The Whitworthian

Issue date: 10/9/07 Last Updated: 10/8/07

Freshman Nick Gallagher raced to victory as the Whitworth University men ran to a second-place finish in the Pacific Lutheran University Invitational on Saturday Oct. 6.

An unusually dry day in Tacoma made for a cold race as Gallagher, sporting his bright orange beanie and matching running spikes, raced to the first victory of his collegiate career on the 8-kilometer course. This was a very big race, as Northwest Conference schools PLU, University of Puget Sound, Whitman College and Lewis & Clark College all competed. But it was no different than any other race for Gallagher.

"I had the same plan going in, stay with the lead pack until I feel like I can go," Gallagher said.

And "go" he did.

"With about a mile left, I started feeling good, threw in a surge and no one went with me," Gallagher said.

From there on, the race belonged to the Whitworth freshman. Western Oregon University's Braxton Jackson crossed the finish line only six and a half seconds behind him.

The team followed Gallagher's lead and finished second behind Western Oregon, an NCAA Division II school.

Scoring for Whitworth went as follows: Gallagher took first in a time of 25 minutes 8 seconds, senior Jacob Deitz finished fifth in 25:30, sophomore Dusty Caseria grabbed seventh (25:44), junior Jeff Forsyth came in 14th (26:18), and junior Jamie Daroff finished it off for Whitworth scorers in 20th place with a time of 26:39.

The Whitworth women ran hard, coming in third place behind WOU and Whitman.

Coming off a big win two weeks ago, Sophomore Jo E Mayer came in ninth place with a time of 22:47, freshman Sara Wrightman followed Mayer as she took 10th place with a time of 23:04 on the six kilometer course. Junior Jenna Cunningham took 14th place in 23:12, sophomore Emily Morehouse and senior Shannon Newth rounded out Whitworth scoring, finishing in 18th (23:27) and 19th (23:27) places, respectively.

Next week the Pirates will stay in Spokane for the Bigfoot Invitational, hosted by the Community Colleges of Spokane.

Contact Kory Kemp at kory.kemp@whitworthian.com.

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