Complete CCC Men's XC Championships Results

PORTLAND – There were no big surprises at the men's cross country Cascade Conference Championships on Saturday, which was all it took for Southern Oregon University to win its seventh straight title on Fernhill Park's 8,000-meter course.

The second-ranked Raiders prevailed again, this time without the best runner in the NAIA, by doing what they've done all season – running as a pack until the very end. Their top-seven runners were separated by 15 seconds. Only the first five finishers on each team count toward the team score, but even their sixth placed 12^th to earn All-CCC accolades.

Third-place Max Runia (Central Point, Ore./Crater), fourth-place Kevin Jorgensen (Yreka, Calif./Yreka), fifth-place Jared Hixon (Palmdale, Calif./Palmdale), eighth-place Cary Dunagan (Reno, Nev./Reno) and ninth-place Eric Ghelfi (Redding, Calif./Redding Adventist Academy) led the way, while 12^th-place Ray Schireman (Medford, Ore./North Medford) was SOU's sixth all-conference runner. Hixon has now been all-conference three straight years, Dunagan and Ghelfi have done it twice, Jorgensen improved on his 15^th-place finish of 2013, and Runia and Schireman are both in their first postseasons with SOU.

All tallied up, SOU accumulated 29 points to outdo ninth-ranked Eastern Oregon's 57. Concordia (112) was third, while 16^th-ranked College of Idaho slid to fourth.

Last year, when SOU also put seven runners in the top 13 led by NAIA champion Eric Avila (Chula Vista, Calif./Bonita Vista), they amassed 31 points to second-place EOU's 54.

The Raiders will head back to Lawrence, Kan., with an automatic bid to the NAIA Championships on Nov. 22.

The Mountaineers did push across the individual champion, DJ Flores, in 24:18. Concordia's Matthew Clowes was next in 24:37.

After that it was all Raiders. Runia led them for the second straight race, taking third in 24:55. Jorgensen (25:00), Hixon (25:00), Dunagan (25:08), Ghelfi (25:09) and Schireman (25:10) weren't far behind. Nor were 13^th-place Jose Ortiz (Santa Ana, Calif./Santa Ana) (25:23), 18^th-place Dylan Alexander (Encino, Calif./Birmingham) (25:39), 19^th-place Connor Cushman (West Linn, Ore./West Linn) (25:39) and 21^st-place Zach Boyd-Helm (West Linn, Ore./West Linn) (25:52).

No one else's 10th finisher was better than 53^rd. Last year, SOU's 10^th finisher was 28^th.

Raider coach Grier Gatlin was named the men's coach of the year for the fourth season in a row.

Northwest Christian's Christopher Zirkle (sixth), Warner Pacific's Ahmed Ibrahim (10^th) and College of Idaho's Max Hampton (11^th) were the other non-SOU runners to sneak into All-CCC position.

TEAM SCORES – SOU 29, Eastern Oregon 57, Concordia 112, College of Idaho 115, Oregon Tech 124, Northwest Christian 128, Corban 174, Warner Pacific 235, Northwest 240

Complete SOU Results
3. Max Runia (Central Point, Ore./Crater), 24:55
4. Kevin Jorgensen (Yreka, Calif./Yreka), 25:00
5. Jared Hixon (Palmdale, Calif./Palmdale), 25:00
8. Cary Dunagan (Reno, Nev./Reno), 25:08
9. Eric Ghelfi (Redding, Calif./Redding Adventist Academy), 25:09
12. Ray Schireman (Medford, Ore./North Medford), 25:10
13. Jose Ortiz (Santa Ana, Calif./Santa Ana), 25:23
18. Dylan Alexander (Encino, Calif./Birmingham), 25:39
19. Connor Cushman (West Linn, Ore./West Linn), 25:39
21. Zach Boyd-Helm (West Linn, Ore./West Linn), 25:52