 24th (18:57) with Andie Kolasinski 31st (19:10) to finish off the OIT scoring. The men were led by Ricky Garcia with his 25:50, good for 20th, followed by Paul Wyatt 21st (25:51), Victor Rios 24th (25:58), Nick McMillen 29th (26:23) and Chris Ramirez 31st (26:32).
Head Coach Jack Kegg (Left) West Region Coach of the Year.
The National Championship will be held this Friday November 16 at Seminole Valley Cross Country Course in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, starting with the women's 5,000-meter race at 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time and continuing with the men's 8K an hour later. There were 11 at-large team bids on the women's side in a 36-team field that will include 93 individual qualifiers. The 36-team men's field includes 13 at-large squads and 83 individual qualifiers.
