HILLSBORO, Ore.—Lewis & Clark College women's cross country earned their highest-finish at the Northwest Conference Championship Meet since 2012 on Saturday morning at Killarney West Golf Course.  
 
THE BASICS
 
2^nd out of 9 Teams – 78 Points 
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
 
Six Lewis & Clark runners posted times that put them inside the top-50 in program history to help the Pioneers finish in second place at the 2022 NWC Championship Meet. The Pioneers held off regionally-ranked Pacific University by 12 points to finish in second place, after back-to-back third-place showings in 2019 and 2021. 
 
"Our women were very interested in getting second as a team, but we knew so far this year hadn't run like we were capable," head coach Matthew Barreau said. "We had some very good talks over the last couple weeks about how to put ourselves in position to do it. We settled on an aggressive race plan, and I think it helped shed some of our hesitancies, and opened up some possibilities for us. I'm very proud of how we put ourselves out there, and it paid off with a great team result. In the results, the first thing we saw and were proud of as coaches was getting second as a team. We knew we ran well, but once we saw some of the individual times it gave us that much more pride in how well each person did. I'm proud of all of the efforts, and very excited that Riley, Malia, and Katya were able to earn All-Conference honors today." 
 
Sophomore Riley Buese improved upon her fourth-place finish at the 2021 NWC Championship Meet by finishing third overall. The Pioneers top runner set a PR for the third time in as many races, when she finished in 21:41.5 to improve her PR time by nearly eight seconds. Buese's third-place finish earned her a spot on the NWC First Team All-Conference team for the second-straight year. 
 
"Going into the race I felt stronger individually knowing that we'd had a lot of strong workouts together as a team, and we all believed in each other and because of that we all believed in ourselves too," Buese said.
 
I went into the race thinking I could be in contention to win, but knew there were several other talented runners who could win. I wanted to have a strong race and give a good effort and if that resulted in winning that would be great. I didn't win, but still got a PR and thought it went well and am excited for Regionals.
 
The team did amazing today. The past couple weeks we have really come together more and realized this is something we are capable of. It showed in the past couple weeks of workouts and easy runs and time spent outside of practice. We were in a good mindset and it was going to be hard, but we were willing to do what was necessary to get our goal. This will give us more confidence heading into regionals. Nationals may not be in the cards for us this year, but just continuing to build confidence it will be exciting to see how we stack up against nationally ranked teams, and just give it all in our last race as a team for the season."
 
Freshman Malia Heien and junior Katya Schwieterman finished in 12^th and 13^th places to earn 2^nd Team All-Conference honors. Heien beat her previous career PR by nearly 30 seconds to finish in 12^th place (22:31.2) and to move up to 12^th all-time in program history and third for freshmen runners. Schwieterman beat her PR time by a minute, as she crossed the line in 22:39.7. She moved up to 16^th all-time in program history. 
 
Freshman Madeleine Boyle was the fourth Pioneer to cross the line. She finished 21^st overall with a time of 23:11.1. Her time moved her up to 27^th all-time in program history and eight amongst freshman runners all-time. She beat her PR time by 10 seconds. 
 
Sophomore Ishani Hansji was the fifth and final point scorer for the Pioneers. Hansji cracked the top-50 all-time with a time of 23:46.8. Her time was good enough for 31^st in the race and 45^th in program history. Hansji shaved off 30 seconds from her PR time. 
 
Freshman Emogene Lutz placed 36^th overall with a time of 23:59.5 Her time pushed her into the 50^th spot in program history, 21^st amongst freshman and helped her beat her PR by five seconds. 
 
Fellow freshman Clare Lucey posted the biggest improvement on her PR time of any Pioneer on the women's side on Saturday. She shattered her PR by one minute and 23 seconds to place 38^th overall (24:11.0). Her time was good enough for 31^st amongst freshman in program history. 
 
Junior Cloe Moreno beat her PR time by over 30 seconds to finish 44^th overall (24:47.7). 
 
Senior Hanna Callinan and freshman Miriam Reside finished back-to-back. Callinana beat her season-best time by 30 seconds to finish 62^nd overall (25:37.3). Reside came in just behind her in 63^rd place with a PR time of 25:38.0. 
 
"It's been great establishing a new normal of both programs being Top 3 in the Conference now for three straight years," Barreau said. We've set our expectation to be there, which makes it easier to see the bigger goals ahead. George Fox, notably, has risen their level in the past couple years with Coach Wilson, which is exciting to see. It makes our challenge of winning conference that much harder, but is helping raise our level along the way."
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• The Pioneers second-place finish is their best finish since the team won the 2012 NWC Championship Meet. Lewis & Clark also earned three-straight top-three finishes for the first time since the team three-peated from 2010 to 2012. 
• Buese has run three 6K races this fall and taken off at least 7.9 seconds off her PR in every race. She has now improved her PR time as a freshman by 40.7 seconds. Her time on Saturday brings her within 6.3 seconds of fifth-place all-time. 
• Nine Pioneers ran personal best times on Saturday and the 10^th posted a season-best mark. 
• Buese (sixth), Heien (12) and Schwieterman (16^th) all posted times in the top-16 in program history. 
• Heien's time of 22:31.2 is less than 15 seconds off of Hall of Famer Tamma Carleton's program record time by a freshman woman over 6K (22:17.5).  

WHAT'S NEXT 
 
Lewis & Clark will host the 2M/1M Time Trials at Eldon Fix Track on Friday night at 6:30 p.m.