Warrior cross country teams ranked 8th and 15th

 10-31-07

The Lewis-Clark State College men’s and women’s cross country teams remained steady in the NAIA polls released on Wednesday as the men remained at No. 8, while the women climbed one spot to No. 15. 

Both teams will take part in the Region I/Frontier Conference championships on Saturday in Olympia. Both teams will be favored to win conference titles, and the men also will be the favorite in the region, but the women will face a tougher task. 

In the men’s poll, Eastern Oregon is tied for ninth, Southern Oregon is No. 14, College of Idaho is No. 23, and Simon Fraser is No. 24, which should make for an interesting race on Saturday. 

“As we head into regionals, on paper we are the favorite as the No. 1 team in the region, but I think the teams to beat are EOU and SFU and I am definitely not counting out the other two,” LCSC coach Mike Collins said.  “When you have that many teams that are nationally ranked, anything can happen.  Based on this, it is possible that our region will send 4 or 5 teams to nationals.  Hopefully we are one of those teams.” 

On the women’s side, Collins said he was surprised the Warriors moved up a spot ahead of Aquinas, which beat the Warriors earlier this year. 

“I do believe we are much better than we were back then, but you don’t see that happen too often,” Collins says. “Head-to-head competition usually carries a lot of weight, but most raters also know as time passes that teams do change, either getting better or not.  Nonetheless, we still have to run well this weekend to earn a spot to nationals.” 

Simon Fraser is ranked No. 1 in the poll, followed by British Columbia at No. 7, Eastern Oregon at No. 17, and College of Idaho at No. 20.