University Place, WA - The EvCC men's and women's cross country teams traveled to Chambers Bay, home of the 2020 PAC-12 Cross Country Championships AND new home of the NWAC cross country championships. The Chambers Bay Collegiate Open (hosted by Seattle Pacific University) would serve as a preview of the championship course and would also give many NWAC schools a first glimpse of other NWAC competition.
For the Everett women, it would be the first 5k distance of the season, having ran a 6k the previous week at the Mike Johnson Classic, and opening the season with a 4k at the Ash Creek Collegiate Open. It would also be the first race of the season in which the Trojans entered a full team for scoring purposes. Race day conditions were near perfect, overcast and a cool 60 degrees at the nationally famous Chambers Bay park and links style golf course. Featured teams included three NCAA Division II schools (Alaska Anchorage, Saint Martins, Seattle Pacific), one NCAA Divsion III (University of Puget Sound), and one NAIA (Northwest University) in addition five NWAC Schools (Spokane, Pierce, Whatcom, Olympic, and Green River).
The Trojans were paced by lone sophomore Tracey Hatch who turned in a PR of 21:04.7, finishing 28th overall and 9th in the NWAC. Close behind was redshirt freshman teammate Patience Mwaura (30th overall, 10th NWAC) and freshman Dylan Dimond (31st overall, 11th NWAC). Rounding out the scoring for the Trojans were Johanna Schmidt 56th overall (PR'd with a time of 24:55.7), Caelyn Foster 60th overall and Marcella Fuller 62nd overall. Sophomore Avery Daniels did not compete as she was still recovering from a recent triathlon. The team finished 4th among NWAC teams, and just 9 points behind Whatcom.
In the men's race, Adolfo DeRobles once again led EvCC, also producing a collegiate 8k PR of 27:23.1, and finishing 6th among NWAC competitors. It was an exciting finish as Adolfo and Redshirt freshman teammate Ryan Barene were in a dead a dead sprint with 6 other runners. Adolfo lead the group across the finish line, and Ryan was just two tenths of a second behind the 4th runner in that pack finish but edged out a runner from Spokane and Seattle Pacific. He would set a new 8k PR for himself with a time of 27:34.9. Finishing out the team scoring for Everett was Alec Dimick (53rd overall & PR), Josiah Nobles (56th overall), and Elijah Roberts (61st overall & PR). The team finished 3rd among NWAC competing teams, and just beat out Northwest Region opponents Olympic by 6 points.
The Trojan cross country teams have hit the halfway point in the season with three meets down, and three to go. They will have two weeks of recovery, training, and preparation for the Warner Pacific Classic on September 16th.