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WHAT'S BRUIN - Men's Cross Country News & Notes 9/22
WHAT’S BRUIN: Men’s Cross Country News & Notes
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Coming Up :
Sat., Sept. 22, 11:00 am - Bruin Alumni Race at Champoeg State Heritage Area, St. Paul, Ore.
After a three-year hiatus, George Fox’s annual cross country race in which Bruin alumni come back to run along with current college runners returns this Saturday, Sept. 25, with the Bruin Alumni Race at the Champoeg State Heritage Area near St. Paul, Ore. Because of a limited number of participants, the men and women will compete together at 11:00 a.m.
“It’s about a 4K race,” says George Fox distance coach Jeff Larson, who is organizing this year’s event, which will be the first home race for the Bruins since 2007. “We originally scheduled it for 10:30, but we had to move it back half an hour because the park won’t let us blow our air horn before 11!
“There will be just our men’s and women’s teams plus whichever alumni come back competing, but I think we’re going to have pretty good turnout. Even Jake Moe (2003-06) is coming down from Alaska to run!”
The last time George Fox held its alumni race was the Wes Cook Bear Fete Invitational on Sept. 22, 2007, when the Bruins spent a year running at the Willamette Mission State Park near Brooks, Ore. This will be the Bruins’ first time back at Champoeg since the Bear Fete Invitational on Sept. 18, 2004.
BRUIN BITS ---
* Pia Named BAA Athlete of the Week, HM for NWC Honors
As the top runner for George Fox in the Willamette Grass Course meet on Friday, Sept. 17, Joseph Pia has been named the Bruin Athletic Association Men’s Athlete of the Week for Sept. 13-19. His performance also earned him honorable mention for Northwest Conference Men’s Cross Country Student-Athlete of the Week for the same time period.
Pia, a freshman from Newberg, Ore., finished 10th overall out of 58 runners and ninth for team scoring in the Willamette meet with a time of 23:39.77 over the 7,085-meter course. His efforts helped the Bruins earn 102 points and tie for fourth in the race. A week earlier, on Sept. 11, Pia also led the Bruins with an 11th-place finish in the first event of the season at the BYU-Hawai’i Invitational 58 race, running a time of 27:23 and receiving honorable mention for NWC honors for Sept. 6-12 as well.
* 2010 Honors
Alex Pia ---
- Bruin Athletic Association Men’s Athlete of the Week - (Sept. 13-19)
- Northwest Conference Men’s Cross Country Student-Athlete of the Week - (HM, Sept. 6-12; HM, Sept. 13-19)
* Coach John Smith:
John Smith (George Fox ’96) is in his fifth year as head coach of the George Fox men’s and women’s cross country and track and field programs. A two-time Bruin NAIA All-American in the decathlon, he served as an assistant coach at his alma mater for eight years before taking the reins of the programs in 2006 from veteran mentor Wes Cook, who retired. He was named the NCAA Division III West Region Women’s Track and Field Coach of the Year in 2009 and 2010 by the USTFCCCA. Click here for the complete bio on Coach Smith.
