MEET INFORMATION | MEET NOTES

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland State cross country teams host the Viking XC Classic Saturday, Oct. 4, at Blue Lake Park in Fairview, Ore. The men will kick off the meet with an 8,000-meter race at 12 p.m. (PT), while the women will follow with a 5,000-meter race at 1 p.m. (PT).
 
This will be the third 8,000-meter race for the Viking men this season, while the Viking women will be running their second 5,000-meter race, after running their first 5K in their last race at the Big Sky XC Triangular Meet.
 
Both the men's and women's races will be scored simultaneously as an invitational and a dual. The invitational will include all teams present, while the duals will be just between the NCAA Division I schools present. The Viking men have not won a dual since topping Oregon and Saint Mary's at the Pier Park Invitational in 2004. The Viking women, meanwhile, haven't won a dual since beating Western Oregon at a head-to-head dual meet in 2005.
 
MEET SCHEDULE:
10 a.m.           Course Open
12 p.m.           Men's 8,000-meter race
1 p.m.             Women's 5,000-meter race
 
THE FIELD:
Women (rank): Portland State, Mt. Hood Community College, Oregon State (14th in West Region), Portland (7th in West Region), Seattle, Warner Pacific
Men (rank): Portland State, Mt. Hood Community College, Portland (3rd in West Region; 5th Nationally), Seattle, Warner Pacific
 
THE COURSE (Map):
Both the men's and women's races will be on a grass 2K loops with some dirt areas and some crossings over paved trails. Course maps will be available at Blue Lake Park on the day of the race.
 
RESULTS:
USATF Oregon will conduct FAT timing at the meet. The meet will be scored both as an invitational (all teams) and as a dual between the various NCAA Division I schools present. Results from the meet will be posted on GoViks.com after the conclusion of the women's race.
 
PARKING:
Parking will be available for all fans wishing to attend the meet. Fans will have to pay $5 per car or $7 per bus, however.
 
VIKING XC CLASSIC MEET HISTORY:
This will be the second-ever running of the Viking XC Classic. The Vikings hosted the first edition of the meet last season on Sept. 6, with all the major universities in Oregon in attendance. The meet was scored as a dual between all the Division I schools in attendance, with the Viking men dropping duals to the highly ranked Oregon and Portland men, while the Viking women lost duals to the Oregon, Oregon State and Portland women. Seniors Andrew Landstrom and Sarah Dean paced the Viking men and women, respectively, with Landstrom finishing the four-mile men's race 16th overall in 20:54.78, while Dean finished the three-mile women's race 15th overall in 16:54.84.
 
BIG SKY XC TRIANGULAR MEET RECAP:
The Portland State men and women hosted their first meet of the season Saturday, Sept. 20, with the Big Sky XC Triangular Meet at Pier Park in North Portland. The Viking men and women competed against their respective counterparts at Eastern Washington and Idaho, while the Viking women also competed against the University of Portland women. Both teams failed to pick up a dual win at the meet, but the Viking women came extremely close to upsetting Eastern Washington, only losing by a point, 27-28. Additionally, junior Amanda Boman made an amazing individual turnaround to lead the Viking women at the meet, as she finished the 5,000-meter women's race sixth overall in 18:13 two weeks after she finished dead last at the season-opening Bill Dellinger Invitational in Eugene, Ore. Junior T-Roy Brown, meanwhile, paced the Viking men in their 8,000-meter men's race, as he also finished sixth overall in 26:01. Watch a full recap of the meet on the Vikings' YouTube channel.
 
BILL DELLINGER INVITATIONAL RECAP:
The Viking men and women opened their 2014 seasons Friday, Sept. 5, at the Bill Dellinger Invitational in Eugene, Ore. The Viking men placed fourth among a talented field, scoring 106 points behind freshman Alejandro Cisneros' 26th-place finish. Cisneros ran the 8,000-meter race in 26:02 to place as the Vikings' top runner, while redshirt junior T-Roy Brown finished right behind Cisneros at 27th in 26:13. Senior Camelia Mayfield, meanwhile, led the Portland State women to a fifth-place finish with 131 team points, as she finished as the Vikings' top women's runner by a long shot. Mayfield finished the women's 6,000-meter race 24th overall in 21:27, more than a minute ahead of the next PSU runner, Cheryn Trapp, who finished 35th in 22:31.
 
LOOKING AHEAD:
The Vikings will compete at their final regular-season meet of the season Friday, Oct. 24, at the Beaver Classic in Corvallis, Ore.
 
HOME SWEET HOME:
The Viking XC Classic will be the second home meet of the season for Portland State, after the Big Sky XC Triangular Meet on Sept. 20. The two meets continue a concerted effort from the Vikings to host more cross country events, and marks the first time the Vikings have hosted two regular-season meets in the same season since Portland State became a Division I program in 1996. The Vikings had never hosted a regular-season meet of any kind as a Division I program until last season, when the Vikings hosted the inaugural Viking XC Classic. That race was also the Vikings' first home meet since they hosted the Big Sky Championships in 2008.
 
VIKING WOMEN EARN FIRST-EVER USTFCCCA REGIONAL RANKING:
The Portland State women earned their first-ever ranking in the USTFCCCA West Region poll during the preseason, as they opened the season 15th in the region. The PSU women maintained that ranking in the first regular-season edition of the poll, too, before dropping out of the poll after their second meet of the season.