Lumberjacks Collect Conference Sweep for 12th Time Since 2000

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

HILLSBORO, Ore. -- The No. 1-ranked Northern Arizona men's cross country team performed as expected, placing three in the top four of the Big Sky Conference Cross Country Championships, securing the team win and looking ahead to the next challenge on the way to a possible fifth national championship. 

Drew Bosley won his second conference championship race in three years, Nico Young was a step behind him, and Abdihamid Nur was fourth. George Kusche, the Nebraska transfer who was the reigning Big Ten champion, was eighth. And freshman Tristian Merchant took 15th in soggy conditions on the Meriwether National Golf Club course outside Hillsboro, Ore. 

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"Going into this meet we wanted to keep the same energy we've been having this whole season," Bosley said. "Leaving this meet we wanted to have a good stepping-stone toward those last two postseason races and so I think we did just that."

Bosley covered the 8,000-meter distance for the men in 23:15.6. 

There were no complaints after scoring 30 points. Southern Utah was second with 53 points, beating No. 30 Montana State, which was third with 80 points, and Weber State, fourth with 89. 

The Northern Arizona women scored 37 points and put seven in the top 15 on the way to another dominant win. Taryn O'Neill held on to win the 5,000-meter race and retain her Big Sky title. 

O'Neill didn't have much left at the end. She and Southern Utah's Alison Pray began sprinting from 800 meters out and both seemed to misjudge the long upward straightaway to the finish. Pray faded slighly from second to fifth. 

O'Neill got to the line ahead of the onrushing Bille Hatch and Summer Allen from Weber State, crossing in 16:31.6. Hatch was timed in 16:32.5 and Allen was third in 16:33.0. Incidentally, Allen's husband, Christian, was also third in the men's race for Weber State. 

"Everybody was coming after me," O'Neill said. "I felt like I was hanging on pretty much. This last finishing stretch I think was the softest part of the whole course and you could feel like you were sinking in a little bit."

The 19th-ranked Lumberjacks beat Weber State (51) and surprising Portland State, the meet host, third with 95 points. 

PSU's Katie Camarena, a transfer from UC Santa Barbara, put an immediate stamp on the program by becoming the first woman to finish in the top five at the Big Sky Conference meet. Camarena was fourth in 16:35.3.

"It feels great. I knew it was going to be really competitive and really tough," Camarena said. "I just wanted to put myself in it and hopefully finish better than (program-record) seventh."