UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. - This afternoon the Golden Eagles faced off against some of the best Division 2 cross country programs in the nation at the NCAA Cross Country D2 Pre-Nationals. Coming into the meet with both squads being regionally ranked, CUI has their sights set on goals beyond the West region.

In the women's 6k race, Porshe Eismann was the first Golden Eagle to cross the line placing 32nd in a meet that had over 224 finishers. Meanwhile Madeline Jahshan, Jori Paradis, Adriana Gil, and Sara Feitz would round out their top five. This season has shown that their strength is in the pack as their gap from their first to their fifth runner was only 36 seconds. 

This deep squad was able to place seventh in one of the toughest fields you will find before the postseason starts. Despite not being nationally ranked, the Golden Eagles were able to beat No. 29 Western Washington and were only 14 points from a top five finish.

The men's 8k race saw Noah Plaza dip under 25 minutes en route to a 36th place finish. Once again the depth of the Golden Eagles was on display as Jason St. Pierre, Fernando Aguirre, Juan Sebastian Garcia and Colin Bervig all finished 15 seconds apart. This strong team performance gave CUI a top ten finish in a deep 27 team race. 

Stay tuned for the USTFCCCA regional and national rankings early next week to see where CUI is placed

To see the full CUI cross country schedule, CLICK HERE.

CUI will look to make history on Nov. 5, at 8:00 a.m. at the PacWest Championships in San Leandro.