KEONI MCHONE Contributed
Men’s team captain Pat Searing(#l50) led the
way
to a 3rd place finish for the Cross Country Men’s team and took eleventh place overall.
Cross Country men take third,
women finish sixth to end season
Sports Editor
During a season loaded with strug
gles, Clackamas’ cross country teams
have had quite a long journey to make
it to the Northwest Athletic
Association of Community Colleges
(NWAACC) Champion-ship meet at
Lewisville State Park in Battleground,
WA, on Nov. 9.
The women's team has been run
ning incomplete at every meet except
for at championship meets, when a
couple of the women from the track
team have been filling in. Kari
Rissmiller and Rebekah Yancoskie
were the only two women who started
the season at CCC, but Clackamas was
able to pick up Janel Quintana along
the way. Clark is the only school that
has been able to consistently run a full
team during the season, so the Cougars
aren’t the only ones who are looking at
reduced numbers. But it certainly has
n’t made the season any easier.
“It’s not too bad as far as training
and everything, but the team atmos
phere that a lot of times the women
look forward to isn’t quite there,” said
Head Cross Country Coach Keoni
McHone. “But they’re still having
fun.”
Rissmiller and Yancoskie are both
sophomores at CCC. Rissmiller fin
ished as seventh out of 69 competitors
at the University of Idaho Invitational
on Sept. 5, and won the Southern
Region title a couple weeks ago, but
wasn’t able to defend her NWAACC
title from last season, coming up with a
fourth-place finishfat the championship
meet. At the Southern Region
Championships on Nov.2, Rissmiller
finished just seven seconds in front of
the second-place finisher, but was
greatly hindered by an ankle injury that
she suffered a week-and-a-half prior.
She was only able to take part in one
workout in the eight days before the
championship meet, and these things
combined slowed her down about 40
seconds, according to McHone. At the
NWAACC’s, Rissmiller was racing to
defend her title against a more compet
itive group than the one that she raced
against last year..
Yancoskie, who is running about
one minute faster in the 5,000 meters
than she was last year, finished in 40th
place at the Idaho Invite and took home
the eighth place spot at the Southern
Region Championships. Yancoskie
even finished with a little bit left and
could have placed a little bit higher.
“She is in better shape than what
she thinks she is, and so she feels more
confident in being able to race a little
bit harder,” said McHone.
At the NWAACC’s, Yancoskie repre-
«They’ve really
learned to start J
training and run- .
nlng with each \
other...”
k'
'
Keoni McHone
„ Crees Country Coach
sented CCC well, finishing 14th. The
other women who raced for Clackamas
were track athletes Natalie Walruff and
Jen Petersen, who finished 36th and
40th, respectively, and Quintana, who
finished 51st This helped the team
finish in sixth place out of the 11 teams
who competed in the women’s race.
Clark College took home the champi
onship, with Mt. Hood CC trailing 50
points behind them with 77.
The men had a much better show
ing at the NWAACC Championships,
coming in third place behind Spokane
CC and Mt. Hood CC. This has been
an up-and-down season for the men, as
they lost a couple of new recruits
before the season even began. Jeremy
Branson finished 25th at state last year
while in. high school, making him
CCC’s most promising recruit, until a
stress fracture that he had during the
spring came back and made it impossi
ble for him to participate. Chris Osburn
also suffered a reoccurring stress frac
ture, taking him out of the mix as well.
“(It was) really tough because we
would have had a lot of depth, which
would have made it much easier to
challenge Mt. Hood,” said McHone.
“The men started off pretty shaky.
They weren’t quite racing to the poten
tial that they have. Part of it is, some of
our top guys are freshmen, so they are
learning how to run the 8,000 meters
and adapt to some of the training.
We’re really coming on. We’re a lot
different team than what we were at the
beginning of the year. They’ve really
learned to start training and running
with each other, started figuring out
they can race as a team and help each
other out.”
Two of the men who have had out
standing performances for Clackamas
have been Eli Nevarez and Ben
Dowdy. Nevarez, a freshman from
Tigard, has been consistently running
as the number one man, but was the
third- highest finisher out of all
Clackamas, men with a 16th-place fin
ish at the NWAACC’s.
Pat Searing had the Cougar men’s
highest finish, taking the 11th spot
overall, while Ira LaFontaine claimed
the 14th spot as his own; Dowdy had a
nice finish at the NWAACC meet,
coming in right behind teammate
Nevarez to take 17th place. Other fin
ishers for the men were Russ Pruden,
who took 22nd place, Ryan Hennessy
finished in 36th and Ben Oakerman,
who claimed the 42nd spot. All of
these finishes added up to the 80 points
that’the Cougars finished with, while
champion Spokane had 29 .and- Mt.
Hood had 59.
As a combined effort, Clackamas
took the fourth spot, coming in behind
Spokane’s combined teams, Mt.
Hood’s and Clark’s.
Cougars win division title, await playoffs
Sports Editor
In a week where all of the top
soccer teams in the Northwest
Athletic Association of Community
Colleges’ Southwestern Division
played each other in an attempt to
weed out the weaklings, the
Clackamas women triumphed, tak
ing down the division leader and
claiming the top spot as their own.
After the hard fought battles of
that week were over, the women
traveled to Clark and were caught
looking ahead to the playoffs, losing
their last match of the year. The loss
dropped their final league to 12-3-1.
On the afternoon of Oct. 30, CCC
played host to Southwestern Oregon
CC and shut them out, 3-0. After a
day off, they came back on Friday to
battle with Southwestern Division
leading Tacoma CC. The Cougars
were able to capitalize on a Tacoma
team that was not playing up to their
ability, and handed them a 3-1 loss.
Though this was. a huge win for
Clackamas, they did lose a starter for
their game the next day. Midfielder
Jennifer Riehl injured her knee dur
ing this game, but she was back for
their last game of the season.
Going into the Tacoma game, the
Cougars were doing great against
the rest of the league, but had been
unable to defeat Tacoma in their first
meeting.
“Tacoma actually probably didn’t
play their best game against us,”
Head Coach Tracy Nelson said.
“And tying them before gave us a lot
more motivation to beat them this
time.”
On Nov. 2, Clackamas rounded
out the week by hosting a very com
petitive
squad
from
Lower
Columbia CC.
Even though
Clackamas was tired from playing
three games in four days, they were
still able to win their third game of
the week, 2-0.
“Saturday was probably the hard
est, just because we played our third
tough game in four days,” Nelson
said. “Both teams were just mentally
and physically fatigued and exhaust
ed.”
As Nelson looked toward the
team’s last game of the regular sea
son against Clark, and the playoffs
just beyond, she was confident in the
ability and level of play that they
were displaying.
“The fact that they’re playing
with so much heart and desire, and
they’re working for each other...
they’ve found ways to win the game
without two starters right now, so in
that sense, that’s great. And once we
get on a decent-sized playing field
where we can actually play our style
of game, I think we’ll be playing
very well.”
Once these three games were
completed, the Cougars got a bit of
rest before playing the last league
game of their inaugural season at
Clark on Nov.6. This game didn’t
turn out the way that they had hoped,
with Clark coming out with a 3-1
victory^
see story page 11
ELISABETH MEYER Clackamas Print
Freshman midfielder Jennifer Riehl slides in for the ball
during a Cougar victory against Shoreline CC.