Cross country trampled through the downfall during the Invitational at Champoeg State Park on Oct. 9, placing 3rd out of 28, with many of its runners achieving personal records.

Junior Abdullahi Salah came in 20th in the men’s 5,000 meter race with a personal best of 17:09:60.

Junior Yoana Vasquez Hernandez ran her new best in the women's 5,000 meters with a time of 22:30:70, which put her 48th overall.

Senior Ron Mei of the JV team placed 14th with a personal record of 18:57:10.

Junior Ollie Wells achieved a time of 19:20:80, beating his previous record along with many other JV runners.

For the women’s JV team, Sophomore Safaa Awes ran a personal best of 29:41:10.

Junior Faysal Ibrahim is currently the fastest in the Mt. Hood Conference, and 20th in state. Although joining late this year, he’s “here and ready to go,” coach Max Rotar said.

“We should have two qualifying contenders for state,” Rotar said. “Faysal Ibrahim and Levi Harris.”

Rotar said the team ran really safe and placed 3rd out of 28 teams for varsity and 4th out of 14 for JV despite the circumstances of the weather.

“Our team right now is developing,” Rotar said. “We have really strong sophomores and freshmen.”

According to Senior Brandon Nguyen, it had started to rain just as the varsity team was up, forcing the runners uphill on a mudslide. Nguyen considered himself lucky for having just missed the drizzle with his 19:40:80 new personal record.

“I think our team did really well,” senior team captain Max Perry said. “It was a really fun course.”