Wildcats Battle at NWC Championships

November 1, 2014

SALEM, Ore. – Placing among the Top 25 competitors in their respective races, Alex Mangan and Kaelia Neal paced the Wildcats at the Northwest Conference Cross Country Championships, contested Saturday morning at Bush's Pasture Park.

The men's start at the 2014 NWC Championships.

Mangan was Linfield's highest finisher overall, placing 19th in the men's eight-kilometer race. The junior Wildcat clocked in at 26 minutes, 43.6 seconds. As a team, the Linfield men placed sixth, totaling 161 points. The Wildcat women also placed sixth in the team standings, totaling 153 points.

“While we didn't finish where we wanted as a team, I was proud with the way everybody competed,” said head coach Travis Olson. “I feel like we gave our best effort on both sides and that is all I can ever ask of my team. We are looking forward to improving at Regionals in a couple of weeks.”

Competing in her first conference championship meet, Neal finished 24th in the women's 6K with a time of 23 minutes, 26 seconds. Linfield's scoring runners finished within 43 seconds of each other and all placed among the Top 40 competitors.

Kaelia Neal leads the Wildcats at the NWC Championships.

Emma Kundson snuck into the Top 30, clocking in at 23:42.2 for 29th place. Seniors Audrey Lichten, Calli Dowdy and Brooke Niemann rounded out the scoring for the Wildcats. Lichten was 35th (23:52.2), Dowdy 36th (24:04.2) and Niemann 39th (24:09.1). It was Dowdy's highest career finish, topping her 63rd-place effort in 2013.

Emma Knudson, Audrey Lichten and Calli Dowdy push the pace.

On the men's side, Jeff Lee made his NWC Championships debut with a 27th-place performance, coming in at 27 minutes, 0.3 seconds. Adrian Clifford and Chris Poole recorded career-high finishes with Clifford finishing 33rd (27:21.3) and Poole taking 40th (27:31.7).

Flint Martino and Chris Poole work together to move up mid-race. 

Chris Roth competing in his first championship meet, finished 45th in 27 minutes, 43.7 seconds. Linfield competed without Michael O'Neil, a second team all-NWC performer last season as a freshman, due to injury


"I know nobody is going to be overly impressed with 6th place finishes," stated associate head coach Greg Mitchell. "But I think this group ran pretty well. We've got a lot of young runners who gained championship experience and we've got some athletes coming back from injury who will benefit from two more weeks of training... there is no doubt in my mind we'll beat some of the top five NWC teams at Regionals."