PORTLAND, Ore. - - - The No. 8 University of Portland men’s cross country varsity team is set to run at the 2010 NCAA Pre-National 8k meet, hosted by Indiana State University at the Laverne Gibson Championship course in Terre Haute, Indiana. The Pilots will be competing in the men’s 8k “White Race” which begins at 12:50 PM eastern time this Saturday, October 16.
The White Race features a field of 36 teams, ten of whom are currently ranked in the top 30 nationally by the USTFCCCA. The ranked teams include No. 4 Colorado, No. 8 Portland, No. 13 NC State, No. 16 Oklahoma, No. 19 BYU, No. 21 Tulsa, No. 22 Georgetown, No. 24 Alabama, No. 25 Minnesota, and No. 28 Notre Dame.
The Pilots are optomistic about their chances. "We are looking forward to measuring ourselves with the rest of the nation.," said Head Coach Rob Conner. "The team has been flawless in its preparation this fall so we are optimistic."
In 2009 the Pilots finished the NCAA Pre-Nationals with a team score of 211 which was good for fourth place behind Stanford, Colorado, and BYU. Junior Alfred Kipchumba ran to an eighth place finish in a time of 23:53.
Portland is coming off a dominate win at the Charles Bowles Invitational, finishing in first place with 25 team points, as the varsity squad ran for the first time as a team this season. The Pilots had four of the top five individual finishers paced by Sophomore Trevor Dunbar who ran a 23:22.67 which was good for second place.
The ‘B’ team will also be in action this weekend as they will run at the Bill Dellinger Invitational hosted by the University of Oregon in Eugene this Saturday, October 16.
Live coverage of the NCAA Pre-National meet is available on flotrack.org. Results will be posted on portlandpilots.com after the races conclude on Saturday.