Results
WALLA WALLA, Wash. — Sal Mattivi notched a Top 25 finish on Saturday as the Pacific Lutheran University women's cross country team bagged five personal records and three season bests at the Whitman Open.
Mattivi placed 21st overall and ninth among Division III competitors, cruising around the 6,000-meter course in a season-best effort of 24 minutes, 12.93 seconds, shaving off 45 seconds from racing at the PLU Invitational two weeks ago.
Maddie Mitchell was 29th overall in her second career 6K race, finishing in a personal record time of 24:47.65.
Jessalyn Robles was the third Lute across the finish line, placing 41st in a season best effort of 25:24.13.
Rachel Rosario and Marel Robles rounded out the Lute scoring five, finishing back-to-back and both collecting PR finishes. Rosario led the way, placing 46th in 25:46.72 with Robles 47th in 25:47.42.
Natalie Moran-Padilla was 53rd in a PR time of 26:08.30 with
Piper Gannon in hot pursuit, placing one spot back in a PR effort of 26:12.12. Lili Andres was 66th with a season-best time of 28:18.38.
"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."
The Lutes finished sixth in the team standings, accumulating 154 points and sitting 45 points shy of fifth place and host Whitman College. Division I University of Montana won the team title with the Grizzlies scoring 22 points and boasting the individual champion in Kayla Ingraham who finished in 22:17.35.
Pacific Lutheran takes next week off before trekking to Oregon for the George Oja Invitational, the final regular season meet before the Lutes host the 2025 Northwest Conference Championships.
