EOU Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Start Season in NAIA Top 25
By Joe Hathaway on Friday, August 25th, 2023 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
LA GRANDE — (Release by EOU) The NAIA has released the inaugural 2023 top 25 rankings for Men’s and Women’s Cross Country. Eastern Oregon men’s team rose to No. 9 nationally, up from their No. 13 position at the end of the 2022 season, whereas the women’s team secured the No. 25 ranking.
The Mountaineer men’s team is coming off a highly successful 2022 season that saw them finish 12th at the NAIA Men’s Cross Country Championship and ranked as high as No. 4 in the NAIA Cross Country top 25 poll.
From Head Coach Ben Welch, “Given who we have back, where the guys finished at Nationals and a few other factors, I anticipated they would be ranked in the 8 to 12 range, so No. 9 seems like a nice starting point.”
The Eastern Oregon women ended the 2022 season with a fifth place finish at the Cascade Collegiate Conference Championships.
“Honestly, opening the season as No. 25 is a nice surprise. I anticipated they would get a few votes in the preseason poll, but was not expecting the top 25! We hope to finish the season up there, but it is a nice nod of respect to the team to be recognized early on.” Said Coach Welch.
Both the Men’s and Women’s Cross Country teams will kick off there seasons on Friday, Sept. 15 as they travel to Caldwell, Idaho to compete in the Cascade Collegiate Conference Preview.
