Event: WCC Championships
Date: Friday, Oct. 29, 2021
Location: Newhall Community Park in Concord, Calif.
Live Stats: portlandpilots.com
Video: portlandpilots.com
 
Schedule of Events
Women's 6K: 10 a.m.
Men's  8K: 11 a.m.
 
THIS WEEK
• The Pilots No. 17 men's and No. 27 women's cross country teams will send select runners to compete at the West Coast Conference Cross Country Championships on Friday, October 29th at Newhall Community Park in Concord, Calif.
• The women's 6K will kick off the championship races starting at 10 a.m., with the men's 8K event to follow at 11 a.m.
• In the WCC Preseason polls released back at the start of September, both Portland programs were slated for second, only behind both of BYU's squads.
• All-American Anna Pataki looks to defend her individual championship at last year's conference meet, where the Pilots women finished second to the Cougars.
• The Portland men finished in third-place behind BYU and Gonzaga at last year's conference championships.
• Live video and live results will both be available for the meet at portlandpilots.com.
 
LAST RACES
• The men's program collected 16th place in the team results at the prestigious Nuttycombe Invitational back on October 15th, led by Bradley Peloquin's 56th-place individual finish in the 8K.
• All-American Anna Pataki crossed the line first for the Portland women in the Nuttycombe 6K event, landing in 30th-place, and the women's side nabbed 17th in the team scores.
• The Portland men followed up that performance by cruising to a team win at the Lewis & Clark XC Classic on October 16th, where 11 runners notched new 8K personal bests--including George Duggan, who secured second-place individually at the meet.
• The Portland women collected third as a squad at the Lewis & Clark XC Invite 6K, with Ellie Erikson coming in first for the Pilots in 18th-place overall.
 
THIS SEASON
• Ellie Erikson collected second place overall in the 5K and the Pilots women's cross country squad topped the team scores with just 56 points the Charles Bowles Invitational on October 2nd.
• The Portland men claimed second only to the 13th-ranked Washington Huskies at the Charles Bowles Invite, and were led by Thomas Salas' eighth-place individual finish in the 8K event.
• The women's cross country team took fourth after defeating several nationally ranked programs at the Bill Dellinger Invitational on Sept. 23.
• Anna Pataki collected third-place overall at 20:07.7 in the 6K, and Laura Pellicoro came in seventh at 20:18.5.
• Matt Strangio finished first for the 22nd-ranked Portland men at the Dellinger Invite, claiming ninth-place overall while recording a new personal best of 23:32.5 in the 8K run. The men's team scored 100 total points to land in fourth-place in the team results.
• Justin Hazell nabbed an individual win in the men's 8K at the Mike Johnson Classic on Sept. 24, and the squad topped the team results with all five scorers finishing in the top-10 spots.
• Evelyn Collins-Winn clocked in first for the Pilots women in sixth-place overall at 22:28.30 in the Johnson Classic 6K.
• Portland's men's and women's programs both placed second to the in-the-polls Oregon Ducks at the Lewis & Clark Chase Race to open their 2021 seasons.
• Justin Hazel from the men's side claimed second-place individually in the 4M event, and Lacey Conner finished first for the Pilots women in the 3M at 11th overall.
• Matt Strangio and Laura Pellicoro each picked up individual wins in the men's 6K and women's 4K, respectively, at the PSU Rust Buster on September 3.
• The Pilots men defeated Portland State in the team scores while the Portland women finished second only to No. 22 Oregon State.
• The Portland men return all seven runners who competed at last year's NCAA Cross County Championships in Stillwater, Okla.--redshirt freshman Bradley Peloquin, redshirt juniors Zak Kirk, Cathal Doyle, and Evert Silva, seniors Jacob Klemz and Stan Niesten, and redshirt senior Riley Osen.
• Kirk returns as the Pilots' first-finisher from the race (60th place) held at OSU Cross Country Course, which was recognized as one of the hardest courses to ever host the national meet.
• The Pilots men's cross country team also welcomes 12 newcomers to the Bluff this fall.
• The Portland women return four of the seven who competed at last year's NCAA Cross Country Championships--freshman Samantha Prusse, junior Emma Jenkins, redshirt junior and All-American Anna Pataki, and senior Veerle Bakker.
• Pataki comes back after making her second appearance at the NCAA Cross Country Championships last year, and recorded the sixth-best finish in program history with her 31st-place individual performance.
• The Pilots women's cross country team has also added six freshmen to their roster for the upcoming 2021 season.
 
LAST SEASON
• The men's team finished 21st at the 2020 NCAA Cross Country Championships, marking the program's 21st overall appearance at the NCAA Championships since 1993 under the guidance of head coach Rob Conner.
• The Pilot men remained in the top-25 of the USTFCCCA National Coaches' Poll throughout the entire 2020 season, reaching as high as the No. 7 program in the country back in Week 4.
• The Portland men collected third place at the West Coast Conference Cross Country Championships this past year, and Evert Silva earned All-WCC First Team honors with his sixth-place individual finish.
• Klemz, Kirk, and Niesten each garnered All-WCC Second Team honors with their Top-15 performances at the 2020 conference championship meet.
• The women's squad finished 22nd at the 2020 NCAA Cross Country Championships in Stillwater, and made their first appearance as a team since the 2018.
• Pataki won the women's individual title at last year's West Coast Conference Cross Country Championships at Craig Ranch Regional Park, crossing the line more than eight seconds before the next runner.
• The Portland women nabbed third as a team at the 2020 conference championships, and had three members recognized on the All-WCC First Team: Pataki, Victoria Weir, and Stella Gillman.
• The women's team will be without Weir and Gillman in 2021, in addition to last year's NCAA Elite 90 recipient Sofia Castiglioni.
• The Portland women's cross country program earned a 2020 NCAA Division I All-Academic Team Award after the completion of last season, as the Pilots posted a stunning 3.75 team cumulative grade-point average, highest among all teams that competed at this year's NCAA Cross Country Championships.
• Six women's runners also earned individual All-Academic awards, including Bakker, Jenkins, and Pataki.
• The Portland men were also honored as a 2020 All-Academic Team with their 3.19 cumulative GPA from the fall semester of last year.
• Five members of the men's program also notched individual All-Academic accolades in Doyle, Kirk, Niesten, Osen, and Peloquin.
 
PILOTS IN THE POLLS
• In the Week 5 NCAA DI Cross Country National Coaches Polls, the Portland men jumped nine spots from the week before to land at No. 17 overall, and the Portland women remain on the list for the sixth week running at No. 27.