SPRINGFIELD, Ore. – Sophomore
Stephanie Hescock earned All-Conference honors and led the Northwest Christian University women’s cross country team to their best finish in school history on Saturday as the Beacons took fifth in the CCC Championship.
Hosted by Northwest Christian at Dorris Ranch, the CCC title was won for the second straight season by The College of Idaho. The Yotes, ranked #6 in the NAIA, scored 36 points. The battle for second-place was hotly contested with three teams coming within two points of each other. Concordia took second with 94 points, followed by Southern Oregon in third with 95, and # 19 Eastern Oregon in fourth with 96.
The Beacons were next, scoring 122 points. Hescock led the team with a 9th-place finish, scoring the third-fastest time in school history at (18:51).
Megan Hall was next in 16th place at 19:04.
Riley Swanson and Sierra Schorer-Noll came in 31st and 32nd with identical official times of 19:50. Rounding out the scoring was
Brittany Arch in 37th, 20:04.
Head Coach Heike McNeil said, “The women all ran very well, especially Stephanie. Unfortunately Southern, Eastern and Concordia were so strong we needed every single girl to be at their very best to pull this off. It looked as though those teams didn’t have everyone perform at their top level either, what made the difference was their depth. We have a very good team, but we are still growing and the small size of our squad made the difference today.”
Alice Taylor of Concordia broke a course record, winning the women’s event in 17:40. Karlee Coffey from Eastern Oregon took second, followed by Stephanie Helm of College of Idaho in third. Seena Frantz from Southern Oregon took fourth while Tegan Troutner from C of I finished fifth.
Also running for Northwest Christian were
Melissa Edwards in 45th place (20:36) and
Deanna Lund with a personal record of 20:53 in 49th. Also,
Bethany Howard in 55th (21:21),
Veronica Lefaver in 64th (22:17), and
Heather Bush, establishing a personal record at 23:26 (74th).
While the season comes to a close for the NCU women’s team, it might not be over yet for Hescock. The College of Idaho is headed to the NAIA National Championship with an automatic berth and if just one other CCC team earns an At-large bid to the event, Hescock would earn an individual qualification to run at Fort Vancouver in two weeks. At-large bids and individual qualifiers will be announced by the NAIA on Monday.