MONMOUTH, Ore. – With the weather adding another element to the NCAA Division II West Regionals, Luz Garcia and Caitlin Heldt stayed the course in earning All-West Region honors on Saturday at Ash Creek Preserve in the 6K race. As a team, the Western Oregon University women's cross country team came in tenth, which is the highest finish at Regionals since the 2013 season where WOU came in eighth.
"For us to post top-10 finishes for both teams is a good way to start building for our future," head coach Octavious Gillespie-Bennett said. "Weather was tough, but athletes worked hard and gave great effort. I'm very proud of what we have accomplished this season. We will be keeping our fingers crossed hoping Luz can make it to the NCAA Championships."
Rain was falling before the start of the race and throughout most of the event, but that didn't stop a very competitive field from putting up strong results.
Garcia paced the Wolves when she crossed in eighth with a time of 21:44.5 (coming in fifth in scoring). Stanislaus State's Kaela Dishion took the individual title with a time of 21:14.4. Garcia will wait until Monday to see if she will earn an at-large bid to compete in the NCAA Championships as an individual. Alaska Fairbanks' trio of Rosie Fordham, Kendall Kramer and Naomi Bailey all finished fourth through six and without the team advancing to nationals, all three will be in the running for a spot in the championships. Fordham and Kramer earn automatic spots by placing in the top-five. Azusa Pacific's Justine Strecko also just finished ahead of Garcia coming in at 21:44.1 to come in seventh and she will also be in line for a possible individual bid with her team not advancing. Academy of Art's Natalia Novak came in third and with her team currently on the bubble for an at-large spot, would go as an individual having placed in the top-five.
"I mean the conditions weren't ideal, but I think overall we did really well. We finished tenth as a team and it was a really good result for us," Garcia said.
As for team results, Simon Fraser took the title with 75 points to hold of Stanislaus State's 91 points in second. Chico State rounded out the top-three that will advance to nationals posting 110 points. Western Oregon placed tenth with 267 points.
Heldt gave the Wolves two in the top-25 when she crossed in 23rd (18th in scoring) with a time of 22:08.4 to earn All-West Region honors.
"Yes, it was a good day. Obviously, it wasn't the perfect weather with it pouring down rain, but everyone was in the same boat and for this being our home course I think we did really good," Heldt said.
Just like at GNAC's, Kaylin Cantu and Katie Chapman were the next two across for the Wolves with Cantu coming in 79th with a time of 23:19.4 (72nd in scoring) and Chapman in 88th with a time of 23:27.1 (81st in scoring). Lindie Larson wasn't too far behind Chapman when she crossed at 23:43.6 to come in 99th, which was good for 91st in scoring. Kaitlyn Kruse came in 146th (134th in scoring) and Emily Johnson crossed in 152nd (140th in scoring).
Overall, 24 teams entered in the scoring and WOU finished ahead of GNAC schools Northwest Nazarene, Saint Martin's, Central Washington and Montana State Billings. Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska Anchorage and Seattle Pacific didn't have enough runners as a team to post a team score.
The NCAA will announce the remainder of the championships field on Monday as WOU will wait to see if Garcia will be announced to the field.
