Event: Charles Bowles Invitational
Host: Willamette
Date: Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021
Location: Bush's Pasture Park in Salem, Ore.
Live Stats: portlandpilots.com
Video: portlandpilots.com
 
Schedule of Events
Men's 8K: 9:30 a.m.
Women's 5K: 10:20 a.m.
 
THIS WEEK
• The Pilots No. 20 women's and No. 22 men's cross country teams will send select runners to compete at the Charles Bowles Invitational hosted by Willamette on Saturday, October 2nd at Bush's Pasture Park in Salem, Ore.
• The men's runners will race in an 8K event beginning at 9:30am, with the women's 5K to follow at 10:20am.
• Live results and a live video stream will be available for the meet at portlandpilots.com.
 
LAST RACES
• The 20th-ranked women's cross country team took fourth after defeating several nationally ranked programs at the Bill Dellinger Invitational on Thursday.
• 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 Friday, 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.
 
THIS SEASON
• 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 3 NCAA DI Cross Country National Coaches Polls, the Portland women broke the Top-25 for the first time this season, landing at No. 20 overall, and the Portland men remain on the list for the fourth week running at No. 22.
• In the Week 3 West Region Rankings, the women are currently No. 3, and the men sit at No. 5.