WALLA WALLA, Wash. – Whitman College sends its top 20 runners to the Northwest Conference Cross Country Championships this Saturday at Willamette Mission State Park near Brooks, Ore. The women's 6,000 meters gets started at 11 a.m., followed by the men's 8,000 meters at noon.
Both Missionary teams hope to improve on their finishes from a year ago, when they both placed sixth in the team scoring. The Whitman women won three of their last four meets this fall, although they faced neither Willamette nor Puget Sound, the top two teams in the conference.
The Missionary women have been ranked as high as 31st nationally this fall, according to polls by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. Whitman sits in the 33rd spot in the latest poll, but the women have been ranked No. 3 in the West Region for much of the fall, trailing only Willamette and Puget Sound.
The Whitman men, meanwhile, have been ranked No. 8 in the West Region in the last two polls.
Look for sophomores Yasmeen Colis, Sara McCune and Michela Corcorran to pace the women's squad. Senior Lisa Taylor and two more sophomores, Emily Rodriguez and Amy Chapman, have also placed in Whitman's top five at times this season. Others running Saturday are sophomore Heather O'Moore and first-year competitors Chelsea Momany, Janna Rozar and Lydia Ngai.
On the men's side, Brian Woods has been the top Missionary runner for most of the season. Senior Tim Marrinan, junior Ian Bell, sophomore Matthew Kelly and freshmen Sam Hennessey and Daniel Luecke have rounded out Whitman's top five in various races this fall. Others running Saturday for the Whitman men are senior Eli Asch, junior Nick Littman, sophomore Curtis Reid and freshman John Callow.
Both Woods and Asch will be running in their fourth championship meets. Woods placed 20th a year ago, three spots better than the year before. Asch made his best showing as a freshman, when he placed 48th.
Marrinan and Littman have two championship meets under their belts. Marrinan was 41st and Littman 44th in last year's race. Bell, who studied off campus last fall, was 50th two years ago as a freshman.
Kelly and Reid both ran at the 2006 event. Kelly was 34th and Reid 52nd.
No member of the young women's team has more than one year of championship experience.
McCune placed 14th last fall to earn All-NWC Honors. Colis and Corcorran were close behind, placing 19th and 20th, respectively. Running her first season last year as a junior, Taylor placed 40th at the conference meet, finishing 10 spots in front of O'Moore.