Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 5, 2014)
THE CLAC K A M A S PRINT | N O V. 5, 2 01 4 | V O L. 48 ISSUE 4 “I’m hoping to place in the top ten or five,” freshman Jocelyn Barber said. “I think we can hopefully be in the top three. A lot of girls have come back from being injured and were getting really strong.” According to the Clackamas athletics site, the cross country teams are “always ones to contend for a top three finish at the NWAC Championships.” They have the third best co-ed conference finishes over the last decade. The team has been peaking at the right time; in their last big event, the Southern Re gional Championships, the men’s and women’s team finished second and third, respectively. “Our women ran exceptional,” coach Drew Was mund said. “From our top women to our last, I real ly don’t think I could have asked for more. The men came within a point of beating a very good Lane team. A couple of kids could have ran better, but that’s the nature of the sport. O ur two sophomores, Pake Benthin and Alan Ekanger, ran very, very well, which was great to see.” In order for the Cougars to finish where they expect, they’ll have to continue to run exceptionally. Was- m und has high expectations. Pake Benthin, left, and Alan Ekanger practice fo r upcomming championships on the CCC track on Oct. 21. Cross country team aims to finish strong by Blake Thomason nee again, the Clackamas Cougars cross country team will be head ing to Lewisville Park in Battle ground, Wash. This time around, the stakes are much higher The Cougars return for the NWAC Championship two months from their last visit. The first visit was unimpressive, and the Cougars hope to rebound as a team. Back in late September the Cougars competed in the NWAC Preview at Lewisville Park. Both Cougar “I expect them to run up to their potential,” Was- mund said. “That always has to be the goal. You can’t outrace your fitness level and you can’t control what other teams do. I expect both squads to get out intel ligently, have their eyes up and pass people one at a time. If they do that and finish hard, I’ll be content.” This is the last and most important event of the season. Unlike other sports, the events before the championship don’t really matter. The season is es sentially defined by the NWAC. teams underwhelmed at the meet, finishing near “Both genders have trained for one meet and one the bottom in their respective groups. meet only and that’s the NWAC,” Wasmund said. The mens team didn’t have anyone finish higher “My job is to get these kids ready for this one par than 19th, and as a team they placed second to last ticular meet. What place we are is less important out of eight teams. The womens team didn’t have than running up to our potential. Like I said before, anyone finish higher than 24th and the team placed we can’t outrace what we are. But the results of [the NWAC Championship] will be completely indic last out of six teams. ative of how intelligent and courageous we are on Granted, it was just a warm-up for the season. The Nov. 8. It will be exciting to see what they can do Cougars have improved thrdughout the season, and finally rested. We’ve taken some lumps throughout one of the top performers expects a different result the season. [But] it’s all about performing well on one weekend.” this time around.
