Results

ESTACADA, Ore. — Owen Ladinig clocked a season best time to earn All-Region honors for the third straight year as the Pacific Lutheran University men's cross country team placed 18th at the 2024 NCAA Division III West Region Championships at Milo McIver State Park.
 
"Owen and Kai continued to show why they're our #1 and #2 this season as they ran their best races of the season," said Head Coach Jacob Wahlenmaier. 
 
"For Kai to crack 26:00 for a second time on a course that is a poor match for his running style shows his determination and for Owen to come back after a rough conference race to make All-region shows his resilience. I'm really excited to see what they do during the track season."
 
Ladinig paced the Lutes at Saturday's race, finishing 27th overall after navigating the 8,000-meter course in a season-best effort of 24 minutes, 58.7 seconds. The senior earned All-Region accolades by virtue of his top 35 finish, marking the third consecutive season he has done so.
 
Next in the finisher's chute was Kai Sorensen who was 64th overall in 25:58.5. Daniel Zimmer and Corban Piper where the next two Lute finishers, both netting 8K personal best times. Zimmer crossed the tape 129thoverall in 27:24.8 while Piper was 156th in 28:29.0.

Five places is all that separated PLU's fifth through seventh runners. Noah Friedrich led the charge, finishing 169th overall in 30:41.1. Jonathan Ochoa was one spot back in 31:09.2 while Jonah Andrews was 174thoverall in 31:46.0.
 
PLU finished 18th in the team standings at the 24-team championship, collecting 518 points. The Lutes enjoyed a 30-point lead on Northwest Conference rival Linfield University and was just 17 points shy of 17thplace Southwestern University (Texas).
 
Pomona-Pitzer Colleges took the team title with 42 points with California neighbor Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges runner-up with 101 points. Pomona-Pitzer's Quinn White was the individual champion, zooming around the state park in 24:01.1.