CWU Wildcats cross country wraps up season at regionals
ELLENSBURG, Wash. — As the cross country season draws to a close for the Central Washington University Wildcats, both the men’s and women’s teams competed in the NCAA Division II cross country west regionals.
Western Oregon University hosted the western regionals for the fourth time since 2015 at the Ash Creek Preserve. Faced with stiff, higher ranked opposition, the Wildcats runners were looking to improve on their season’s best times. The course has a reputation for being fast, even in breezy and wet conditions.
On the women’s side, seven Wildcats competed in the 6K. Madison Child steered the group home with a top 100 finish. All the runners finished in the top 160. Child produced a season’s best time of 23:42.3. This represents a five-second improvement for the junior over last month’s GNAC cross country championship time.
Fellow junior Kay Lester recorded a personal best and dripped under the 24-minute mark for the first time, recording 23:59.0 and finishing 106th. Meredith Massey (24:10.5, 112th) and Katelynn Strate (24:23.1, 120th) also achieved their best times. Ellensburg local Madison Thompson competed in her first regionals.
Sadly, the women’s team were missing first-year Kelli Heim, who finished seventh at the recent conference event, because of an ankle injury.
On the men’s side, there were also seven Wildcats running with Rajesh Gill producing CWU’s best finish in the 10K. He clocked 32:58.8, coming in 83rd. This represented a 40-second improvement on his time in October’s WWU Bill Roe Classic. A senior, Gill led in a pair of other Wildcats with Trevor Allen placing 84th and Shawn Clough 86th. Clough was competing in his first regionals and will undoubtedly be pleased with a new personal best time of 33:05.7 seconds. Senior Henry Milodragovich also finished inside the top 100, while sophomore Ty Savely ran in his first regionals.
Washington State was well represented amongst the runners. Only Ty Savely from Mission Viejo, California, and Caitlin Gohr from Anchorage, Alaska, come from outside the evergreen state.
Overall, the men’s team finish 18th and the women’s team 20th against regional powerhouses such as Chico State, Fresno Pacific and Simon Fraser. The NCAA Division II west regional rounds out the season for the Wildcats cross country teams.
Head coach Kevin Adkisson and his team will now be looking towards the track and field season. Last year, both the men’s and women’s teams were honored by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) for academic excellence. The CWU coaching staff will be looking to build on this overall success.
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