By Lev Rourke
Photos by Kim Spir
Southern Oregon narrowly defeated Wayland Baptist to win its first national championship in cross country on Saturday, winning the NAIA men’s title at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site in Vancouver, Wash.
“They really came together,” the Southern Oregon coach, Brent Ericksen, said, (pictured left, sans hat.) “Last year, we got separated. We came in ranked No. 1, and finished third. This year, we stayed together.”
David Laney, the Raiders’ senior from Central Catholic of Portland – Galen Rupp’s alma mater – stayed within striking the distance all the way, then moved up over the final circuit of the 8k race, run on a wet, muddy course. “We really closed well that last 2k,” Ericksen said. “That was our plan, to work the last circuit.
“David had an amazing race. He was the top American finisher, and he just kept running people down and closing the gap.”
This was one of those races where every point mattered. Wayland Baptist was ahead on points through every position – 1st versus 4th, 8th versus 13th, 14 to 21, 16 to 30, meaning it was 39-68 with only the No. 5 runners to go. That’s whe
re SOU won it, as James Johnstone scored 37, giving the Raiders a 105 total. Wayland’s fifth man was Lucius Lopez, who finished nearly a minute, and 48 places, behind Johnstone, for a total of 124.
“I couldn’t have asked my guys to run any better,” the WBU coach, Brian Whitlock, said. “Hats off to Southern Oregon,” he said generously, “they ran a terrific race. We fell back a little at the end, and they came on strong.”
Earlier that morning, the Southern Oregon women finished 7th, and that added to the men’s championship gave the school the Combined trophy as well. “The girls did a great job,” said Ericksen, who is in his third season as the school’s cros
s country coach. “They gave us a shot to win the Combined team title. They were ranked 4th in the conference to start the season and end up 7th in the nation. Just an amazing story.”
The Raiders’ No. 1 women’s finisher was the freshman Summer Cano, from Century High School in Hillsboro, who finished 37th.
The top finisher in the women’s race from the state of Oregon was the surprising Karlee Coffey, the 29-year-old sophomore at Eastern Oregon, who finished 2nd overall, losing 17:42-17:46 to Justyna Mudy, of Shorter University, in Rome, Ga., who was defending her championship.
Coffey, a graduate of LaGrande High School, did not run in high school, but she has quickly made up for that.
“Karlee is a tough competitor,” the Eastern Oregon coach, Ben Welch, told Barrett Henderson of the school’s website in an interview. “The crazy thing is to think about how inexperienced she is. She is rapidly growing. Every race, she just continues to figure things out.”
Coffey first left LaGrande a decade ago. “After graduation, I moved to Colorado and worked for a non-profit organization,” she told Henderson. “I dated a cyclist, started cycling myself, and learned that I was an adrenalin junkie. I moved to Portland and continued to ride my bike. When I got pregnant, I still trained on the bike.” Coffey now has a 3-year-old son.
“After I had my son, I quickly learned that riding a bike was just too time consuming. A three-hour bike workout took too much time away from my son. I found out I could feel happy with an hour of running as a substitute….
“I loved my first race, and things just took off from there.”
Coffey hopes to become a marathoner. Earlier this year she won the women’s division of the Cascade Half-Marathon, in Turner, running 1:25.
Wayland’s Kithuka finishes first
The winner of the men’s race was Wayland Baptist’s Kennedy Kithuka, a 21-year-old freshman from Nairobi, Kenya. Three of Wayland’s top four finishers were Kenyans.
For Kithuka, it was his first NAIA cross country race. He arrived on campus last winter, then won the national track titles last spring at 5,000 and 10,000. He has track bests of 4:08 in the mile and 13:43 in the 5.
He ran away with Saturday’s race, finishing 39 seconds ahead of Abednego Magut, also Kenyan, of Azusa Pacific. Silas Kisorio, the defending champion from Oklahoma Christian, ran with the leaders early but faded to 10th.
“I wanted to rum fast,” Kithuka told Kurt Zimmer of The Columbian. “The first three laps, I ran hard. Then the final one, I relaxed and [didn’t] push hard. I finished way ahead.”
SOU’s Laney passed Kisorio entering the final 2k circuit and several more runners before the finish, winding up 4th, in 24:57. The Raiders’ other scorers were Zach Elliott (13), sophomore from Crater; Ryan Sorenson (21), junior from Sheridan, Wyo.; Dennis McCaffrey (30), senior from Ashland by way of Lane Community College and Western Washington University, and Johnstone (37), a junior who went to Rim of the World High School in Lake Arrowhead, Calif.
The women’s national championship was won by California State at San Marcos, with 88 points, defeating Biola (127) and repeating as national champions. When San Marcos won a year ago in an upset, it was the first national title in the school’s history. This year, it was more matter-of-fact. “We ran tight at conference,” said the relaxed San Marcos coach, the miler Steve Scott, “but ran well today.”
San Marcos was led by Caitlin Villareal, who finished 14th.
Simon Fraser of Vancouver finished 5th, two places ahead of the SOU women, while the host school, Concordia of Portland, was 8th and UBC 14th. Alice Taylor, a junior from New Zealand, finished 10th for Concordia.
In the men’s race, D. J. Flores finished 5th to lead Eastern Oregon to 5th in the team scoring, while UBC was 8th.
The women in orange from Baker of Kansas finished 26th overall. "It's beautiful here," one of the athletes said, before the team picture in front of the NAIA 2010 banner. "I'm moving to the Pacific Northwest!"