SPORTS
5
notos by Jonathan V
BY JAMES HARLEY
WRITER
Clackamas Community College hosted the
NWAC
Southern
Region
Cross
Country
Championships this past weekend as the
Cougars battled a season plagued with injuries.
The meet featured the eight teams within
the NWAC Southern Region, with the women
running a 5 km race and the men running an 8
km race around the Randall Cross Country Loop.
For the Cougars, winning the meet was
out of the question, as their runners were
outnumbered by other teams and they were
struggling to even keep their team in the
races due to injuries, but the team was still
seeking to improve individual performances.
For the men, freshman Abdi Ibrahim had been
one of the fastest runners in not only the NWAC,
but also the state, and that didn’t change Saturday.
The men raced first, starting near the Yellow
3 parking lot and doing a short loop around the
open park area on the North side of campus
before beginning three larger 2.5 km loops.
Ibrahim started off quick, behind a few Lane
Community College runners, but eventually took
the lead by the time they got around to start the
first main loop. It didn’t take long for Ibrahim
to stretch his lead from the rest of the pack,
as he began to pull away from everyone about
halfway through. He eventually cruised through
the finish first with a time of 25:3 — about 26
seconds ahead of Lane Community College
athletes Daniel Beckstead and Anthony Stone.
“ I’ve raced with those guys before, so I knew
what to do and how to go out,” Ibrahim said. “ I felt
pretty good halfway through, so I just picked it up. ”
Despite what looked like an impressive race,
Ibrahim said he didn’t beat his personal best time.
“ The race was okay, I’ll say. I didn’t get a
PR or a good tim e,” he said. “ It’s difficult
being by yourself, nobody’s pushing you and
you don’ t really know how fast you’re going.”
Clackamas Print
As for the women, theCougars struggled all season
toscoreanypoints,withjustfourwomenontheroster.
The
women’s
race
started
an
hour
after
the
men
began
their
race,
running around the 2.5 km loop twice.
Lane Community College, which has a talented
roster for both men and women, had runners claim
the first seven spots, earning a perfect score of 15.
Freshman Reilly Treacy led the way for
the Cougars, battling with an illness and
foot injury to finish with a time of 21:43.
“ Health-wise,
I
wasn’t
100
percent,
and I hurt myself last meet, so it was
not a good formula at a ll,” Treacy said.
“ It was good to have my team back,” Treacy said,
“ because I know the last two meets we haven’t
had the entire team due to injuries and all th at.”
The injuries to the team had been a storyline
for the Cougars. Head coach Michelle Rose said
nearly every runner on the team has been injured
in some way, and was pleased with how the team
competed on Saturday in the face of adversity.
“ We did pretty good,” Rose said. “ We’ve
been struggling with a lot of injuries,
and
we’ve
battled
back
from
th at.”
As for the season as a whole, Rose says the team
has done well. “ They’ve stuck together well, and
have tried to battle through the injuries together,”
Rose said. “ I’ve seen some good performances
from some of them, even with battling injuries.”
Lane Community College won by earning
the lowest score overall between both men
and women, scoring 23 and 15 respectively.
The Cougars scored 100 points overall on
the m en’s side, with the women finishing
too far back to score any points in their race.
The Cougars will wrap up their season on Nov.
18 at Saint Martin’s University for the NWAC
Championships, where they have the opportunity
to finish the season healthy and strong.
Freshmen Kiara Anctil, left, and Laura Barnhart ran times of 25:23.6
and 24:31.2.
theclackam asprint.com
November 6 ,2 0 1 9