The Clark College cross country team had a solid performance at the South Region Championships on Friday in Springfield, Oregon. Racing on one of the top courses in the Northwest, the Penguins made the most of a somewhat wet day and still put up solid times across the board. Though the women finished two runners shy of the five runners needed to score, the men put forth a strong team race to finish a respectable fourth place overall.

The women were first on the course, and for the third race in row freshman Pearl Tomulty (Ellensburg High School/Ellensburg, WA) was the top finisher. Her time of 28:42 for the 6K distance was a new personal best as she continues to rise up the NWAC rankings. Fresh off her best race off the season the last time out, Nico Field (Heritage High School/Vancouver, WA) turned in another great race at Regionals. Field moved up from 39^th place to 35^th over the second phase of the race. Rounding out the finishers for Clark was Nayeli Vergara (The Dalles High School/The Dalles, OR). Vergara also made surges during the race and improved her 6K time by almost forty seconds from her previous personal best.

Penguin assistant coach Sarah Coon was excited about the women's team performance. "The women ran really great. This is by far the toughest region in the NWAC, so to have all of our women finish in the top forty is a great accomplishment. If we get 100% healthy for NWACs in two weeks I think we will be able to put together our best team race of the season."

The men went out at an unusual race time of 1:30 but were unfazed by the late start. Dekota Houfek (Prairie High School/Brush Prairie, WA) led the charge as the Penguin low stick once again and finished with a time of 27:45. It was his third consecutive 8K race under 28 minutes and his efforts earned him Second Team All-Region honors. Just missing the All-Region team in seventeenth place was fellow freshman Tate Armstrong (Mark Morris High School/Longview, WA). Armstrong improved several places throughout the race in route to running his second fastest 8K of the season. Coming in next was Erik Hardy (Ridgefield High School/Ridgefield, WA) as he continued his strong second half of the season with a 24^th place overall finish. Completing the scoring for Clark were Liam DeViney (Hockinson High School/Hockinson, WA) and Evan Hollis (Ridgefield High School/Ridgefield, WA) who both ran under the 30 minute mark.

Clark head coach Scott Cook saw great things from the men's team in spite of the race being just one week after a big breakthrough at the George Oja Invitational. "We had so many personal bests last week at George Oja and we're mostly focused on the NWAC Championships in two weeks, so given those two things I was really happy with the way the guys ran today. We're continuing to get better each week as our three through seven runners improve and close the gap with our top two. I am pumped for NWACs." 

Next up, Clark heads to the NWAC Championships in Spokane, WA on Monday, November 10th.  There, the Penguins will hope to conclude their season with some great performances to build momentum into winter training and the track season this upcoming January.

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