Seven personal bests recorded at Charles Bowles Invitational
SALEM, Ore. – The cross country teams competed at the Charles Bowles Invitational on Saturday morning and seven runners recorded personal bests. The men finished 16
th with 446 points while narrowly beating Northwest Conference opponent Puget Sound by four points. The women finished 15
th with 374 points and beat NWC foes Lewis & Clark and Pacific Lutheran. 155 men and 166 women finished their respective races. The women raced 5,000 meters while the men were supposed to race 8,000, but the lead bikes took the field slightly off course adding 80 meters (16-18 seconds) to the race.
The men raced first in ideal cross country conditions, 52° and light rain, which paid dividends as three of the six runners recorded personal bests.
Riley Stewart (Forest Grove, Ore.) led the team with a 55
th place finish in 26:34.1. His converted time for 8,000 meters (26:18.1) is 23
rd all-time in Pacific history and was a personal best for him by 52 seconds.
Nick Slenning (Portland, Ore.) also broke 27 minutes for the first time with a 26:57 clocking. His converted 26:41 time was a personal best by 23 seconds.
Garrett Stewart (Forest Grove, Ore.) also had a huge personal best (49 seconds) with his converted time of 29:24.9 (finish time was 29:42.9). The other two scorers for the Boxers were
Kyle Eisenbeis (Bothell, Wash.) and
Logan Naegeli (Trout Creek, Mont.) who both ran well considering they were both sick earlier in the week.
The light rain stopped for the women's race, but it was still cool and overcast which helped four of the 10 Boxers set personal bests.
Serena Wallace (Centralia, Wash.) finished first for the team for the first time in her three-year Pacific career as she was 38
th in a 13-second personal best time of 18:48.5. Her time moved her up seventh on the Boxer all-time list. She just edged
Stephenie Spencer (Bothell, Wash.) in 18:48.9 who was also battling the after effects of sickness. The Boxer third and fifth scorers,
Elsa Douglass (Portland, Ore.) and
Airel Farley (Glide, Ore.) [both pictured] set 31 and 68 second personal bests respectively with times of 20:03.1 and 21:34.0. Also scoring for the Boxers was
Jess Knoll (Arlee, Mont.) in 20:24.4.
Amanda Cunningham (Bothell, Wash.) also recorded a personal best with her time of 22:48.4.
Pacific will race next at the Lewis & Clark Invitational on October 14. The meet with be at Milo McIver State Park in Estacada, Ore. The men race at 10:30 with the women racing at 11:30.
