The Pioneer cross country teams hosted the Pioneer Open Saturday at McIver State Park in Estacada. Amanda Phillips finished second, Tamma Carleton sixth, and Pioneer alum Carla McHattie seventh.

With the early morning fog burning off, the temperatures climbed into the 50's with blue skies by race time.

The women's race got out fast with Amanda Phillips chasing Emily Timmer from UPS the entire way to finish 2nd in 21:42. Amanda recorded her second best 6k time and bettered her previous course best by 23 seconds. Tamma Carleton battled in the chase group pulling out 6th in 22:29. With Kitty Smith out sick Kelsey Croall stepped up to run her best race of the year with a big PR of 23:16 for 14th. Hannah Hultine ran a solid race in 40th with a time of 25:16. Those setting PRs were freshmen Raven Campbell at 26:18 and Ashley Anderson at 27:19. The team recorded 8 personal course bests in addition to the three PRs. The Pios finished 4th behind two nationally ranked teams; UPS at 28th and Johns Hopkins at 21st, and Carleton which was nationally ranked until two week ago.

"I thought we competed very well today, especially with Kitty out of the line up. To be this close to nationally ranked teams should give us some confidence going into the championship season. Amanda had her usual good race and what a breakthrough performance by Kelsey."

In the men's race, 26th ranked Carleton ran away from the field. The L&C men finished 6th led by Richie LeDonne who finished 37th in 27:06. The Pio men recorded 8 personal course bests on the day and continued their tight pack running with only 47 seconds separating the first through fifth team finishers. Three of the team's top runners, David Berman, Daniel McDuff, and Zach Yeager, were not able to race due to illness.

"I thought that the guys got out well, raced hard and showed some nice improvement. Hopefully we get healthy soon so we can race at full strength at conference."

The Pioneer open is also the annual alumni run with the women fielding a complete team. Former Northwest Conference cross Country champion Carla McHattie finished in the top ten, placing seventh with a 22:41. Jen Weaver, Arika Phillips, Liz Fehrenbach, Lila Wade, Megan Pfeifer-Hoyt, Laura Sbordone, Elizabeth Zimmerman, and Carly Faulkner all ran on the LC Alum squad. The team finished fifth,  ahead of Oregon Tech and Linfield.

The Pioneers have next week off before running at the Northwest Conference Championships on October 27th.

Story contributed by Pioneer Head Coach Keith Woodard.