NCAA West Regional Cross Country interview: Tommy Betterbed...

Here is a video interview with University of Portland senior Tommy Betterbed (left/photo by Paul Merca), who graduated from Gig Harbor High School after Saturday's NCAA West Regional Cross Country Championships in Springfield, Oregon.

Betterbed finished fifth individually to lead the Pilots to an automatic NCAA Championships bid with a second-place finish. He was the only upperclassmen of seven Portland runners, all of which finished among the top 76 individually. The No. 8 Pilots scored 84 points, trailing only No. 1 Stanford (27), while beating out No. 3 Oregon by 25 points to match the second highest regional finish in school history.

“The guys did a nice job of executing our race plan and finishing hard over the last half of the race,” said Portland coach Rob Conner. “The fact that we have five freshmen and a sophomore going made it even more impressive. Usually it’s hard to get the younger guys to be patient. Tommy really came through with a nice race today. He was 52nd at nationals last year, so he still has some unfinished business remaining.”