Complete Meet Notes (PDF)

PORTLAND, Ore. — A little internal competition never hurt a team. Or at least that's what the Portland State cross country teams will be telling themselves this Saturday.
 
The Vikings will split their squad across two meets. The top six runners for both the men's and women's teams will head down to Sunnyvale, Calif., for the Bronco Invitational, hosted by Santa Clara University. The rest of the team will compete locally at the Warner Pacific Classic at Lents Park in Southeast Portland.
 
But while the top runners will be at the Bronco Invitational, the real drama will play out at the Warner Pacific Classic. That's where several Vikings will be competing amongst themselves for the final 2-3 roster spots at the Big Sky Conference meet two weeks from Saturday. The Vikings can take eight runners to the conference meet on the men's and women's side, leaving Saturday as a decision day for the Viking program.
 
"The Warner Pacific meet is going to be a thing. Just because we have about six guys vying for about three [conference] spots." head coach David Hepburn said of the meet. "We always tell the guys, it's a body of work for the season, not just one race. But the meet will definitely show who's fit, head-to-head, and ready to go.
 
"All eyes are on that race."
 
The Viking men competing at the Warner Pacific meet likely have more to compete for than the women. The women's lineup is more or less set, after all, as they've had the same top five finish in exactly the same order at their past two meet. Conversely, the men's lineup has shuffled around a lot more. Three different have led the Viking men at the top this season, while 11 different runners have placed in the Vikings' top seven.
 
Some of that has been due to runners dipping in and out of uniform on the men's side. Still, the differences between runners are more razor thin on the men's side than they are on the women. The men's top five finished within 33.1 seconds of each other at the Charles Bowles Invitational, for instance, while the women's top five finished within 52.6 seconds.
 
All that is to say that all of the Viking men's runners could potentially earn a conference spot with a strong showing Saturday.
 
Luke Ramirez and Evan Peters are two runners among those will be chasing a conference sport, after they finished sixth and seventh, respectively, at each of the past two meets. Zac Witman and Erik Solano finished eighth and ninth, respectively, in the Vikings' lineup at the Charles Bowles Invitational last Saturday, and will also compete at the Warner Pacific meet. Additionally, Jacob Emeterio, Liam Jemison, Cody Jones, Nigel Leonis, and Andy Solano will run for the Vikings at the meet.
 
Despite the internal competitiveness, Hepburn says he wants the team to still work together in the early part of the race before letting go of the reins in the latter part of the race. The Vikings can follow their last performance as an example, as the men's team went out slow with the rest of the pack at the Charles Bowles Invitational before finding the race from there.
 
That strategy worked, as the Viking men placed second as a team for their highest finish in 17 years of competing at the meet.
 
"The guys did what they were supposed to do," Hepburn said of the men's team's tactics at the Charles Bowles Invitational. "They let the race dictate what was going on. We're not the team that's going to go out there as a pack of eight runners and set the pace for everyone else.
 
"They all finished really strong. They were behind, quote-unquote, a time, but that's how the race shaped up. It is what it is, and they need to be able to respond appropriately in a race regardless. Don't panic because it's too slow or panic because it's too fast. Just be like, 'okay, this what this race is doing.' We can't be married to a clock. We can't be married to, 'this is my PR and this is what I'm going to run.' No, get in there and race and see what happens."
 
No one did that better than the Viking women, who won the Charles Bowles Invitational for only the second time in 18 total trips to the meet. Four different Vikings placed in the top 10 for the Viking women between Hunter Storm (third), Delaney White (fifth), Phoebe Jacques (seventh) and Phoebe Brown (ninth).
 
The piece the Viking women will be working on Saturday will be tightening the gap between their top four and the rest of the team.
 
That work will come more at the Bronco Invitational than the Warner Pacific Classic, where freshmen Zoe Andersen and Saville Feist are set to compete alongside Storm, White, Jacques and Brown. Andersen placed as the Vikings' fifth runner at the Charles Bowles Invitational, but was 32 seconds back of Brown.
 
Feist hasn't run for the Vikings since the season-opening Viking Rust Buster on Sept. 7, but ran well when she was there. Feist placed as the Vikings' fourth runner in the meet's 4k, putting her ahead of Jacques and Andersen. What's more, Feist's finish at the Rust Buster helped the Viking women place their second through fifth runners within 10.4 seconds of each other, exactly the type of bunching the team would hope for Saturday at the Bronco Invitational.
 
The Bronco Invitational has historically been a good confidence booster for both teams two weeks ahead of their conference meet. The Vikings first competed at the meet in 2016, when they had 11 out of 16 runners set personal bests at the meet.
 
"Bronco's definitely a great race two weeks away from conference, just because it is so fast," Hepburn said of the meet. "It's a big confidence booster. Everybody should run well across the board. It's always fun to PR. It makes you feel really good two weeks before conference, like 'Yes, I'm ready to go.'"
 
As always, Hepburn cautioned his teams to stay within themselves early in the race, but feels confident that if the Vikings do that, then they could challenge for another team win this weekend.
 
If either team were to win, they would have to do it with a small squad as the Vikings are only entering six runners in each race. The six women mentioned above will compete in the women's 6k at 9:30 a.m. (PT) following the men's 8k at 8:45 a.m. (PT).
 
Tom Richardson, a senior transfer from Boise State, will be in a Viking singlet for the first time as competes with the Viking men at the Bronco Invitational. 
 
"It'll be interesting to see what Tom can do when he puts a jersey on," Hepburn said of Richardson. "Hopefully he can lead that crew down there as an upperclassman. But the crew is also running really well on their own, currently."
 
That crew consists of Brandon Hippe, Max Norman, Jason Rae, Drew Seidel and Josh Snyder, who will compete alongside Richardson. Those five have shuffled their placing around but have been the top five for the Viking men at each of the past two meets.
 
Snyder and Rae have traded off going 1-2 for the Vikings, with Snyder leading the team at the Cougar Classic while Rae led the team at the Charles Bowles Invitational. Rae placed seventh at the Charles Bowles Invitational two weeks ago, giving him the first top-10 finish of his Viking career.
 
The runners at the Bronco Invitational are the known commodity, however. The real drama stays in Portland, where the Vikings will compete at the Warner Pacific Classic. The men open the meet with an 8k at 9 a.m. (PT), while Zoe Eberspecher, Sophie Jones, Carissa Rodriguez and Monica Salazar follow with a 5k for the Viking women at 9:30 a.m. (PT).
 
And will Hepburn is always quick to point out that Saturday's results won't be the only results considered when deciding on the conference roster, it certainly can't hurt to run fast.
 
Or, indeed, to have a little internal competition.
 
MEET INFO
Oct. 19 – Bronco Invitational – Sunnyvale, Calif. (Baylands Regional Park)
Oct. 19 – Warner Pacific Classic – Portland, Ore. (Lents Park)
 
BRONCO INVITATIONAL SCHEDULE
Race                Time
Men's 8k         8:45 a.m. (PT)
Women's 6k    9:30 a.m. (PT)
 
WARNER PACIFIC SCHEDULE
Race                Time
Men's 8k         9 a.m. (PT)
Women's 5k    9:30 a.m. (PT)
 
BRONCO INVITATIONAL ENTRIES
Men: Brandon Hippe, Max Norman, Jason Rae, Tom Richardson, Drew Seidel, Josh Snyder.
Women: Zoe Andersen, Phoebe Brown, Saville Feist, Phoebe Jacques, Hunter Storm, Delaney White.
 
WARNER PACIFIC CLASSIC ENTRIES
Men: Jacob Emeterio, Liam Jemison, Cody Jones, Nigel Leonis, Evan Peters, Luke Ramirez, Andy Solano, Erik Solano, Zac Witman.
Women: Zoe Eberspecher, Sophie Jones, Carissa Rodriguez, Monica Salazar. 
 
HISTORY AT BRONCO INVITATIONAL
The Vikings first competed at the Bronco Invitational in 2016. The men have competed at the meet every year since then, while the women competed in 2016 and 2017 before opting for the Pre-National meet last season in place of the Bronco Invitational. The women's team's best finish at the Bronco Invitational came in 2017, when they placed ninth out of 20 teams. Sarah Medved recorded the highest individual finish by a Viking women's runner in 2016, when she placed 18th out of 170 runners in 21:06.9. Medved's time from 2016 is still the fastest time ever by a Viking at the meet.
 
The men, meanwhile, recorded their best team finish in 2016, when they placed 11th out of 18 teams. Alex Cisneros recorded the best individual finish in 2017, when he placed 11th in 23:54.2. Cisneros' time still stands as the fastest 8k time by a Viking men's runner outside of the 2010 Big Sky Championship meet where the Vikings' top four times in the 8k all come from.
 
HISTORY AT WARNER PACIFIC CLASSIC
The Warner Pacific Classic has had various names over the years, but the Vikings have competed at some form of the meet four times previously. The Vikings have previously competed at the meet in 2005, 2006 and 2012, before returning last season. Jason Prado holds the best individual finish at the meet for the Viking men, as he placed second overall while finishing in 25:43.83 in 2006. Amber Rozcicha, meanwhile, set the best individual finish for the Viking women while placing second out of 90 runners in 17:33.62 in 2012. The Viking women also won the meet in 2006, beating three other teams with 58 team points.
 
LOOKING AHEAD
The Vikings head to Greeley, Colo., for the Big Sky Championships on Saturday, Nov. 2. The women will open the meet with a 5k at 10 a.m. (MT), while the men follow with an 8k at 11 a.m. (MT).