PORTLAND, Ore.--- The Portland Pilots men's and women's cross country teams will compete this Friday at the Beaver Classic held at Avery Park in Corvallis, Ore. The two teams continue to be nationally ranked this week with the women at No. 8 and the men at No. 12. In the regional rankings, the women sit at No. 3 in the West, while the men are at No. 4.
 
The Portland women will first compete in the women's 6k at 4:00 p.m. on Friday,with freshmen Natalie Smith and Maddy Lyons leading the Pilots' JV squad. The team comes off of a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Pre-Nationals last weekend,where they competed against six other nationally ranked teams.
 
The Portland men will then compete in the 8K race at 5:00 p.m. The men also come off of a challenging weekend, where they split their varsity group between the elite Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational and the NCAA Pre-Nationals. Racing against nationally ranked teams in both meets, the men took seventh overall in Wisconsin, where they ran their top seven runners, and 23rd at Pre-Nationals.