VANCOUVER, Wash. - The Penguins returned to the course after a week off and for the second meet in a row had impressive showings by both the Men's and Women's teams. In a field that included 11 total teams and multiple 4-year Universities, the Clark men finished 4th and the women 5th, both tops among 2-year programs.

The Men once again took to the course first and were led by Branden Chou who finished 16th overall in a time of 19:45 for the 6K course. Sophomores Timmy Bradshaw and Ryan Koenninger came in right next to each other in 23rd and 24th overall.  The three Penguins made up three of the top four community college finishers.  Freshman Cain Duncan, who was running his first ever 6K came in next for Clark with a time of 20:33. The Sophomore duo of Dylan Stevenson and Mason Ball also ran well for Clark. Finishing with almost identical times of 21:01, they came in with places of 36th and 37th respectively. Elijah Cisneros rounded out the top seven with a much better performance in his second race as a Penguin. He cracked the top forty and was less than 10 seconds behind his teammates. Coach Owen Frasier was pleased with the Men's showing, stating: "This was a huge day for our Men's program! We had excellent performances all across the board and really cut down the gap between our top two and the rest of our team. Ryan had one of his best races at Clark, and Mason and Dylan ran very well too. We believe the longer distances will be where our men will shine, and the move from 5K to 6K definitely showed that. Hopefully when we add the additional 2K for the rest of the season, we keep getting stronger."

The Women's race followed the Men's, where we once again saw freshman Mia Beightol shine against top competition. Beightol finished third overall in a time of 19:03, which was a 37 second PR and the 11th fastest 5K time in Clark College Women's history. Dani Buttrell also excelled for the second consecutive race. Her time of 20:20 was good enough for a top 20 finish. The two biggest improvements for Clark from meet one to meet two were put in by Sophomore Lauren Filipczak and freshman Vaughn Shimko. Each of them improved by almost 40 seconds from meet one and finished 29th and 30th overall respectively while almost breaking the 21 minute mark. Sadie Schierscher also improved in her second meet and completed the Penguin top five in a time of 21:16.  Kennedy Taylor, Emma Cortez, Taylor Souders and Brandi Damos all finished inside the top 50 overall. Cortez, Souders and Damos all ran their best times in a Clark uniform to date.  Coach Frasier was once again excited about the Women's performance, especially seeing new teammates step up, stating: "Really proud of Lauren and Vaughn for their races on Friday. One of the strengths of our Women's team is going to be the fact that our 3-7 will be interchangeable, meaning any of them are capable of running fast on a given day. In any great team, you need depth. Not every athlete is going to run their best at each race. Therefore, you need as many runners as possible to be able to pick up the slack when an athlete has an off day."

Both teams will have the upcoming weekend off before returning to action at Western Washington University, Saturday September 28th in Ferndale, WA.

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