The Pilot women marked a tenth-place finish at the NCAA West Regionals with a team score of 368. Pilot veteran Nicole Ricci finished first for Portland, 38th overall in a time of 22:41.

Other Pilot scorers included Kristen Rohde (74th, 23:37), Alison Smith (80th, 23:44), Kathy Rice (91st, 23:55), Sarah Grue (94th, 24:00), Jodi Minard (99th, 24:04) and Michelle Pierce (121st, 24:23).

“I didn't think we ran all that well, but I was happy with the team finishing 10th out of 28 teams,” said Assistant Coach Ian Solof. “It was our best team finish since 1994, but I think we have much more potential. We return our entire top five and also have a couple good people who redshirted this season, as well as some excellent recruits for next year. We just need to think a little bigger and we can jump ahead of a few more teams.”

Men’s Race

Portland continued their dominance at the NCAA West Regionals at the Stanford Golf Course in Palo Alto, CA, placing five runners in the top fifty, as they claimed a fourth-place finish with a score of 120. It is the eighth time Portland has finished in the regional top four in Rob Conner’s 13 years as coach. Junior Matt Harriman crossed the line first (10th, 30:42) for Portland, just ahead of teammate Jeff Driscoll (15th, 30:55).

Other Portland finishers included Trevor Coolidge (22nd, 31:22), Kevin Smith (29th, 31:43) and Steve Schaefer (45th, 32:08).

Matt Harriman is an individual qualifier for the NCAA championships on Mon., Nov. 25 in Terre Haute, IN. Portland has had three other individual qualifiers during Conner’s tenure on The Bluff. Jeff Driscoll and Trevor Coolidge earned all-Region distinction by placing in the Top-25. Portland had two runners collapse during the race; Nick Schuetze was running is 13th-place at the five mile mark when he began to dehydrate and staggered near the finish line. He was unable to finish and collapsed 50 meters from the line. Micah Rolfe, also staggered to a DNF at the four mile mark while running in the 22nd position. Ultimately the Pilots had to rely on their sixth and seventh runners but still managed a fourth place finish, just five points behind third-place.

“We did everything we expected to do,” said Head Coach Rob Conner. “We came in ranked sixth in the region but we knew we were the third best team. We wanted to challenge Oregon for second place. Matt (Harriman) ran a great race. It was his first regional meet, but he ran confidently in the lead pack the entire way. Matt has taken a huge mental jump this year. He is very confident and has trained hard to prepare. I am excited to see him run at nationals. Jeff (Driscoll) ran with Matt most of the race. After the race he felt he went out a little harder than he wanted. Jeff was the fifth individual and missed making the NCAA meet by :02 seconds. He was sick most of the season which didn't help either. Trevor (Coolidge) ran almost exactly where we predicted. A month ago I projected him to be about 40th in the region. He has probably improved more than any other regional runner in the past month of training. Placing 22nd at regionals as a freshman is awesome. Kevin (Smith) is our lone senior and has been one of our most consistant runners the past four years. Kevin finished 40th at regionals as a freshman, 27th as a sophomore, 35th as a junior and 29th as a senior. He worked hard this year because he wanted to earn all-Region honors. Steve (Schaefer) did a great job. Going into the meet he was our seventh man. He ran tough and allowed us to finish fourth with his 45th-place finish. It is a valuable lesson, you always have to be ready to contribute. He didn't know he was our fifth man until he passed Nick with less than 100 meters to go. I can't wait until next year! We are hosting the West Regional in Portland and bringing our top runner back off a redshirt season. Next year’s team may be our best ever.”

Full results follow.