Thorne, a senior, covered the women's 5,000 meters in 19 minutes, 35 seconds and placed eighth in a field of 40 runners at Ft. Walla Walla Park. Hutchison, a junior, finished just a few strides behind Thorne, placing ninth in 19:42. Both runners clocked their best times ever in the event.
Philo, a junior from Walla Walla, finished with a burst to place 12th in
the men's 8,000 meters in a time of 28:26. He edged Menton, a sophomore,
by one second. Philo bested his time from a year ago by nearly 30 seconds,
while the much improved Menton knocked more than 90 seconds off his time
from a year ago.
For her efforts, Thorne was named cross country "Athlete of the Week" in the Northwest Conference of Independent Colleges. Her time -- 19:35 -- was more than a minute faster than her time in last year's Whitman Invitational. Her time Sunday also came close to her personal best (19:27.9) for the 5,000 meters, which she recorded last year in the conference championships.
"From watching her in practice last week, I knew Melissa was running strong and that she was in good shape," Whitman cross country coach Carol Feezell said. "That's a very good time for her this early in the season. She hasn't been overtraining either, so hopefully she will continue to improve her time as the season goes on."
Quint Gidley of North Idaho College won the men's event, which drew 46 runners. His winning time was 27:17.
Jen Funk of Eastern Oregon State University won the women's race in 18:12.
Rounding out the top five for the Whitman women were freshman Heather Koertje of Walla Walla, who placed 17th in 20:44; sophomore Kathleen Rasmussen, who was 19th in 21:00; and freshman Amanda Havens, who was 22nd in 21:12.
Also running for the Whitman women were Caroline Christy, 27th, 21:40; Elisa Bobnes, 32nd, 22:06; Taylor Dale, 33rd, 22:08; and Carol Morse, 40th, 23:59.
The top five for the Whitman men included senior David Toomey, 17th, 28:42; freshman Lars Tysver, 20th, 28:49; and sophomore Cory Root, 31st, 30:16.
Others running for the Missionaries were Ezra Ellis, 33rd, 30:42; Kelii Kotubetey, 34th, 30:47; David Beegle, 39th, 31:22; Hossein Baghdadi, 40th, 31:24; and Dustin Moon, 42nd, 31:33.
In the team scoring, Eastern Oregon State University placed first on the women's side with 24 points. The other three teams were tightly bunched. North Idaho College finished with 63 points, followed by George Fox University with 70 points and Whitman with 75.
North Idaho College edged Clackamas Community College 51 to 57 in the men's team scoring. Next line were George Fox with 63 points, Eastern Oregon with 86 points and Whitman with 93 points.
Melissa Thorne placed 28th in a field of 139 runners and freshman Lars
Tysver finished 52nd in a field of 156 competitors to register Whitman's
top performances in the small school portion of the Big Cross Invitational
in Pasco, Wash.Thorne finished the women's 5,000 meters in 20 minutes, 30.32 seconds. Tysver's time in the men's 8,000 meters was 28L23.50.
The Whitman women placed ninth among the 17 schools in their race. The Whitman men were 14th out of 18 teams.
"I was pleased with where the women finished," Whitman coach Carol Feezell said. "They finished within reach of several of our conference schools. We're working on making stronger, more aggressive finishes, and if we can do that, we're going to be right there. This group of women can do it, they just need to work hard and compete."
The Whitman women finished with 229 points, ahead of two conference rivals, Whitworth and Pacific. The Missionaries trailed Lewis & Clark by just 15 points and Linfield by 19.
Pacific Lutheran, a perennial cross country powerhouse, won the small school team title with 36 points. George Fox was fourth with 171 points while Willamette was fifth with 183 points.
The men's team finished further back in its race, although Feezell noted that Whitman ran without Sean Menton, one of its top five male runners. "Sean is a strong top five runner, so that really affected where the men's team placed."
The Missionary men finished with 347 points, ahead of Whitworth and just 15 points behind Lewis & Clark. Pacific Lutheran placed second in the men's field, followed by Linfield in third, Willamette in sixth and George Fox in eighth.
Also placing among the top five Whitman finishers, behind Tsyver, were Jesse Philo, 59th, 28:35.16; David Toomey, 77th, 29:14.78; Dustin Moon, 91st, 29:36.52; and Ezra Ellis, 95th, 29:40.86.
Others competing for the Whitman men were Dan Moore, 108th, 30:19.22; Hossein Baghdadi, 120th, 30:43.57; Cory Root, 126th, 31:13.44; and David Beegle, 127th, 31:15.14.
The top five for the Whitman women, behind Thorne, were Faye Hutchison, 31st, 20:35.76; Kitty Rasmussen, 48th, 21:10.31; Heather Koertje, 61st, 21:25.95; and Taylor Dale, 69th, 21:34.63.
Also placing for the Missionary women were Elisa Bobnes, 77th, 21:53.23; Caroline Christy, 94th, 22:22.53; Amanda Havens, 100th, 22:33.67; Carol Morse, 115th, 23:36; and Gen Hartman, 129th, 25:08.07.
The Whitman women finished with 123 points in the 5,000 meters, just 18 points behind fourth-place Whitworth. The University of British Columbia won the event with 51 points. George Fox University placed sixth, 11 points behind Whitman, and Pacific University finished 11th.
Southern Idaho won the men's 8,000 meters with 67 points. Puget Sound was third with 106 points, and George Fox was eighth with 174 points. Whitman finished with 296 points. Whitworth placed 13th.
Faye Hutchison gave Whitman its best performance in the women's race, placing 15th in 19:41.55. Melissa Thorne finished 22nd in 19:51.42, followed closely by Heather Koertje in 23rd in 19:52.20. The Missionary top five also included Kathleen Rasmussen, 38th, 20:11.33, and Taylor Dale, 43rd, 20:22.28.
Heather Goodfellow of the Abbotsford Royals, a club team, won the women's race in 18:24.84. The race attracted 117 runners.
Also placing for Whitman were Amanda Havens, 57th, 20:43.51; Caroline Christy, 66th, 20:57.32; Elisa Bobnes, 68th, 21:00.35; and Carol Morse, 93rd, 22:14.55.
In the men's 8,000, which drew 149 runners, Whitman's top three were David Toomey, 57th, 28:29.94; Lars Tysver, 61st, 28:37.78; and Sean Menton, 64th, 28:50.13. Jesse Philo, another top Missionary runner, missed the meet because of tendonitis in one of his feet.
Others running for Whitman were Dustin Moon, 82nd, 29:29.27; Cory Root, 103rd, 30:23.78; David Beegle, 104th, 30:28.35; and Kellii Kotubetey, 108th, 30:36.11
Oliver Utting of the University of British Columbia won the men's race in 26:03.58.
Faye Hutchison and Heather Koertje for the women and David Toomey and Sean
Menton for the men gave Whitman its best performances in the Pacific
Lutheran Invitational at Ft. Steilacoom Park in Lakewood.Hutchison placed 26th in the women's 5,000 meters in a time of 20 minutes, 3.9 seconds. Koertje finished 33rd in 20:24.1. Puget Sound's Kate Schmitt placed first in the field of 106 runners in 17:43.8.
In the men's 8,000 meters, Toomey placed 50th in a field of 111 runners. His time was 28:12.3. Menton was 59th in 28:34.6, followed by Whitman freshman Lars Tysver in 64th place in a time of 28:41.
Jaime Martinez of Azusa Pacific won the men's race in 25:04.1, a new meet record.
In the women's team scoring, Puget Sound took top honors with 19 points, followed by Pacific Lutheran in second place with 47 points. With a total of nine teams competing, the Whitman women placed seventh with 172 points, just 16 points behind Linfield.
In the men's team scoring, Pacific Lutheran was first in the 12-team field with 55 points. Next in line were Azusa Pacific 63, Puget Sound 77, and Linfield 80. The Missionary men placed 10th with 259 points, 18 points behind Lewis & Clark College.
Rounding out the top five for the Whitman women were Melissa Thorne, 46th, 20:45.7; Taylor Dale, 47th, 20:48.5; and Kitty Rasmussen, 49th, 20:51.4. Others running for Whitman were Elisa Bobnes, 53rd, 21:06; Amanda Havens, 64th, 21:24.9; Carol Morse, 81st, 22:21.5; and Caroline Christy, 96th, 23:59.8.
Daniel Moore finished 79th in 29:19.6 and Jesse Philo was 80th in 29:36.5 to complete Whitman's top five on the men's side. Also placing for the Missionaries were Kelii Kotubetey, 84th, 29:48.2; Dustin Moon, 95th, 31:10.9; and Hossein Baghdadi, 101st, 32:05.
Recording her best time this season in the 5,000 meters, Faye Hutchison placed eighth in 19:33.5 to lead the Whitman women to a second-place finish at the Bear Fete Invitational at Champoeg Park in St. Paul, Oregon.
"Faye continues to do a great job, and there is no question she is our leader," Whitman coach Carol Feezell said. "I'm very pleased with the entire team and its peformance. We beat both George Fox and Linfield, and that's a nice accomplishment."
"There's still room for improvement with the women's team," Feezell added. "If we are mentally prepared and do the right things at the conference finals, we could make a really good showing."
Pacific Lutheran easily captured the women's Bear Fete team title with 20 points. Whitman was next with 83 points, one point ahead of George Fox, the host school. Linfield was fourth with 109 points and Lewis & Clark fifth with 167 points. Alaska-Fairbanks with sixth and Pacific University seventh, followed in order by Cascade College, the Bruin Track Club and Northwest Christian College.
In the men's 8,000 meters, Whitman ran without one of its top runners and
placed 10th with 234 points. Sean Menton had Whitman's best individual
performance, placing 44th in a time of 28:36.6. Senior David Toomey,
who had the best time among Missionary men in two meets earlier this
month, missed the meet because of a hip injury.
Menton finished just nine seconds off his season-best time, which he recorded last month at the Whitman Invitational. "The Bear Fete course is much slower, so Sean had a very good race," Feezell said. "Sean is a good, hard worker, and he's going to get better. I like his attitude a lot."
Others placing for the Whitman women were Melissa Thorne, 14th, 19:59.1; Heather Koertje, 18th, 20:10.6; Taylor Dale, 19th, 20:14.3; and Kitty Rasmussen, 27th, 20:43.2. Dale's time was a season-best effort.
"I know Melissa has it in her to have a great race at the conference finals in two weeks," Feezell said. "Melissa can run right up there with Faye, even though Melissa has struggled a little bit with minor injuries. We're really fortunate that Faye has not had any health problems at all this season."Feezell also was pleased with continued strong running from Koertje, Dale and Rasmussen. "I'm so pleased with what Heather had done as a freshman, and I would not be surprised to see Taylor place second or third among our finishers at conference. Kitty keeps getting better and better, and she gives us a solid No. 5 runner at this point."
Others placing for the Whitman women were Elisa Bobnes, 35th, 20:55.6; Amanda Havens, 36th, 21:01.8; Caroline Christy, 49th, 21:20.9; and Carol Morse, 57th, 22:07.5. Both Bobnes and Morse had season-best times.
Helen Jelimo of Cascade College won the women's race, which drew 77 runners, in a time of 18:50.7.
In the men's race, other runners placing in Whitman's top five (behind Menton) were Jesse Philo, 53rd, 28:49.0; Lars Tysver, 60th, 29:08.7; Daniel Moore, 66th, 29:28.5; and Dustin Moon, 69th, 29:36.6.
Feezell said Philo ran a surprisingly strong race after having missed two weeks of running due to injury. "Jesse had kept himself very fit through cross training," she noted. "Unfortunately, he won't be able to run at the conference championships because of an academic commitment. That's really too bad. It's possible he could have been our top runner at conference."Feezell said Toomey also will miss the conference finals because that date conflicts with his graduate school exams. "With both Jesse and David missing, it's going to be very hard for our men's team to place very high at conference," she said.
Kelii Kotubey ran a season-best 29:42.4 to place 73rd for Whitman. Hosseign Baghdadi, sidelined totally the past two weeks because of injury, returned to place 87th in 31:09.3, while David Beegle was 88th in 31:14.8.
The University of Portland won the men's team title with 40 points. Pacific Lutheran was second with 53 points, followed by Linfield in third with 69 points and George Fox in fourth with 90. PLU's Ryan Pauling took top individual honors with a time of 25:39.6.
On the men's side, sophomore Sean Menton gave Whitman its best finish,
placing 52nd in an 82-runner field. The Missionary men, who were missing
three of their top runners due to scheduling conflicts and injury, placed
ninth as a team.
Pacific Lutheran won the men's championship with 32 points, edging the University of Puget Sound and its 46 points. Whitman finished with 257 points. PLU's Ryan Pauling won the 8,000-meter race in a time of 25:15, just one second ahead of Puget Sound's Dave Davis.
Puget Sound women claimed five of the first six places and won the team title with 18 points. PLU was second with 42 points. Puget Sound's Kate Schmitt won the 5,000-meter race in 17:40, beating one of her teammates by 25 seconds.
The Whitman women finished with 174 points, 14 points behind sixth-place Linfield. Koertje led the way for the Missionaries, running the course in 19:43, which lowered her previous season-best effort by nearly 10 seconds. Two weeks ago, running on the same course in the Bear Fete Invitational, she finished in 20:10.6
"Heather has been very consistent all season, and she knows how to train," Whitman coach Carol Feezell said. "I had a feeling she would run a strong race at conference."
Feezell was at a loss to explain subpar performances from her other top runners. "I do know it was very disappointing for them because they had worked hard and were ready to have a good race," she said. "Who knows why they didn't. Sometimes you run your best in a big race, and sometimes you don't. It's unfortunate in this case because I think we really could have finished third or fourth as a team."
Next line line for the Whitman women, behind Koertje, were Melissa Thorne, who placed 35th in 20:14; Kitty Rasmussen, who was 39th in 20:24; and Faye Hutchison, who finished 40th in 20:32. A total of 89 runners competed.
Also placing for Whitman were Elisa Bobnes, 60th, 21:08; Taylor Dale, 62nd, 21:11; Amanda Havens, 63rd, 21:18; Caroline Christy, 73rd, 22:12; and Carol Morse, 76th, 22:26.
Menton's team-best time for the Missionary men was 28:49. Next were Dustin Moon, 60th, 29:15; Kelii Kotubetey, 62nd, 29:22; Lars Tysver, 71st, 30:28; Cory Root, 74th, 31:17; and David Beegle, 78th, 32:25. Moon knocked nearly 15 seconds off his season-best time, while Kotubetey trimmed 20 seconds off his previous best time.
"Lars had a cold all week and that slowed him down quite a bit," noted Feezell. "He had a lot of congestion, and he was having trouble breathing."