Spokane's Tanner Anderson leads Ducks to third place finish at adidas Pre-Nationals...
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky—Spokane native Tanner Anderson (left/photo by Paul Merca) finished 17th in the invitational section of the adidas Pre-Nationals Invitational hosted by the University of Louisville at T.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park, the site of this year’s NCAA championships, leading the University of Oregon to a third place finish Saturday.
Anderson, a product of North Central HS, ran 23:27 for the 8k course to cross the line first for the Ducks, who concentrated on pack running. Oregon, the number 8 ranked team in the country, had six runners in the top 35, with their fifth scorer only 19 seconds behind Anderson, as they scored 129 points.
Brigham Young, who won the Bill Dellinger Invitational in Springfield two weeks ago, won the men’s team title with 41 points, led by individual winner Rory Linkletter, who ran 23:09.
Gonzaga, who ran without steeplechase All-American Troy Fraley, finished 16th in the 41-team field with 478 points, led by Max Kaderabek, who finished in 60th in 24:09.
Peter Hogan was 80th (24:21), and Jake Perrin was 93rd (24:27). Rounding out the Zags’ scorers were Phillip Fishburn in 114th (24:36), and Bennett Gagnon in 145th (24:51), as the Bulldogs had a 1-5 spread of 43 seconds.
Eastern Washington was 39th in the field with a score of 954 points, as Colton Johnsen, the team’s leader all season long, finished 78th in 24:20.
In the women’s invitational section, the Eagles finished 41st with a score of 1021 points, as Oregon won with 63 points. Elinor Purrier of New Hampshire was the individual winner over the 6k course, running 19:29.
Jordan Thurston, a member of Gonzaga’s first-ever team to qualify for the NCAA cross country championships two years ago on this same course, was the Bulldogs’ lone woman running in the race, finishing 110th in 21:18.
Kari Hamilton was the Eagles’ top runner, crossing the line in 21:30, and placing 131st.
In Lewiston, Idaho, Washington State alum John Whelan won the men’s 8k at the Inland Empire Collegiate Championships hosted by Lewis-Clark State.
Whelan ran 23:35 to win the race by a comfortable margin over a field that included athletes from Washington State, Gonzaga, Eastern Washington, and Seattle University, along with a host of other smaller D3 and NAIA schools, with Central Washington the lone GNAC school at the meet.
The women’s 5k race was won by Idaho’s Andrea Condie, who ran 17:15, 12 seconds ahead of Seattle University’s Olivia Stein.
NOTE; The sports information offices of the University of Louisville, University of Oregon, Gonzaga University, and Lewis-Clark State contributed to this report.
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