PORTLAND, Ore. — It's rare for the Portland State cross country program to get two cracks at one course within the same season. You'd have to go back to 2018 for the last time that's happened when the Vikings raced the Big Sky Championships and NCAA West Regional at Haggin Oaks Golf Course in Sacramento. Before that, the previous time came in 2005 when the Vikings raced twice at Pier Park in Portland.
 
So, the Vikings should take some confidence into Saturday's Mike Johnson Classic at Ash Creek Preserve. They just raced there two weeks earlier at the Ash Creek Festival.
 
It certainly helps that the Vikings had success there. Emma Stolte became the first Viking – male or female – to post an individual win at a cross country meet since 2022, winning the women's 5k by 19 seconds at the Ash Creek Festival.
 
Taylor Nichols (seventh) and Sam Sharp (eighth) joined Stolte in the top 10 on the women's side, while three Vikings also finished in the top 10 on the men's side between Nick Moore (fifth), Ari Smith (eighth) and Benjamin Sanchez (tenth). That gave the Viking women their most runners in the top 10 since 2023, and the men their most since 2021.
 
The only extra wrinkle the Vikings will add Saturday is longer distances on both sides. The women will run their first 6k of the season this time around, while the men will run their first 8k.
 
It's a bigger step up for the Viking men, who have a number of freshmen – Smith and Sanchez, included – who have never run an 8k in an official race. The 5k is the usual distance in high school races, and the Vikings' first two meets of the season – the Lewis & Clark Opener and Ash Creek Festival – saw the men's team run a 5k and 6k.
 
"We're excited to see how strong the guys are in general with this 8k," Portland State head coach Joseph Blue said of the step up in distance for the men. "They need to learn how to be strategic with their race. There are times where you can relax, not think about the strategy, and just go race, and then there are times where you have to have a strategy and race. That's more what they're doing this week. They're going to have a strategy and race."
 
Blue mentioned specifically that he'd like to see the Vikings' back of the lineup narrow the gap a bit with the runners in the front. The Viking women had an 11-runner gap between their third and fourth finishers at the Ash Creek Festival for instance. A shorter gap between those two, and the Vikings may have added a team win to Stolte's individual win.
 
Blue said he's asked the women's team to focus on their mental strength in general at this weekend's race.
 
"I need you all to be tough. I need you all to battle and keep talking," Blue said of what his message will be ahead of Saturday's race. "That was one of the big things we talked about at the beginning of the year, keep talking positively to yourself. When it's hard, you've got to be positive because your mind is going to reflect your body a lot. And if your mind is negative, then your body is going to feed into all of that. It's going to move in the same way."
 
Blue praised the leadership from Stolte and Nichols, not just in terms of results but the culture they've helped set as well. Stolte's win certainly didn't hurt matters, of course. The redshirt junior now has as many top 10 finishes (2) through the Vikings' first two meets of the 2025 season as she had in all other years combined. Her sixth-place finish at the Lewis & Clark Opener on Aug. 29 had been a career-best finish for her, but she topped that with the individual win at the Ash Creek Festival.
 
"That was huge for the school, that was huge for her. She was super excited about that. I was happy about it, to see something like that," Blue said of Stolte's win. "I feel like she's more confident and just getting better at every meet. She's surprising herself."
 
Smith also has two top 10 finishes now on the men's side, having also placed eighth at the Lewis & Clark Opener. Sanchez narrowly missed a top 10 finish at the meet, so his 10th-place finish at the Ash Creek Festival was a long time coming.
 
They're part of the freshman group – along with Farhan Ibrahim (set to make his PSU debut Saturday), JD Arthur, Vince Estrada and Jorge Garcia – that the Vikings will need to rely on if they hope to move up within the NCAA West Region this season. Blue said, in talking with senior leader Abdinajib Abade who will debut next week, that his goal for the men's team is to move into the top 25 at least within the NCAA West Region. That'd be a jump of at least six places after a 31st-place finish last year.
 
Of course, the regional race is a 10k for the men. Saturday, they run their first 8k, so Blue isn't getting ahead of himself. He's just eager to see how his runners respond Saturday.
 
And the fact that they get to run on the same course as two weeks earlier, only helps.
 
MEET INFO
Sept. 27 – Mike Johnson Classic – Monmouth, Ore. (Ash Creek Preserve)
 
FOLLOW ALONG
Live Results
 
MEET SCHEDULE
Time (PT) – Event
11 a.m. – Women's 6k
11:45 a.m. – Men's 8k