Coffey earns national honor

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Senior Karlee Coffey of Eastern Oregon University was named the NAIA National Women’s Cross Country Runner of the Week Oct. 4 after a strong performance at the Charles Bowles Willamette Invitational in Salem.

 Coffey, the third place finisher at last year NAIA National Cross Country Championships, ran a time of 17:17 to finish second in the race at Willamette. Her mark is the fastest 5,000 meter time in school history, breaking her old school record by 16 seconds.

Coffey, a La Grande native, became the second athlete from the Cascade Collegiate Conference to win the award this season. Hillary Holt of the College of Idaho won the award the previous week. Coffey was selected from a pool of conference/independent runner of the week selections.

Coffee also won the conference runner of the week for Sept. 24 through 30.

However, the rest of her team was knocked out of the NAIA Top 25 Wednesday with the latest national poll from the NAIA. 

The Lady Mountaineers are atop the pack of teams n the receiving votes category — where they have spent most of the seaon. 

The eam was ranked for the first time this season in the Oct. 4 poll at No. 25.