INDEPENDENCE, Ore. — Eight of Pacific Lutheran University's 10 runners collected personal best times on Saturday, including a top 25 finish from both Anna Iverson and Sal Mattivi as the Lutes placed seventh as a team at the 2024 Northwest Conference Championships at Oak Knoll Golf Course.
 
Less than two seconds separated PLU's top two runners with Anna Iverson and Sal Mattivi both clocking personal best times in the 6,000-meter distance at the championship meet. Iverson stopped the clock in 23 minutes, 9.4 seconds to secure 21st overall while Mattivi was one spot back in 22nd with a massive PR of 23:11.6. Mattivi had a strong finish to the race, sitting 31st overall after the first kilometer of racing and ended up shaving off 79 seconds from her previous best effort at the 6K distance. The Bremerton, Washington native was just the second first-year across the finish line.
 
The next three Lutes all finished within 11 seconds of each other with Zoey Diviney leading the way, finishing 44th in a personal best time of 24:40.1. Annika Deazley was one spot back in 45th in 24:45.9 while Jessalyn Robles was 47th in her NWC meet debut, clocking a personal best effort of 24:51.6.
 
Victoria Lindley and Natalie Moran-Padilla rounded out the Lutes' top seven, both finishing in personal best times. Lindley navigated the course in 25:19.7, moving up 20 spots from the opening kilometer to the finish while Moran-Padilla was 65th in 26:15.4.
 
Also netting personal bests on the day was Rachel Rosario (26:34.1) and Sophia Czar (27:35.9).

"That was a great overall performance from everyone! Nearly everyone pr'd and really pushed themselves. It's really hard to pick out any single performance from the group because everyone did something noteworthy. Zoey took a tumble and still got back up to Annika and Jess, those two pushed each other and held off a lot of other runners," said Head Coach Jacob Wahlenmaier.

"Anna run a gutsy performance in the midst of the lead pack and Sal pushed to be the second fastest freshman in the field. I'm really proud of the whole team and what they did today."
 
PLU tallied 168 points in the team standings, logging a seventh place showing. The Lutes were 25-points shy of sixth place Whitman College and four points clear of Pacific University (172 points). George Fox University retained the crown, scoring 40 points with host Willamette University runner-up with 76 points. Whitworth University scored 79 points to finish third followed by Lewis & Clark College (90 points) and the University of Puget Sound (141 points). 
 
Lewis & Clark's Riley Buese was the individual champion, touring the 6K race course in 21:16.6.
 
The Lutes are back in action in two weeks, racing at the NCAA Division III West Region Championship on Nov. 16 in Portland, Oregon.