Bob Firman race results from this morning
Men's Results
Women's Results - (Missing times) Placings are correct - will update when received
Watson and Puga lead Crusaders at Bob Firman Invitational
BOISE, Idaho - Northwest Nazarene's Barak Watson and Jaclyn Puga placed in the Top 10 Saturday at the Bob Firman Invitational at Eagle Island State Park in Boise.
Watson finished second on the men's 8,000 meter course in a time of 25:37.23 to lead the Crusaders to a fourth-place team finish. Four other NNU runners, led by Matt Stark who was 27th in 26:49.35, were separated by just 14 seconds.
In the women's race, Puga finished 10th and NNU freshman Jordan Powell placed 19th as the Crusaders finished fourth. Complete women's results have not been received.
Kyle Gray finished 28th in 26:51.05, followed by Matt Rankin in 29th (26:54.67), and Luke Hetrick in 30th (27:03.03) to round out the men's scoring.
NNU Bob Firman (Sept. 26 at Boise): Men - Boise State 25 , Idaho State 59, College of Idaho 70, Northwest Nazarene 100 , Central Washington 139. Individuals (8,000 meters)- 1. John Ricardi, ISU, 25:25.16; 2. Barak Watson, NNU, 25:37.23; 14. Manuel Santos, CWU, 26:00.18; 27. Matt Stark, NNU, 26:49.35; 28. Kyle Gray, NNU, 26:51.05; 29. Matt Rankin, NNU, 26:54.67; 30. Luke Hetrick, NNU, 27:03.03. Women – Brigham Young 28, Idaho State 44, Boise State 86, Northwest Nazarene 100, Utah 101, Central Washington 171.
Bob Firman Meet Preview, written by NNU asst. coach
Ben Gall
NNU's cross country teams are gearing up for the Bob Firman Invitational this weekend in Boise at Eagle Island State Park. On the line for both teams is the inaugural Idaho Cup that will go to the top team from Idaho. The Crusaders will compete against College of Idaho, Brigham Young University, University of Utah, Idaho State University, Boise State University, and Central Washington University.
Last weekend in Seattle the men's team finished 4th out of 20 teams at the Sundoger Invitational and were led by freshman Barak Watson's 2nd place effort (24:52). The effort by the team proved strong enough to move them into the top ten rankings for the NCAA West Region at 7th. At the end of the year the top three teams from the region will advance to the NCAA championships. This weekend the team is looking to continue to move their pack forward and close up some gaps. After only running nine athletes last weekend in Seattle we will be running all sixteen athletes. Our main goal is to move our 4th-9th runners closer to our third runner and continue to work together throughout the race. If we come out of the meet with a top three team finish we will feel like it was a successful weekend.
The ladies finished 5th out of 18 teams in Seattle last weekend. They were led by junior Jaclyn Puga in 11th place (22:12) over the 6 kilometer course. This will be the first weekend the ladies enter the meet completely healthy and ready to go. Their effort last weekend was good enough to move them up from 9th to 8th in the regional rankings. Later in the year the top four teams will advance to the national championships. The weekend the goal for the team is to capture the Idaho cup and defeat some teams that beat us two weeks ago at the Roger Curran Invite when we were less than 100%. If we accomplish this goal and continue to work together it will be a successful weekend.
The Men's team races at 8:50 Saturday morning followed by the women at 9:30. Eagle Island State Park is in Boise about a half hour from the NNU campus.
