SALEM, Ore. ? Idaho featured the top collegiate finishers in both the men’s and women’s races, the women took the team title and the men finished third at the Charles Bowles Invitational Saturday morning at Salem, Ore.
Mandy Macalister finished second overall out of 165 runners in the women’s race and Diego Moreno-Guzman finished ninth overall in the men’s race that featured 212 runners. Both were the top collegiate finishers.
In addition to Macalister being the top collegiate runner, Idaho’s next four runners all finished in the top 10 among collegiate runners. Allix Lee-Painter grabbed a fourth collegiate finish and took eighth overall. Lee-Painter improved her time by more than 30 seconds over last year’s time when she finished 21st overall.
Dee Olson took 10th overall and sixth among collegiate runners in her first cross country meet for Idaho since her 2005 WAC championship season. True freshman Erica Digby was the seventh collegiate runner and 11th overall. Breanna Chipney rounded out Idaho’s scoring as the eighth collegiate runner and the 13th overall.
In a sport where a low score is preferred, Idaho finished with 26 team points?27 better than second place. Also included in that race were two regionally-ranked teams, Portland and Oregon State, which finished third and fourth, respectfully.
The men’s team had a solid outing as well with the third-place finish. The team finished eighth last year. Kevin Friesen, who hadn’t competed yet this year as he finished rehab from an injury, competed for the first time and came in 10th among collegiate runners and finished 32nd overall. Jeremiah Johnston was Idaho’s next runner, as he finished 17th collegiately and 42nd overall. Matt Racine was Idaho’s fourth runner with a 22nd collegiate and 49th overall finish, while Kevin Merkling rounded out the scoring with a 31 collegiate finish and 61st overall finish.
Every one of Idaho’s runners on the men’s side finished in the top half of the 212-person race. Bastien Tardy was Idaho’s sixth finisher at 72nd overall, while Steve Potratz was the team’s seventh with a 105th overall finish.
The men’s team finished just ahead of Portland, which is ranked third in the West region. Idaho was ranked 14th in last week’s regional poll by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
Saturday’s race was the first time Idaho had featured full squads for both the men’s and women’s teams. Two of Idaho’s top runners, Dee Olson and Kevin Friesen, hadn’t yet competed because of injury and Phipps had been cautious about bringing them back into competition.
The teams competed in the Gold division race at the meet, which featured Division I schools, community colleges and club teams.
Idaho’s next order of business will be to prepare for the NCAA Pre-National meet that will take place October 13 at Terre Haute, Ind. Part of the team will also participate in the Eastern Washington Invitational the same day.