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Mountaineer
Thinclads Getting Underway
Men look for best
season ever, Women look to improve over '02
August 21, 2003
2003 Mountaineer
Cross Country
Schedule |
| Date |
Meet |
| 9/6 |
Whitman Invite |
| 9/12 |
Portland (men) |
| 9/20 |
EOU Parent's Day
(no meet) |
| 9/27 |
Louisville Preview
(women) |
| 10/4 |
Willamette Invite |
| 10/11 |
EOU Open
(Homecoming) |
| 10/18 |
Spokane CC Invite
(women) |
| 10/18 |
Arkansas Chili Pepper
Invite (men) |
| 10/25 |
Treasure Valley CC
invite |
| 11/8 |
CCC/Region I
Championships |
| 11/22 |
NAIA National
Championships |
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After 61 days of quiet hallways and empty
playing fields, Quinn Coliseum, the soccer field, and Community
Stadium are alive once again with the sounds of intercollegiate
athletics.
Eastern Oregon University will embark on
its 74th season college sports this season and the outlook is
promising. All four of the fall sports return a strong core of
returners.
Three of the four fall Mountaineer
athletic teams have reported for pre-season workouts, the only
exception is cross country, who will report next week.
Men's Cross Country -
2003 Roster
| Schedule
And when they report, the the Eastern
Oregon men's cross country team should be ranked #1 or #2 in the NAIA
2003 pre-season poll and the women's team should make the top-25.
Earlier in the week, it was no shock that the Mountaineer men were picked
first in this year's CCC pre-season poll.
The NAIA pre-season
poll will be released on August 29.
Coach Ben Welch is excited about the
upcoming season, and he should be. "There
is a great deal of national exposure on this team. We will have our
top three (Alex McGladrey, Brian Crowl and Michael
Greenman), 5th (Pat Egelus) and 7th (Nick Fikes)
back from last year's national squad, plus the three redshirts from
last year; Tim Riley, Ian Schroeder and Eric
Griffiths. Add to that Jacob Haas (#4-5 for Syracuse last
fall... yes, that Syracuse) and several potentially strong freshmen and it should be a fun
year." One
possible blow to Coach Welch's game plan is that last year's Cascade Collegiate Conference and NAIA
Region I Individual champion Crowl, is recovering from off-season
hernia surgery in June. "We
may or may not red-shirt him (Crowl). If not, then we will
probably not race him until
mid-season at the earliest regardless," stated Welch. Crowl,
a senior from La Pine, still leads a group of well seasoned veterans into
one of the most promising seasons for Mountaineer athletics.
"The
best part about this group, is that we only lose two, maybe three men for 2004,"
Welch went on to say. "2003 looks real good for us, but
2004 is down right scary." Welch
is correct. As you look forward to the 2004 season, the
Mountaineers will return with four seniors, including three 5th-year
seniors. Women's
Cross Country - 2003 Roster
| Schedule
"Our women's team will be young, but
the younger members are going to be the engine of the team,"
states Welch as the women's look to return to the NAIA National meet
in its new home of Louisville, Ky.
Earlier this week, the Mountaineer women
were chosen to finish second in this year's CCC race. The
defending national champion Northwest College was chosen first.
The Mountaineer women's squad, who
finished tied for seventh at last year's NAIA Championships meet, will
be led by the Mountaineer's lone senior Kelsey Jones.
Jones, a native of Seward, Alaska, led the
contingent of seven Mountaineers at the 2002 Championships with a 24th
place finish.
Finishing just one second behind Jones in
27th place was Jessyca Barker. Barker, a junior from La
Grande, now has two year's championship caliber competition under her
belt with last year's NAIA meet and the NSCAA meet her freshman year
at Southern Virginia College.
Some of the newcomers to the team include
local Union High School standout Stephanie Colkitt and
Beaverton native Lauren
Plymire.
Colkitt won a state title her senior year at Union. She transfers
in after a season at Oregon State University and did not compete
since the Beavers do not sponsor cross country nor track & field.
Plymire's Sunset High School team finished
15th in the Oregon State 4 A meet in 2002. She finished 127th in
the race with a time of 22 minutes, 4 seconds.
When asked about the upcoming CCC season,
Welch responded with, "Northwest (2002 NAIA National
Champion) is still the team to beat. LCSC
and Simon Fraser will be stronger this season and Southern Oregon and
British Columbia will definitely be better."
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