Story by Tim Melcher

The Clark College Men's Cross-Country team returned home from the Charles Bowen Invitational in Salem, Oregon on Saturday October 5th with results they could be proud of. 
 
The Penguins finished 10th overall as a team at the event, scoring 302 points, and were 4^th among the ten NWAC teams entered. This was a great finish for the Clark men as they were running without one of their top runners Freshman Evans Kaame. 
 
Kaame had placed 47th out of the 119 runners at the Northwest Athletic Conference Preview Race a week earlier. So optimism was extremely high for the team coming into this race.

The penguins were led by Micah Goff, a sophomore out of Union High School. Goff finished 63rd out of 166 runners. His time of 26:58.7 was nearly a minute improvement over his NWAC Preview Race time of 27:51.01, in which he finished 51st out of 119 runners. 
 
Leobardo Llamas, a freshman out of Pasco High School finished 83rd with a time of 27:41.7. That was an improvement over his time at the NWAC Preview race the week before in which he placed 58th out of 119 runners with a time of 28.13.13. 
 
Head Coach Bob Williams says that "there is good competition in the team, they are making each other better. There are 12 guys on the team and only 8 get to race at the NWAC Championship, they are really making each other work every day to get better." He is optimistic about the rest of the season and the outcomes this team can have going forward. 
 
The men have one more meet, The Lewis and Clark Invite, down in Estacada, Oregon on October 19th before they prepare for the NWAC Southern Region Championship Race on Saturday November 2nd. 
 
Clark will follow up the Southern Region Championship with the NWAC Championship race on Monday, November 18^th at St. Martins University in Lacy WA.
 
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