Flores, Coffey earn All-American honors

VANCOUVER, Wash. — The Eastern Oregon Mountaineer cross country team fared well at the NAIA National Championships Saturday.

The men’s team finished in 12th place and were led by D.J. Flores who placed 16th with a time of 25:38. Flores earned All-American honors with a top-30 finish and was just one minute off the pace of first place finisher Silas Kisorio of Oklahoma Christian.

Flores became the first male freshman in EOU school history to be named an All-American since Gary Purpura was in 1967.

The men’s team finished just six points shy of a 10th-place finish. “We went in ranked No. 18 and wanted to finish in the neighborhood of 10th, so to finish 12th is quite satisfying,” head coach Ben Welch said. “Individually we had hoped to have at least one All-American and got that as well and just missed out on another.”

The women’s team took two runners to the national meet. Eastern Oregon was led by freshman standout Karlee Coffey who crossed the finish line in 12th place and also was named an All-American.

“For Karlee, we were looking for a 10-15th place finish, so she was pretty much right on. Karlee is just the second freshman female at EOU to be an All-American. Tough thing to do your first time out,” Welch said.

Sophomore Alma Garcilazo was the other member of the women’s team to make the trip and finished with a time of 18:27.

Forrest Lumpry just missed out on being an All-American, finishing in 33rd place with a time of 25:56.

“Overall the teams and individuals competed quite well,” Welch said. “We feel like everyone did the best they know how on that day in that challenging of a field and that is what we mainly ask of the athletes on race day.

“It is difficult to go into the national meet without athletes who have run there before. It was great to see them perform as well as we did.”

Other times for the men’s team were Devin White (26:40), Terry Johnson (26:56), Ryan Booth (27:00), Justin Dean (27:25) and Cody Koxen (25:55).

As a very successful season for the EOU cross country team ends, Welch said he is very excited for what the future holds.

Eastern Oregon raced three true freshmen, two redshirt freshmen, two sophomores and two juniors at the national meet, with a number of others just missing out.

“It was a very satisfying year as both teams worked hard and have great attitudes,” Welch said. “Combine that with the youth of the teams and there is a lot of excitement in the program right now.”

Southern Oregon’s men’s team entered the race as the favorite but finished third overall behind Malone (Ohio) and Concordia (Nebraska). Eastern Oregon foes, The College of Idaho and Concordia finished 10th and 13th, respectively.