Southern Oregon Men No. 1 in Final NAIA Cross Country Poll; 6 Other CCC Teams Rated

www.cascadeconference.org

(Portland, Oregon) - For the second straight year, the Southern Oregon men’s cross country team will take a national No. 1 ranking into the NAIA Cross Country National Championships.

The national championships, co-hosted by the Cascade Collegiate Conference and Concordia University (Oregon), will be held Saturday, November 20 at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site in Vancouver, Wash. The women’s 5K race is at 10:30 a.m., and will be followed by the men’s 8K race at 11:45 a.m. Admission is free.

In addition to Southern Oregon’s men’s team, six other CCC cross country programs are listed in the final NAIA men’s and women’s polls of the season. On the men’s side, the top-ranked Raiders are joined by 10th-ranked Eastern Oregon, and 14th-ranked College of Idaho. Concordia, which is in the others receiving votes category, will earn a bid to the nationals as the event co-host. SOU has been rated No. 1 in each of the last six polls and has not been ranked lower than second.

On the women’s side, the CCC leads all conferences with four teams in the Top 25, including seventh-ranked Concordia, 10th-ranked Southern Oregon, 13th-ranked College of Idaho, and 23rd-ranked Eastern Oregon. Northwest Christian is in the others receiving votes category.

The SOU men’s team and Concordia women’s team secured the CCC’s automatic bids to the national championships by claiming conference titles in Klamath Falls on Saturday. At-large selections for teams and individuals will be announced Monday afternoon by the NAIA office.