Eagles End Up 4th on Oregon Trail

Results 

(10/1/07 - Men's Cross Country) SALEM, Ore. - The Concordia University men’s cross country team headed to the Pacific Northwest over the weekend and came home with a fourth place finish against some of the area’s best at the Charles Bowles Invitational hosted by Willamette University. The Eagles totaled 156 points, with an average time of 25:23 against 26 other schools in the meet.

Alaeeddine Khannouchi once again led CUI with an eighth place finish. Khannouchi posted a 24:45 mark for the day. Jorge Jabaz was the Eagles’ second scoring runner, coming in not far behind Khannouchi in 25:02, good for the number 13 spot.

Raymundo Vazquez (40th) was next in for Concordia with a time of 25:34, followed three seconds later by teammate Tony Pulido (25:37) who claimed the 41st place finish. Guillermo Cazares rounded out the Eagles’ scoring runners by coming in 63rd, completing the run in 25:58.

Joseph Lopez (26:45) and Axel Ambriz (26:45) came in side by side as Concordia’s displaced runners. The two finished 116th and 117th, scoring 93 and 94 points in their team’s efforts.

Luis De La Vega (128th) was the first of CUI’s non-scoring runners, notching a 26:57 mark. Tomas Aguirre (27:25) came in 156th, followed by Jarid Rollins (214th, 29:08) and Chris Lightfoot (222nd), who completed the race in 29:36.

"Overall I think we did have a successful weekend," said head coach Martin Gonzalez. "Finishing just 20 or so points away from some powerful teams in a big meet gives us a lot of momentum for the rest of the season. What is more motivating is that we did that with having an average performance."

The Eagles will take this coming weekend off before their Alumni Run on October 13th.  The run will be Concordia’s last chance to prepare for October 20th when CUI will compete in the GSAC Championships.  The conference meet will be held in Costa Mesa at Fairview Park.