COMPLETE WOMEN'S NAIA CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS

VANCOUVER, Wash. – The most accomplished athlete in Southern Oregon University history hit another milestone and made more history on Saturday at the NAIA Women's Cross Country Championships.

Jessa Perkinson, a senior from Roseburg, put on the kind of show the Raiders have become accustomed to with a runner-up performance in the 5,000-meter race at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. With a time of 17 minutes 20 seconds, she notched SOU's best-ever finish at the meet for the third year in a row and became the school's first 10-time overall All-American.

Her effort led the Raiders to 15th place in the team standings while University of British Columbia won the title for the fifth time in six seasons.

Junior Jenna Storms was SOU's second finisher in 69th place with a time of 18:45. The Raiders' other scorers were freshman Shayla Potratz in 109th place (19:07), senior Bree Weber in 155th (19:31) and senior Kim Nava in 234th (20:09) among a field of 338 runners.

"The women were great," SOU head coach Grier Gatlin said. "We just had no room for error, and that's kind of how we thought it would be, but I'm really proud of what they've accomplished."

Oklahoma City, which came in as the top-ranked team, finished third behind Wayland Baptist. OKC senior Aminat Olowara repeated as the individual champion a year after setting an NAIA-record time, coming in 30 seconds ahead of Perkinson in 16:50.

By the third and final loop, Perkinson and Oliwat separated themselves from the pack along with UBC's Nicola Symonds and OKC's Lydia Mato. Perkinson didn't catch the other two until the final hill, ultimately putting Symonds six seconds behind her and Mato five more.

"The course was deceptively tough but Jessa was awesome and ran very tactically smart," Gatlin said. "She looked like a talented senior athlete and what she's done is pretty incredible."

Perkinson was coming off a third-place finish in 2016. She'd been 13th as a sophomore, her first-ever All-America outing, and 178th as a freshman.

SOU's other finishers, freshmen Jamie Chelberg (20:17) and Allex Bachtell (20:44), placed 244th and 282nd.

TEAM SCORES (top 20) – British Columbia 109, Wayland Baptist 125, Oklahoma City 137, Aquinas 181, Taylor 232, College of Idaho 240, Milligan 249, SCAD Atlanta 256, Madonna 272, Oregon Tech 274, Dordt 391, The Master's 391, Northwestern 407, Embry-Riddle 434, Southern Oregon 435, Corban 451, Carroll 459, Shawnee State 471, MidAmerica Nazarene 481, Southeastern 518

SOU 5K RESULTS (338 total entries)
2. Jessa Perkinson, 17:20
69. Jenna Storms, 18:45
109. Shayla Potratz, 19:07
155. Bree Weber, 19:31
234. Kim Nava, 20:09
244. Jamie Chelberg, 20:17
282. Allex Bachtell, 20:44