ELLENSBURG, Wash. – Racing for the first time in nearly 700 days, the Western Washington University men's and women's cross country teams made their 2021 season debut in impressive fashion at the Central Washington University Invitational.
 
The Viking men topped the six-team field in the 6K held on the CWU campus, with the five scoring runners all finishing in the top 10 of the 60-athlete race. WWU recorded a team score of 29, bettering second-place College of Idaho by a wide margin which finished with 65. Western had seven runners finish in the top 20, led by a second-place finish from junior Kaleb Korta (19:40.0). Korta, a transfer from Alaska Anchorage, made his cross country debut for the Vikings after placing 2^nd in the GNAC Outdoor Championships in the steeplechase.
 
Freshman Jeret Gillingham, the 2021 GNAC steeplechase champion, placed 4^th in cross country debut with a time of 20:02.2 and senior Mac Franks was 6^th in 20:09.1.
 
The WWU women fielded only a five-runner team, which featured four making their collegiate debut, but put together a great team performance placing second with a score of 51 behind College of Idaho (29). The Vikings were bunched up in the 4K race with Eugenia Palko (15:57.0), Sophie Wright (16:06.1) and Mia Crocker (16:06.9) finishing 4-5-6 in the 44-athlete race.

"It was a great day for the Vikings...just seeing the WWU blue out on the race course after so long was a really good feeling, and the team competed well overall," said WWU head coach Pee Wee Halsell. "We had a great preseason camp on Whidbey Island and the team is coming together well. I was really proud of how they raced out of the gates and I feel like by the end of the season this will be a team - men and women - that will be a force on the course."
 
Here are the results of the WWU student-athletes that raced Saturday at the CWU Invitational:
 

MEN - 6K	PLACE	TIME		WOMEN - 4K	PLACE	TIME
Kaleb Korta	2	19:40.0		Eugenia Palko	4	15:57.0
Jeret Gillingham	4	20:02.2		Sophie Wright	5	16:06.1
Mac Franks	6	20:09.1		Mia Crocker	6	16:06.9
Sean Sands	8	20:13.4		Sophia Collins	16	17:01.5
Jalen Javurek	9	20:13.7		Delphine Maurer	20	17:10.5
Kevin McDermott	13	20:27.1
Alec Ritter	19	20:36.1
Drew Weber	28	20:52.6
Ethan Bursch	35	21:27.0
Abbas Theophilus	42	22:00.4

 
And a look at the team scores for the men's and women's races:
 

MEN'S 6K	SCORE		WOMEN'S 4K	SCORE
Western Washington	29		College of Idaho	29
College of Idaho	65		Western Washington	51
Northwest	82		Northwest	55
Central Washington	94		Central Washington	83
Eastern Oregon	103		Eastern Oregon	124
Green River College	153		Olympic College	179

  Fans can follow WWU Cross Country online at WWUVikings.com/XC, and via social media on Twitter (@WWUTFXC), Instagram (@WWUTFXC) and Facebook (@WWUTFXC).