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PORTLAND, Ore.—Lewis & Clark College men's and women's cross country kick off their season on Friday morning at Milo McIver State Park, when they host the Lewis & Clark Opener beginning at 9:30 a.m. 
 
NORTHWEST CONFERENCE PRESEASON POLLS 
 
After finishing in fourth place last Fall, men's cross country was picked to place fourth in this year's Northwest Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll. The Pioneers earned 45 points in the poll and Whitman University (47) edged them by just two points. Whitman finished ahead of Lewis & Clark by 18 points at last year's NWC Championship, but the Pioneers finished one spot and four points ahead of the Blues at Regionals. Six-time defending NWC Champions George Fox University earned six first-place votes and 62 total points to finish first overall. Whitworth University was a close second, as the Pirates earned the final three first-place votes and garnered 59 points.
 
Women's cross country was selected to finish in a tie for fourth, after finishing in the four spot at last year's NWC Championship. The Pioneers (90) finished just 14 points behind Willamette University (76) and 11 behind Whitworth (79) at NWCs, and were 51 points clear of fifth-place University of Puget Sound (141). At Regionals, Lewis & Clark placed second only to George Fox among NWC schools, as their 218 points were nearly 100 less than Willamette (312) who placed third among NWC teams. This year's Pioneers team took home 40 points to tie for fourth with the Loggers. Four-time defending NWC Champions George Fox University garnered seven of the nine first-place votes and 63 total points. Whitworth (54 points) and Willamette (49) each took home one first-place vote to finish second and third. 
 
KEY RETURNERS 
 
Men's cross country is hoping that their experience and depth will help them get over the top this year. They bring back nine of their 10 runners who competed at the NWC Championship last Fall and 13 of their 17 runners are upperclassmen. Lewis & Clark will hope that the groups experience in running at NWCs, Regionals and the 2024 NCAA DIII Pre-Nationals Meet, will help them move up the conference and regional standings. 
 
Junior Evan Markelz will likely be the team's top runner for a third-straight season. After setting the program-record time over 8K as a first year (24:08.4), he won two races as a sophomore and earned his first trip to NCAA DIII Nationals. Markelz has consistently proven to be one of the top runners in the conference. He finished third at NWCs as a first year, fourth as a sophomore and placed 10^th overall at Regionals last Fall. Fellow sophomore Quinn Higgins took a big step forward as a sophomore and will aim to make another jump this season. Higgins ran the 21^st-fastest time in program history at last year's Regional Championship Meet (25:16) and placed second on the team in all seven meets he ran. He just missed out on a spot on the All-Conference (17^th place) and All-Region (36^th) teams last year, and will look to make both teams for the first time in his career this year. 
 
Any number of runners could make an impact and score points for the Pioneers in the final three spots. Juniors Samuel Garcia and Emil Miller finished fourth and fifth on the team at Regionals in 2024. Garcia has dealt with injuries in each of his first two years but has shown the potential to be a top-three runner on the team. Miller was super consistent in his first year on Palatine Hill and finished in fourth or fifth place in every meet as a sophomore. Senior Theron Plumb, juniors Colin Shimabukuro, Gavin Sellers and Jordan Wu and sophomore AJ Gibbs, all could be in contention for one of the final scoring spots this season. 
 
Women's cross country graduated two of their top three runners in NWC Champion Riley Buese and number three runner Madeleine Boyle. While the Pioneers will certainly miss two of their most consistent runners, they hope that their veteran roster (eight upperclassmen) will help them in their big races this Fall. 
 
Senior Malia Heien will step into the number one spot in the women's lineup for the first time in her career. Heien has proven herself to be one of the top runners in the conference in a number of events and will look to earn a third-straight trip to Cross Country Nationals. She enters her senior season ranked seventh in program history over 6K, after turning in a career-best time of 21:50.7 at Regionals last year to place 17^th overall. In her last two seasons, she has finished fourth overall at NWCs and will look to move up, after two of the top three runners graduated or transferred. Junior Skylar Willow and sophomore Talia Tomhave will aim to move up in the lineup after Buese and Boyle graduated. Willow and Tomhave finished in the top-five on the team in every race last season and both runners ran the fastest 6K times of their career at Regionals. Willow cracked the top-30 in program history (23:14.8 – 28^th all-time) and Tomhave turned in the 30^th-fastest time by a first year (24:06.8). 
 
Seniors Miriam Reside and Emogene Lutz, junior Nadia Cota and sophomore Maeva Conroy will all hope to earn one of the final spots in the team's lineup. Reside is coming off the best track & field season of her career that saw her earn All-Conference honors in the 4x400M Relay and finish eighth overall in the 800M at NWCs. Lutz is looking to return to the form of her first and second season that saw her finish sixth on the team at NWCs and fifth at Regionals in 2022. She owns the 48^th-fastest time in program history with a career-best 6K mark of 23:59.5. Cota put together the best year of her career as a sophomore – as she posted PR times over 4K, 5K and 6K races. Conroy missed time with injuries during her first season and will look to take a step forward as a sophomore. 
 
THREE THINGS TO WATCH 

1. Lewis & Clark has sent at least one runner to Nationals in five-consecutive seasons and multiple runners in three-straight years. The five-year stretch is tied for the longest in program history, matching the program's feat from 2009-2013. Heien (125^th and 135^th places) and Markelz (138^th place) have both earned trips to Nationals before. They will be aiming to punch their ticket again, when the team travels to Pomona-Pitzer for Regionals on November 15. Lewis & Clark has never sent the same men's and women's pairing to Cross Country Nationals multiple times.
2. Both cross country teams are aiming to extend their top-four streak at NWCs to six years in a row. Women's cross country has finished second (twice), third (twice) and fourth dating back to the 2019 season. Men's cross country has placed second (once), third (three times) and fourth (once) in the same span. 
3. The Pacific Lutheran University Invitational on Saturday, September 20 will be a strong preview of what's to come at NWCs this year. The Lutes will host the PLU Invitational on the PLU Meadows Course - the same venue that will be the site of this year's NWC Championship on November 1. All nine conference schools are scheduled to travel to Tacoma for the PLU Invitational this year and it will be a barometer of where the conference teams stand just six weeks out from the NWC Championship Meet.