PORTLAND, Ore.—For the second-straight week and third time in his career, Lewis & Clark College men's cross country senior Quinn Higgins was named the Northwest Conference Men's Cross Country Student-Athlete of the Week.
 
Higgins led Lewis & Clark to a fifth-place finish at the Ash Creek Invitational on Friday afternoon. The River Otters faced off against two NCAA DI, two NCAA DII and two other Northwest Conference schools in the field of 10 teams.
 
The senior placed fifth out 98 runners and was the first non-Western Oregon University (host school) runner to cross the line. He finished ahead all 17 NCAA DI runners from Portland State University and Seattle University – including defeating Portland State's Ari Smith by 9.1 seconds. Smith edged Higgins by two seconds at the Lewis & Clark XC Opener.
 
Higgins completed the 6K course in a PR time of 18:04.2. He improved his career 6K PR by 10.1 seconds from the 2025 Ash Creek Invitational. The senior's time was the fastest time by an NCAA DIII runner by 27.4 seconds and more than a minute faster than the fastest Linfield University or Pacific University runner.
 
He has finished in the top-10 in six of his nine cross country races over the past two seasons and finished in the top-five three times.
 
Lewis & Clark will wrap up competition for the month of September on Saturday, when they travel to Tacoma for the Pacific Lutheran Invitational.