Results
WALLA WALLA, Wash. — Noah Friedrich led the way on Saturday as the Pacific Lutheran University men's cross country squad finished eighth as a team at the Whitman Open.
"Boy, what a difference two weeks makes! There have been some natural groupings that have formed in training over the last two weeks, and we were able to use that to our advantage this morning," said Head Coach
Francis Reynolds.
"I'm really grateful to both men's and women's teams for being willing to try new race tactics and run with a team-first mentality. I think it paid dividends and I look forward to that progression in future meets. I'm pleased with how the first years are learning their new race distances and the upperclassmen for their experience and leadership. Unfortunately, we had some health issues which prevented us from running at full strength, but I'm confident that we'll bounce back in two weeks down in Salem. Our focus still remains putting forth our best showing at the conference championships on our home course on November 1."
Friedrich placed 60th overall, finishing the 8,000-meter race in 27 minutes, 49.9 seconds.
Daniel Zimmer was the next Lute in the finisher's chute, clocking a season-best 8K time of 28:26.1 to finish 74th.
Corder Janes was three spots back in 77th, registering an 8K personal best effort of 28:29.2, shaving 30 seconds of his time from two weeks ago.
Isaiah Bradley was just over three seconds behind in 78th, earning a 46-second PR of 28:32.6.
Corban Piper was 96th, rounding out the team's scoring five with a time of 30:02.8.
Jonathan Ochoa and
Jonah Andrews both logged season best performances, entering the finisher's chute with times of 31:08.9 and 31:09.4, respectively.
PLU finished eighth in the team standings in a strong field that included a pair of Division I teams along with squads from Division III, the NAIA, and junior college ranks. The Lutes tallied 244 points while Gonzaga University took the team title, scoring 28 points to edge runner-up University of Montana by 15 points.
The Lutes are back in action on Oct. 18, racing at the George Oja Invitational in the final tune-up before the 2025 Northwest Conference Championships.
