Men's Cross Country | 11.21.2019

VANCOUVER, Washington – The course is set and national titles are up for grabs on Friday for Lewis-Clark State Cross Country. The men head into the NAIA Cross Country National Championships ranked seventh in the nation, while the women go into the meet unranked after falling just outside the top 25. Head coach Mike Collins is confident that both teams are ready for the challenge.
 
"I think they are starting to get excited," Collins said. "We are at the point in the semester where you get kind of overwhelmed by everything from classes to the racing and training, so it takes a little bit to get that excitement up and running."
 
The No. 7 men are making their 15^th-straight appearance at the national meet after a dominant performance at the 2019 Frontier Conference Championships, blowing away the competition with 24 points. Cole Olsen took the men's individual title with a time of 25:31, and Chase Barrow and Clayton VanDyke rounded out the meet's top three in second and third, respectively. Connor Turpin and Dillon Dawson both finished in the top 10 as well to give the Warriors five of the 10 All-Frontier Conference honors.
 
The men have not finished a meet outside of the top six all season. They placed 10^th at 2018 Cross Country Nationals.
 
"The men are, knock on wood, as healthy as they've been all season," Collins said. "I think they are pretty confident in their abilities and they're definitely very goal-minded in what they want to accomplish this week. They have a shot at a top-four finish. I think there are one or two teams that a lot better than everybody else if they run well, but I think there are about seven other teams that have a shot a trophy and we are one of them."
 
Olsen, Barrow and Vandyke have been the team's "Big Three" all season long. All three have brought home Frontier Conference Runner of the Week awards at least once, have been the top Warrior finisher at a meet at least once, and they claimed the top-three spots at the conference meet.
 
"I think all three are in good positions to be All-Americans," Collins said. "Obviously Cole as a returning All-American knows what it takes, but every race is different and this is a different kind of course which takes a different type of strategy to run well on. Chase and Clayton have been steady all season long so I don't expect anything else from them."
 
The Warrior women will make their 19^th-straight appearance at nationals. They were one of the final teams granted an at-large berth into the championships and they plan to use that as fuel in their race.
 
"We had some injuries and things pop up on us," Collins said. "I think the mentality is the same across the board in that we just feel lucky to be there. I was a little shocked that we got in on the women's side, but it says an awful lot about these girls and the history of our program. Hopefully these girls have something to prove; that we are not the 27^th-best team in country and that we are better than that. We will see what happens."
 
Emily Adams was the team's lone All-Frontier Conference finisher at the conference meet, and was an All-American last season at the national race.
 
The races will take place at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site in Vancouver, Wash. on Friday. The men will race first beginning at 10:30 a.m., with the women following at 11:30 a.m. An awards ceremony will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Vancouver Hilton Hotel Heritage Ballroom. Admission is free.
 
Live results can be found HERE, and a live stream of the awards ceremony will be available HERE. There will not be a live stream of the race.