*This article contains a correction
The Whitworth men placed four runners in the top 10 and ran to victory on Nov. 1 after defeating a field that consisted of eight Northwest Conference teams at the NWC Championships in Walla Walla, Wash., a feat that hadn’t been accomplished for 36 years.
Two weeks later the Pirates raced to the finish line ahead of the pack once again to finish first in the NCAA Division III West Regional meet in Salem, Ore. and set an all-time standard for Whitworth cross-country.
The Bucs defeated a field of 15 teams, including NWC powerhouses Puget Sound, Lewis & Clark and Willamette, along with teams from Occidental, Cal Lutheran and Pomona-Pitzer, to name a few.
“I think the wins speak for themselves,” junior Emmanuel Bofa said. “It is an honor to be part of history; you can’t take it away.”
Sophomore Nick Gallagher led the Pirate men both weekends, with a second-place finish at the NWC Championship and first place in a field of 107 runners on Saturday, Nov. 15 at the NCAA Division III West Regional meet.
Gallagher made history by finishing in first on Saturday and capturing the NCAA Division III regional title, a feat no other Whitworth individual has ever accomplished.
Three Whitworth runners finished with personal-best achievements to dominate on Saturday and give the Pirates first, seventh and eighth place.
Gallagher finished the eight-kilometer race in first* place with a time of 25:01.25, just hundredths of a second in front of second-place finisher and Puget Sound runner, Francis Reynolds (25:01.43).
Whitworth controlled the race until the 4-mile mark where Reynolds overtook Gallagher and maintained the lead until the final seconds when Gallagher regained first-place position and held off Reynolds until the finish.
“Our top three runners take it out really hard and set the pace for everyone else,” Bofa said.
Junior Dusty Caseria finished in 25:23.13 and sophomore Aaron Jenkins crossed the finish line in 25:25.46 earning seventh and eighth place, respectively, to put three Whitworth runners in the top ten and secure the win.
Bofa took 20th (25:42.24) and freshman Tyler Dudley finished in 31st (25:57.04) to round out the scoring for the Bucs.
Five top-35 finishes gave all Whitworth scoring runners All-West Region honors.
The top two teams from the West Regional meet, Whitworth and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, automatically qualify for the the national meet, as well as the top seven individual finishers from other teams.
The national meet will take place at Hanover College in Hanover, Ind., next Saturday.
“We got to nationals as a team, we accomplished this as a team,” Bofa said. “We are going in with the mentality that we can accomplish great things on a team level.”
Contact Danika Heatherly at danika.heatherly@whitworthian.com.
*Gallagher's place was incorrectly stated in the original article.
Men's cross-country heads to nationals
Published: Sunday, November 23, 2008
Updated: Saturday, February 28, 2009
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