PORTLAND, Ore.—Lewis & Clark College men's and women's cross country will compete in eight meets this Fall.
Cross country will kick off their season with their lone home meet of the season on August 29, and hope to send student-athletes to Spartanburg, South Carolina for the NCAA DIII National Championship Meet on November 22.
After a two-year hiatus, cross country will host the Lewis & Clark Opener to begin their 2025 season. The Pioneers will host this year's season opener on Friday, August 29 at Milo McIver State Park in Estacada. The women's race will start at 9:30 a.m., with the men following at 10:00 a.m. Both races will cover 5,000M.
Lewis & Clark hosted two meets last year at Milo McIver State Park, including the NCAA DIII West Regional Championship Meet.
The women's team won the Lewis & Clark Invite on October 19 (first out of five teams) and finished seventh out of 25 teams at regionals. Senior
Riley Buese, juniors
Malia Heien and
Madeleine Boyle, sophomore
Skylar Willow and first year
Talia Tomhave all ran the fastest times of their careers (over 6K) at the NCAA Regional Championship Meet. Buese (first), Heien (seventh), Boyle (16
th) and Willow (28
th) each ran top-30 times in program history and Buese and Heien each earned All-Region accolades. Tomhave added the 30
th-fastest mark by a first year in program history at Regionals.
Men's cross country placed second out of eight teams at the L&C Invite and ninth out of 24 teams at Regionals. Sophomore
Evan Markelz won the L&C Invite and garnered All-Region honors and his first collegiate trip to Nationals at Regionals, when he placed 10
th overall. Fellow sophomore
Quinn Higgins ran a career-best time of 25:16.0 to finish 36
th in the region and 21
st in program history.
Lewis & Clark will be off the following weekend, before traveling to Western Oregon University for the Ash Creek Invitational on Friday, September 12. The women's team earned the first team win since September 2017 at last year's Ash Creek Invitational. Buese and Heien finished first and second to help the team finish on 47 points – 12 ahead of Willamette University (59). Markelz earned his first collegiate cross country victory in the men's race to lead the team to a second-place showing. As a team, Lewis & Clark finished just three points behind NCAA DII Western Oregon (28-31).
The Pioneers will have three tune-ups hosted by Northwest Conference schools, before the NWC Championship Meet.
Lewis & Clark will travel to Tacoma on Saturday, September 20 for the PLU Invitational. It will give the team a preview of this year's conference championship course, as PLU will be hosting both meets on their PLU Meadows course.
Cross country will race twice in October. They will travel to Salem for the Charles Bowles Invitational on Saturday, October 4. Two weeks later, the Pioneers will return to Salem for Linfield University's George Oja Invitational on October 18.
Lewis & Clark will travel back to Tacoma for the NWC Championship Meet on Saturday, November 1. Both teams finished in fourth place at last year's NWC Championship Meet. They both extended their streaks to five-consecutive years finishing in the top-four in the conference standings. Buese (first) and Heien (fourth) and Markelz (fourth) all earned All-Conference honors after finishing in the top-five of their races.
The Pioneers will take their first trip outside the Pacific Northwest on Saturday, November 15, for the NCAA DIII West Regional Championship Meet. This year's meet is being hosted by Pomona-Pitzer in Claremont, California.
The NCAA DIII National Championship Meet will be hosted the following week in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The meet will be hosted by NCAA DII Converse University at the Roger Miliken Center. Heien and Markelz will both be looking to return to Nationals for the third and second time respectively. Lewis & Clark has sent at least one runner to Nationals in five-straight seasons.
